Helloo, hope you're all having a good time this holiday season. :)
I've been really busy practicing daily and also have been taking lessons from Buddha. On top of all that I've been spending a lot of time with my family and teaching my 3 year old that life is full of wonder.
Here's my latest upload with me playing on a jam track I bought from Adam.
Please tell me what you think of it.
PS: Anyone wanna hear it played with an electric harp setup instead?
WOW! Man, that was really nice! Your woodshed time and lessons have been a good investment--your playing was good before--but now you have that real pro edge, man--keep on workin' it--you rock!
Listened to this last night on YT-nice job of improvisational playing, and I dig the pyrotechnic head-on-fire trick too. You pulled that off much more cleanly than Michael Jackson did back in the 80s! ---------- ~Todd L. Greene crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
Oldwailer, It was just incense. :) Some Nag Champa. Thanks for your feedback man! And looks like your 1000th post landed on my thread! :D grats?
Elwood, Sir, you flatter me so much I'm blushing. I don't think anyone has ever told me something like that. Thank you. (It's: -4 -4' 4, -4 -4' 4, -3d')
LeonStagg, jonsparrow, toddlegreene, Thank you for your comments!!
So I just had a lesson with the Buddha and he gave me some very valuable critique to help me improve. Mainly about this video.
I figured it would be nice of me to share what he had taught me (with his permission of course).
He pointed out that my intonation is weak and my timing/groove is still not there yet. My phrasing has improved a lot but I still play with too much internalized/memorized ego-driven stuff. He said I must pay more attention to the song and play with an "external" mindset instead of an "internalized" one. My ego still seems to sneakily slide into the playing even when I'm trying not to let it happen!
He also did say that this is my best playing so far, so I am indeed making progress.
For the rest of the lesson he showed me material that was tailored specifically to help me improve my intonation and groove. It was quite an eye opener (as usual)!
Critique is such an important thing. I would never get better without any. As long as it involves pointing out what's wrong and then how to fix it, it's the best kind of help anyone can get.
I really appreciate the nice comments I've been getting but I just want you all to know I'm man enough to take criticism too. You all are way too nice on this forum. ;p I do appreciate it though as it does convey a feeling of respect and community with each other.
Well, it's back to the woodshed for me. :) And then perhaps an amplified take? :D
Great playing Zhin, lots of ideas, and I don't recall any recycling of your riffs, every verse had a different motiff. Lots of cool riffs I now want to steal! I'm curious how much was pre-planned and how much improvised? My own bag of tricks/riffs is limited so I'd be stretched if I ever needed to solo more tha 24 bars.
Gambler, Thanks for noticing my effort in trying to put some variety in my riffs and lines.
None of it was pre-planned. If I actually did plan anything, it was unintentional. I really did decide to just flip the vid cam on after a long day of practicing and deliberately picked a backing track that I had not played with in a while.
I'm guessing what you really want to know is how you can expand your playing, right? I'm not sure how qualified I am to help you with that but I'll try my best to explain...
I have learned that the more variety of different music that I listen to, the more new ideas I would get and actually put into practice.
Ideas that are later leaked into my improvised playing and woodshed time straight from my subconscious mind (and sometimes conscious too). You want to listen to as many different variety of music as possible while you're also listening to your favorite blues songs.
Buddha has ALWAYS emphasized this with his students so that's where I learned that from. He also stresses that one should not over-think about what they are playing especially when in the moment of improvisation. This is something that I am still trying to figure out.
