Buddha
1391 posts
Feb 18, 2010
1:30 PM
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Joe Filisko doesn't know either and he's as stumped as some of my other harp playing buddies.
http://www.harmonicapros.com/music-tools/bluesbeat3.mp3
http://www.harmonicapros.com/music-tools/bluesbeat.mp3
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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HarpNinja
181 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:00 PM
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Not Jason Ricci or Adam Gussow or Mike Fugazzi. Maybe you trying to pull a trick, but probably someone else.
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Mike Fugazzi
http://www.myspace.com/niterailband
http://www.youtube.com/user/NiteRail
http://www.twitter.com/NiteRail
http://www.facebook.com/mike.fugazzi
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toddlgreene
840 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:07 PM
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It's Buddha, playing with a mask on to hide his true anti-blues identity.
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Todd L Greene. V.P.
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Kingley
872 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:10 PM
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Well it's probably a trick that Chris is playing.
But whoever it is sounds a hell of a lot like a Steve Guyger impersonation in note choice, phrasing, rhythmic and tonal changes.
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Buddha
1392 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:13 PM
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get real people. Blues is for the weak. "I'm so lonesome I could cry" blah blah wait a sec...that's country.
"My womins done left me" blah blah blah blah.... I don't get heart broken. I don't cry over spilt milk. I MAKE PEOPLE SPILL THEIR MILK.
I'm a bad ass and you can't be complete badass like mesef if you're crying in a corner about having nothing but bad luck and trouble.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Last Edited by on Feb 18, 2010 2:17 PM
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toddlgreene
841 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:14 PM
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I'm sticking to my guns.
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Todd L Greene. V.P.
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Andrew
905 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:33 PM
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"I MAKE PEOPLE SPILL THEIR MILK"
I know, I've seen you on gaymoviedome.com
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Kinda hot in these rhinos!
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toddlgreene
842 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:34 PM
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haha...
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Todd L Greene. V.P.
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Buddha
1393 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:40 PM
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OK it's me. I ain't played me no blues for a long time and suck at it by my standards. I could get it dialed in better if I spent a little bit of time on it. Anyway, I was working on Superchucker's harp and felt like playing some blues to see if it would work.
My friends didn't know it was me. There were quite a few guess that made me smile and one person refused to believe it was me.
Question, what blues influences do you hear?
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Last Edited by on Feb 18, 2010 2:43 PM
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phogi
265 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:43 PM
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I could tell it was you by the sound of your breath. Everyone makes a unique breath sound.
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toddlgreene
843 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:46 PM
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I could smell the cardamom coming from my speakers-dead giveaway.
From the eloquent use of hand wah effects, I'd say James Cotton could possibly be an influence.
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Todd L Greene. V.P.
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Helix
16 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:48 PM
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From what I read...nobody influences you...you influence them....spill their milk so to speak.
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Buddha
1394 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:51 PM
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it's was total stoner moment for me.
I asked to channel the blues greats and that's the kind of stuff that was coming out.
I don't own any blues harmonica albums except for Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell. I'm not saying I never listened to blues but I have very little blues harmonica influences. My main harmonica influences are Lee Oskar and Howard Levy
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Last Edited by on Feb 18, 2010 2:52 PM
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Helix
17 posts
Feb 18, 2010
2:59 PM
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The first one was pretty much right in the pocket and resembles almost any of the early chicago gang if playing accoustic.
Same for the second except not timed right.
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Buddha
1395 posts
Feb 18, 2010
3:16 PM
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are you guys interested in me posting a few more blues sound clips?
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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Ryan
165 posts
Feb 18, 2010
3:20 PM
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"are you guys interested in me posting a few more blues sound clips?"
Yes sir.
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tookatooka
1238 posts
Feb 18, 2010
3:28 PM
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You'd only make me cry.
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asilve3
76 posts
Feb 18, 2010
5:25 PM
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Sounds pretty sweet, your harps definitely have their own tone to them especially on some of the chords you hit. they have their own special resonance and overtone thing goin on, that's what gave it away for me.
