Can you play Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer???
Don't laugh...... well.... laugh if you want to, but it's the right time of the year to ask this question. I find that there are guys that can wail, but can't play a melody. There are guys that can play a melody but can't wail. Can you do both??
I can wail at an intermediate level, and yes, I can play Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph. I can play the middle part too, but I do screw up occasionally. I have played it with The Harmonica Club 3 times so far this season, and I still have once more to go.
Jim, you are telling the truth!!! I do both. I've played those tunes in 1st position as well as on 2nd position on a country tuned harp. I can also do La Bamba, I Left My Heart In San Francisco, MIsty, Peg O' My Heart on both diatonic and chromatic, among others.
It's something I see a lot among diatonic players who just want to riff but when it comes to melody and rhythm, forget it. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Wish you guys were down here in NOLa;I'm having a hard time getting participation within the club to play carols for charity work! It's not in their blues 'comfort zone'...geesh. Heck, I think it's fun, and a PERFECT exercise to get them to play outside the box for once. And for a good cause, to boot. Who doesn't like to see kids smile and sing along with you? ---------- ~Todd L. Greene, Devout Pedestrian
"listen to what you like for inspiration, but find your own voice"
If you`re around the old school, non blues playing chromatic players, many of them can`t/won`t solo because they are unable to (tho plenty of them I`ve met sure as hell can and I learned a lot about tweaking harps from them) but most of them can play melodies quite well, which is so totally opposite of too many diatonic players, as too often the attitude is that it`s either way too boring or they think it`s totally beneath them and all they want to do is play solos. These are often the very same players who know not even the most basic music theory, can`t/won`t play rhythm, and have flat out HORRIBLE time. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Dec 08, 2009 3:54 PM
Todd that is truly a shame. I play at a prison not far from my house what will be this year the 6th time we've done it.
It is essentially a big athletic room (basketball nets and parque floor) that gets decorated by volunteers. They allow the non-violent offenders with small children (habitual drunk driver's, petty thieves etc) to sit at tables with their families for about two hours the week before Christmas. The little kids get to sit on the father's laps and open gifts. We (myself, a standup bass, a couple of guitars and the in-house upright piano) stay off to the side and keep a running background of Holiday tunes. Great fun.
Of course, nothing beats a charity like my charity. Every year, I spend one or two nights on Market St in front of the Nordstrom's and Sak's zone busking Chritmas melodies. Now that is some people with givin on their minds.
I just figured out Frosty on pretty much one take. I can usually play it if I can hum it. The problem I have is I'm not good at judging when to add chords to make it sound good and I usually play almost everything in first or second position. I'm also really lousy at figuring out which hole I'm blowing on or what the name of the note is, which is really frustrating when I'm trying to tell someone else which notes to play.
@ Buzadero-that prison gig you do is not just very big of you, but a great idea! I could contact Orleans Parish Prison here in New Orleans and see if they have or would be interested in a similar program.
p.s.-I take it you resisted the urge to play Folsom Prison? ;-) ---------- ~Todd L. Greene, Devout Pedestrian
"listen to what you like for inspiration, but find your own voice"
Oooh, that stung a little! Hell, I'll sign up for the Angola Prison Rodeo while I'm at it...something tells me the angry bull will take out the harmonica player first before he nails the card table.*sending red suit to cleaners now*
---------- ~Todd L. Greene, Devout Pedestrian
"listen to what you like for inspiration, but find your own voice"
crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
Last Edited by on Dec 09, 2009 6:11 AM
If you got Frosty "on pretty much one take", then I consider you are truely rounded harp player. Based on my experience with other harp players, it's not an easy one to blow without stumbling around the middle. the same goes for Rudolph.
Most people can do: Joy to the World Santa Claus is Coming to Town. the chorus to Jingle Bells the main part to Frosty the main part to Rudolph.
A LOT OF HARPERS SCREW UP: the verse to Jingle Bells the middle of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer the middle of Frosty the Snowman
Those are melody lines that jump around. They are not like the scales and riffs that goe up and down one note at a time. I tip my hat to anyone that can do them right. And if you can throw in chords to boot, then I bow before your expertise. I'm happy to just do the single notes and not screw up.
I like to see if I can get a melody in all three octaves. Some can't be done, but two is generally possible. I "had" to finally learn Happy Birthday and Amazing Grace for a gig and it opened my eyes to a weakeness i am working out now. Yep, I never learned anything but old suzanna, dixie and london bridge except for melodies of my band's originals. Now I am working out whatever pops into my head. I guess Christmas tunes are next.
Jim- I guess it depends on which direction you came to harping from. I have a hard time soloing, playing harmony, staying on beat, etc. I learned mostly by sitting around how different song melodies I knew went. For some reason I'm pretty quick at picking up songs I knew when I was a kid. Unfortunately, however it was my brain was working back then, encoding the music, it doesn't seem to be doing it now. I have a bear of a time learning how to play newer stuff.
