If so, what potitions do you use? I use 1st, and 2nd mainly, but I've been experimenting with 5th for some of the minor key stuff that my band is learning.
I play dobro, mandolin, harp, and sing baritone in a bluegrass band and I'm just curious as to how many others there are on here. Show yourselves!
-Sam Miller
Last Edited by on Dec 17, 2009 11:19 AM
I have... but only in 1st (mostly) and 2nd position. ---------- Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. - Charlie Parker
I haven't ever seen any examples of it on youtube, but I'm not on youtube much. I mainly go by what I hear in my head that may sound good with what's being played. I love bluegrass and it is one of my favorite styles of music to play, but there aren't usually harp players in good bluegrass bands... I aim to change that! If I can, I'll try to post a video or two of my band playing.
Over the years most of my harp playing was bluegrass or gospel. Rarely play first position, 2nd position 90% of the time. I have heard bluegrass harpsters declare that if you play anything but first position you'll be voted out of the jam but I've never experienced that. I've talked to Buddy Greene a few times and I think a good portion of his playing is 2nd position. I was sitting in front of Charlie McCoy at a seminar last year and told us he plays 2nd position 99% of the time! He also told us he was inspired to play by Little Walter! I think if you want to play fast you play 2nd position.
tookatooka, if you are interested in playing bluegrass harmonica you should get Mike Steven's Bluegrass Harmonica book. There are a vew videos of him on you tube.
PT Gazell does some bluegrass stuff. Check out his MySpace page and his version of "The Flintstones". It's one of my favorites.
http://www.myspace.com/ptgazell
I dabble in bluegrass. Next month I'll be going to a 3 day jam at a motel. It takes me a while to get my head into bluegrass mode. I play in 2nd,but some of the "old timers" play only in 1st. I'm pretty sure they're totally unaware there's a 2nd position.
I play 1st, 2nd and 12th. Anything beyond that hurts my brain and I don't have any luck overblowing, although I have a version of 'When the Saints Go Marching In' where I move the melody all over the place without bending the notes to keep the original intervals. It sounds kind of French. We also made a second version just by shifting the pitch down an octave. It goes from sounding like a guitar and harmonica to sounding like a bass and sax.
I would second Belfast harpers idea of checking out anything Mike Stevens does - what he can do on a harp makes my mind hurt. ---------- If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
I am from San Diego, CA. There are almost NO bluegrass players here! And my psuedonym comes from a rock band in which I played lead guitar until about a year ago called Fighting for Nineveh(we're on iTunes btw). Sorry, no Hoosier here!
No bluegrass in California, I've heard that. Years ago, a friend of mine left the Midwest for the coast hoping to become a sessions guitar player. Unfortunately, there were many players in LA, in fact, his roomate was a guy named Eddie who ended up scoring big in a band with his brother. Bob also played fiddle and the whole country rock thing was hitting big so he was inundated with jobs to play fiddle because they don't play fiddle out there. Left LA, wanted to be a guitar hero, not a fiddle player.
Yeah, that's a pretty common tale here in CA. There are WAAAAAAY too many guitar players and most of them are arrogant morons.I strted playing bluegrass about 5 years ago just to do something different and it became one of my many passions. I got addicted to the dobro and mandolin. Started playing harp again after a few years off, and now I play that in bluegrass too. It's tough to find good, dedicated, and cool musicians in CA who aren't too busy. The nice thing is, since no one plays bluegrass here, it's not hard to stand out in the crowd!
Fine line between Piedmont style harp and Bluegrass. I am a blues player but love playing Charlie McCoy style. Miss the big , nasty chords after a while though. Any articles out there on fiddle influenced blues harp? I would love to link up Sonny Terry to Wayne Raney to Charlie McCoy to more modern harp, L.D. or Popper fiddle players?
hey there nineveh_harp,I just joined the east coast blue grass socitey,been jaming off & on for a year or so.My aunt & uncle are menbers & ask me to sit in one afternoon,i got some realley nice comments on my playing & was invited back ,so it could not have been too bad
I play bluegrass with a few groups. I play a 48 chord harmonica most of the time, you can get a mandolin chop and a rhythm guitar sound at the same time with the 48 chord... you can make a trio sound like a quintet. I play my rhythm with the 48, then for lead work, I mostly play second position for major keys, fourth position on a paddy richter for minor keys. I also play a lot of chromatic harmonica in bluegrass and am playing more as time goes on. I think a chromatic harmonica for leads and a 48 chord for rhythm is about the perfect combo.
Dave Tookatooka, here are examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntaeh5Smpu4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj2fHoFNxfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uNOl13dm7o
---------- www.elkriverharmonicas.com
Last Edited by on Dec 18, 2009 12:53 PM
David Naiditch is an aboslutely fantaistic bluegrass player from LA. He plays the chromatic but I still think diatonic players should check him out if you're interested in bluegrass harmonica. His most recent CD is called High Dessert Bluegrass Sessions, it has him playing the chromatic harp along with a group of fantastic bluegrass musicians (featuring banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass, and of course harmonica). You can purchase it and listen to samples of it on cdbaby.com, it has a lot of great stuff.
His other CD, called Harmonica & Guitar Duets, presents a wide range of music, including blues, bluegrass, ragtime, country, swing, Klezmer, and jazz. This cd has a lot of stuff (like 36 songs) and there's a lot of great harp playing.
I'm beginning to sound like a commercial here. I don't have any affiliation with Mr. Naiditch, I just enjoyed his bluegrass playing and figured I'd pass along the info.