Love a lot of the slow bends you do and some of the more uptempo swinging licks you throw out.
when will you be releasing "Buddha Plays the Blues Vol.1"???
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http://www.youtube.com/user/asilve3
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jodanchudan
38 posts
Feb 18, 2010
5:29 PM
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bluesbeat2 is my favourite - it sounds the most soulful
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MichaelAndrewLo
150 posts
Feb 18, 2010
5:31 PM
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That's really kickass Buddha. Do you think learning all you have about music (scales, overblows, etc.) improves your playing in that style? If nothing else, makes you more comfortable on the instrument.
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Diggsblues
168 posts
Feb 18, 2010
8:02 PM
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It's Sonny boy Buddha LOL
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Buddha
1397 posts
Feb 19, 2010
5:21 AM
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MichaelAndrewLo,
The most important thing to playing different styles is being able to hear that different style in your head before you even play a note. It's like acting, you assume a character and start performing.
I haven't seriously played blues for 15-20 years but with a few days of work I could get it dialed in and really sound like a blues guy. Why in such a short time? Because all of my technique is there. Learning scales etc is about learning your instrument more than learning music.
It took 20 years or so but I am to the point where I can imagine a sound and play it. A good way to practice is the call and response exercise. Somebody plays something and you try to play it back. You'll suck at it at first but as you learn your instrument it will become easier. Then eventually, if your technique is together then you will be able to do it on any harp in any key.
I've demonstrated this before to people who have come to my home to study with me. I can turn on any music and grab random unknown keys of harp and start playing. It's a good exercise for you head.
Dynamics are important too. To me Blues is all about tone and texture. In the clips, listen to how I change up my tone and how I give character and texture to what I am playing but also listen to my dynamic, loud, soft, hard, easy, single, notes, dirty notes, chords, tempo etc... that's the stuff that captures peoples' attention. The notes themselves are actually fairly meaningless.
You also have to be mindful of the style of music you're playing. My typical vibrato doesn't work in this style of music, actually it does but since traditional harmonica blues is already predefined in our heads, my vibrato will sound out of place. This is the same issue with using OBs in blues. They work well, sound fine and fit perfectly but since the style is predefined they are not accepted. That is why you don't hear me use OB when I play Blues.
You speak of getting comfortable with the instrument, that's part of it, but being comfortable with yourself is more important.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
Last Edited by on Feb 19, 2010 5:26 AM
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pharpo
163 posts
Feb 19, 2010
5:42 AM
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@Buddah - the "light" just went on ! Thanks
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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
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Micha
74 posts
Feb 19, 2010
10:20 AM
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Buddha,
In your 20 years of learning to do what you can do now, which path of learning steps have you taken? What were your goals? How did you achieve them? Which exercises helped you the most?
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Jfllr1
152 posts
Feb 19, 2010
10:34 AM
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Stop playing blues and start working on my harp!
Lols great playing.
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"Blow as thou pleaseth"
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isaacullah
738 posts
Feb 19, 2010
10:52 AM
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Slightly OT, but is that you playing Bass on "Dirty City Funk"? That song is REALLY awesome! I loved it....
BTW, The blues stuff was just great too... You da man!
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------------------
The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
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MichaelAndrewLo
153 posts
Feb 19, 2010
1:23 PM
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Thanks for the explanation/tips Buddha!
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oldwailer
1076 posts
Feb 19, 2010
1:47 PM
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LOL!
Yeah, man--jazz is way more highly evolved than blues:
doodle doodle doodle doodle doodle blahdee blahdee blahdee!
doodle doodle doodle doodle doodle blahdee blahdee blahdee!
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Buddha
1406 posts
Feb 19, 2010
6:43 PM
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Micha,
My goal was to be one of the best harmonica players in the history of the instrument. When I started playing, I told myself that I would become the kind of musician that people read and write about and I would set new boundaries for the harmonica.