Thescip- If you don't like how it sounds, try moving it to another position. I play it up at the high end of the harp, starting on a 7 blow and try to play it real clean and light, with no bends or anything.
I had a conversation with a trumpet player (symphony) and he told me he played taps at a music camp while in college (many years ago) blues style. I've heard harp guys play this simple number straight but not "blues style". So I asked him what he played and he just sang it out the way he did it on trumpet. Kind of a funky skat sound. Wow! I'm going to have to try that! BTW: Probably first position.
You know, it's funny. I've posted I don't know how many YT vids of my progress as I've been learning harp. Of all the perfomance vids I've posted, the one that's gotten the most hits, and still gets the most hits, is one I did almost three years ago now where I was playing "redemption song". Personally, I listen to that vid now, and I cringe with the mistakes and weak tone I had. But never-the-less, it's that vid that gets consistent hits and pretty good ratings, rather than any of my other blues-style performance vids... I mean, many of you guy's have gone and listened to those, but most of the traffic to that Redemption Song vid is non-harp players... Go figure!
Jim, many harp players screw up those songs because many players right off the bat don't take enough time to learn where all the notes of the harmonica are, including where the bends and overblows/overdraws are. play too hard too get any of those correctly in terms of intonation and articulation, and often can't do anything outside of 2nd position, and most of those are better played in 1st position.
Most teachers start with easy tunes that some people think of as dumb and boring, like Skip To My Lou, but what most don't realize is that they are being used as an exercise for making the pupil know where they are on the instrument 24/7/365, and truth be told, many players are too often without a clue, just blowing absolutely senselessly.
Saying stuff like that won't win me a popularity contest, but it is the cold, hard, brutal truth many players don't want to face up to and often times by doing things the way they do they tend to shoot themselves in the foot all the time.
Some years back while I was with the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra (and we had as many as 83 people on the bandstand, mostly haromica players using just about the entire Hohner harmonica catolog of harmonicas), Pierre Beauregard and I did an arrangement of Jingle Bells/Sleigh Ride as a blues boogie, and we had certain player play lead parts (it was like the harmonica version of big band horns, and so for harp players, this meant musical discipline for many of them for the first time), and the better lead players, including Pierre and myself did the vocal part on the harmoncas, as part of the tune required getting the 2 bends used on the 3 draw to be letter perfect or it would be a mess.
We actually did that as a Christmas EP that a former local radio station WBCN used for their Christmas dedications for many years.
Other tunes that I 've heard harp players screw up: The Christmas Song Joy To The World Jesus The Joy of Man's Desiring
Obviously, there's a helluva lot more than those.
On the tune Greensleeves, it's terrific being played in 3rd position, but a lot of harp players don't get the bends right, especially getting 3 draw (2nd bend) and 4 draw (1ist and only bend), and that note is a Mjaor 7th and is important as hell because it is played in a harmonic minor scale. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Dec 09, 2009 2:29 PM
Wouldn't happen to have the tab for Greensleeves in 3rd would you BBQBob. I have some which starts with a 4 draw but it doesn't show any bends. I'd me mighty grateful. ----------
I don`t use tabs at all. Personally, I feel too many players who use them wind up being far too overly dependant on them and it can hurt a player in terms of developing really good listening skills (by that, I mean listening to music like the way pro musicians, recording engineers, and record producers do, and NOT the way most music fans and a lot of harp players tend to do). ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Tooka- just add bends wherever they sound pretty! Actually, has anyone sat down and just made a chart for transposing songs from hole to hole? (I know you could do it by writing out the notes and then moving refiguring the intervals, and you can do it by ear, but is there an easy chart or system? I usually have to get the piano involved to see it visually.)
Have been practicing madly on tunes that I can do a bit of buskering with over the coming weeks ie including the Chrismas favourites.
Have also been 'practicing' ie not yet really successful in getting a decent Youtube. I play perfect until someone (other than my better half) is listening, or the camera or recording is going then mistakes abound.
barbequebob> I sort of agree with you on tabs but found that my listening was a bit too selective. Am currently with the Harmonica Academy ie lots of Irish fiddle & Bluegrass tunes and much of the tunes I did know but had to relearn as there were minor but large differences in the way the music sounded.Tabs made a difference.
enough - here is a Christmas offering on an A harpmaster in 4th pos key of F#m. Mistakes abound and the sound is lousy but comments please?
Aussie, I like the sound. I think the effects/pedals (whatever) match the mood and the style of the music well. On the whole it's very nice, fluid and musical, but obviously you need to practise those problem patches at a slower speed to get them right. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Last Edited by on Dec 10, 2009 2:15 AM
rbeetsme- I used to play the baritone tuba when I was a little kid. I still remember how to play Taps. Open, open open, open open open, open open open, open open open, etc. I mess around occasionally on the trumpet but I can't get the high note.
My wife and I go out every year and sing a few carols at the local market and a few open mics. Not much harp--we do mostly straight guitar strums and singing. Here is one of our original Xmas songs--some of you might still remember it from last year, when I posted it the first time. . .