You must first understand that I am extremely passionate and crazy about everything that I do. When I do something, I learn every aspect of it and apply it to whatever it is I am doing. When I was 16 I was learning about the mechanics of the harmonica as I was playing. This is akin to understanding how to build an engine for a car as I am learning to drive.
I'm also very curious and experimental by nature. I'm always asking myself, if I do this what will happen? Then I figure out why did that happen. I also have a catalogue of I did X and Y happened.
People learn through failure and most of the time people cannot see success until they meet failure. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO FAIL. The problem I see with most people is they are afraid of what others think, afraid of what others might do, afraid of what they might do... fear fear fear! fear is the most destructive and toxic force in the universe. To fear something is a choice that YOU make so choose to not fear and instantly you will be on the right path.
Now that fear is no longer an obstacle, set a goal. I've already stated my goal above. remember this is a life goal, and notice that my life goal is not to become rich or famous etc... my goal is to be known as one of the best harmonica players ever. Your goal has to be set in stone or it's not really a goal. This life goal defines who and what you are. Of course you can set little goals along the way but they are merely tertiary adventure that may or may not be a part of your life goal. Set a goal, most people don't have one and that's why they waffle along in life and die without accomplishing much. That's a waste of a life if you ask me.
My biggest step was conquering fear and the next biggest step is setting a goal.
Now that I have my goal, you have to define your goal actually is. For me, that means I need to know everything about the harmonica. I need to know the origins, how they work, the original purpose etc... then you break that down. Reeds....ah the harmonica is more about the reeds than anything else so how do reeds work? What other reeded instruments are there? (Tertiary adventures) So I studied reeded instruments and the bassoon and duduk are the instrument that I went to first, then I got into saxaphone, accordian, bandoneon etc... Then I started playing with blades of grass and making them sound. Then I researched reeds of all kinds. I researched the shape, the profle, the material etc...
I'll write more later...
Questions?
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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Buddha
1408 posts
Feb 20, 2010
4:44 AM
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MichaelAndrewLo,
There is no shortage of them at local universities and even some high schools.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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kudzurunner
1100 posts
Feb 20, 2010
4:52 AM
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That very first clip fooled me, Chris. If I've heard a player play at some point--live, or on an old recording--I can usually ID them. I've heard a number of recordings by you, but they're all characterized by a thin tone and smooth, wavery vibrato that I think of as analogous to Miles Davis in his later electro-funk phase.
The harp playing on the first clip came from somewhere entirely different: low, strong, lots of partial double stops or little edges to notes that sound like classic Chicago tongue-blocking style. Kind of gruff. You had me totally fooled. Little Sammy Davis? That's what I was thinking. The second clip in the initial post wasn't quite as facile, so it made me think "NOT Little Sammy."
Very good exercise, this.
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Buddha
1411 posts
Feb 20, 2010
5:13 AM
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Thanks Adam,
Now I see the discrepancy in why we disagreed on whether or not I could teach blues. I could teach it but in this case I'm like a lot of teachers who can teach but can't really play. I would be in that category. I'm a real blues poser not a real blues man. :-)
I do love the blues but my head simply isn't wired to want to play it all the time. I absolutely enjoy being a sub for a night but I could never be in a steady blues band unless it was some heavy weight blues group and even then I think I would get bored with it.
I understand the whole blues is a feeling thing but to me it's just something I can do or a style I can play if called upon.
If a person wants to be a professional harp player you HAVE to be able to play blues. There is just no getting around it. I went through a phase when I lived in MN where I was adamant about being known as a jazz player and not a blues players. I turned down all requests for blues gigs and studio sessions that required blues playing. You know what happened? The phone calls stopped. That was huge mistake on my part. I consider myself a musician more than a harmonica player and as such its in my best interest to be able to play a multitude of style well.
Adam, there is not a single person that wasn't fooled except for Todd Greene. I sent several clips to Filisko and other friends and they didn't ID me right away either.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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toddlgreene
852 posts
Feb 20, 2010
5:20 AM
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Yup, you couldn't fool me-I'm the same guy who knew the Saints would beat Minnesota and go to the SuperBowl...I'm tellin' ya-I have a gift(or I'm just extremely lucky!). There was something in your breath that was a dead giveaway. I guess I've just heard enough of your playing to pick up on a certain nuance.
Chris-you're a great all-around player, even if you are a bit misunderstood at times. Your blues playing didn't sound forced to me, especially for someone who professes to not really be into the genre.
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Todd L Greene. V.P.
Last Edited by on Feb 20, 2010 5:21 AM
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LeonStagg
133 posts
Feb 20, 2010
8:14 AM
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Yes, very interested in hearing more.
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apskarp
134 posts
Feb 20, 2010
11:58 AM
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"Dynamics are important too. To me Blues is all about tone and texture. In the clips, listen to how I change up my tone and how I give character and texture to what I am playing but also listen to my dynamic, loud, soft, hard, easy, single, notes, dirty notes, chords, tempo etc... that's the stuff that captures peoples' attention. The notes themselves are actually fairly meaningless."
This is beautiful stuff. I think we are usually very much driven by the songs, riffs and melodies. We try to learn them and increase our repertoire as much as possible.
Still I know that sometimes when I play something very simple, just a note or two, but with very relaxed and concentrated manner - it's far better than any song or complex riff I can play. I wish to be able to expand that attitude and mindstate of playing to the songs and melodies too, but even if it wouldn't ever happen - if I had to make a choice between A) to be able to play lots of songs in a usual manner ro B) be able to play just two notes with the inner beauty and mastery - I'd select the latter without a doubt.
I love music, but my passion is "the divine" within the music.
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blogward
95 posts
Feb 20, 2010
3:48 PM
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Heard a lot of Big Walter in there, but you're more cohesive/coherent. Funny thing, I started on the bassoon (aged 9-10). Heavy ****ers, aren't they?
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walterharp
235 posts
Feb 21, 2010
9:46 AM
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Chris, I think it is very good simple playing. For this style I would prefer some more tricks. I know you don't like head shakes much or hand vibrato, but I would say those are as much a part of this style as not overblowing. This seems like the Snooky Pryor approach to blues harmonica rather than the Sonny Terry, though Snooky used those tricks, it is just that he is simpler than Terry...
Also, I suggest you pay more attention to the recording because it is clipping on the loud parts. Why be so careful getting the harps set up just right and years of practice and then let a small technical detail like that detract from the product you put in public? Maybe it is my playback, but it is happening at low playback volume on the files I listened to.
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Buddha
1417 posts
Feb 21, 2010
11:22 AM
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walterharp,
I don't much about little playing clips. By the time I got everything dialed in for recording I would lose the urge to play blues.
I recorded it with my little computer mic. If I were doing it for real I would use my pro-tools set up.
I know what you mean about the headshake. Blues just isn't my thing and I actually have to think about what I'm doing to make it sound correct which isn't very conducive to playing proper blues.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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htownfess
19 posts
Feb 21, 2010
3:38 PM
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"since traditional harmonica blues is already predefined in our heads, my vibrato will sound out of place. This is the same issue with using OBs in blues. They work well, sound fine and fit perfectly but since the style is predefined they are not accepted"
That seems an unfair characterization. It seems to me that the OB/blues issue is not that the preconceptions about blues are so strong that they forbid OB use, but that OBs do not offer enough extension of the baseline ability to play blues song melodies, so OBs don't help enough with playing the canonical songs to be worth using in traditional blues for most players, given the rigors of harp setup & hitting overbends over loud bands.
Depends on the song composer, but with canonical blues standards, often even the vocal melody lays out strictly within notes available by second position bending. You seldom need overbends to play the instrumental head or use the vocal melody within soloing, unlike jazz or pop standards; overbends don't make the difference between playing the song accurately or not. Blues overbending mainly serves to open up transposition over the chord changes, and of course there are plenty of existing strategies/tactics to deal with that problem (#1: We don't need no stinkin' transposition! :-).
I was struck by that when learning the vocal melodies of some Robert Johnson songs. An SBS harp's ability to drop down another octave was what I needed to accurately reproduce his melodic habits, not overbends. That diminishes the newer-school the blues in question is--you'd need overbends more to steal from BB King than Albert King, and I recall another artist saying that Albert's playing is "all blue notes," meaning very strictly within the blues scale. So there's not such an imperative to extend melody range as there can be with other genres, and the measure of sophistication/traditionalism that people use for blues may derive at least in part from how closely a given song or performance's melodies adhere to the blues scale itself.
If second position on a diatonic not only gives all the blues scale notes on the I chord, but through bending automatically puts a special tonal inflection on the blue notes themselves that is emotionally appropriate and useful, then it addresses baseline blues needs without overbending. Likewise, standard bending in third position will cover V chord transposition pretty well, and the V chord's the smallest part of a 12-bar anyway; so it's mainly to open up IV chord transposition that one would need overbending first in traditional blues. I'm not sure, but I think across the blues spectrum, transposition is not a dominant strategy for soloing/fills on the IV chord change, not when a I chord motif can be simply be repeated quite effectively as a passing riff (if that's the right term technically), or when doing something quite different melodically or rhythmically is a frequent strategy to emphasize a IV chord change in blues, regardless of the instrument involved. The "passing riff" practice on the IV may be an example of what you are characterizing as a preconception (from which I am tempted to infer prejudice) when perhaps it should simply be viewed as a happy musical accident.
I think evidence for my view is Adam playing with Sterling Magee: When Mr. Satan's musical conception involves covering and writing enough tunes where overbending is absolutely necessary to accurately play the basic instrumental/vocal melody, then overbending is an imperative, not an option; and playing in a duo situation sonically opens up the ease of successfully hitting the overbends--it's a different deal than playing amplified harmonica regularly with a "typical" two guitars + keys + loud electric bass blues band of the 1980s-1990s. That's a different musical situation than many blues harp players were/are dealing with.
What you characterize as "sound correct" is what I would characterize as "emotionally effective": it may not be people's preconceptions about a genre that govern whether a musical approach is accepted there--the musical approach may not connect with anybody else, regardless of whether they've ever heard the genre in question or not. It may not be the audience's fault, and prejudices may not be involved. If a diatonic player was putting nasty amplified blues harp licks on a country or bluegrass tune where the notes and the tone just didn't work, would you blame country or bluegrass music/audiences for prejudice, or would you look at the harmonic structure and typical emotions of the music? When you say "Blues is all about tone and texture," to me you are talking about doing things that successfully elicit a stronger emotional participation by the audience *whether the audience is familiar with the music or not*. Sometimes there is just stuff that works, and not because of the audience's prejudice, and it may be germane to what makes a genre an identifiable genre at all.
I remember what Howard Levy taught about vibrato in certain Eastern European music, that it swings both below and above the note's pitch center in a particular way that's easy to do in one particular harp position, and is not typical of most Western music. I could do it right away, and it wasn't simply that it sounded stereotypically correct for that music, it evoked an emotional mood I didn't know from other genres. That's what may be going on with your trademark vibrato in blues: what it does with intonation may not resonate emotionally with the audience in this context, regardless of their familiarity with blues. If that's the case, then it's not their fault, and it's not your fault; it's just something that doesn't work.
I admit that audience prejudice does exist, but don't believe it's ultimately the issue here. There have been too many innovations in blues over the decades. They caught on because they connected with people emotionally, not because they were familiar.
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Buddha
1418 posts
Feb 21, 2010
4:08 PM
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wow. You're off in so many ways I don't know where to start.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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htownfess
20 posts
Feb 21, 2010
7:08 PM
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Well, you said not to be afraid to be wrong, I was just trying to demonstrate how that works sometimes :-). You can leave it unanswered.
If you meant that you didn't use overbends because you were trying to fool a discerning audience about your identity, OK, I see that: trying to make tracks that sound like "traditional blues harmonica." A style is defined by what it excludes as well as what it includes.
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Buddha
1420 posts
Feb 21, 2010
7:39 PM
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My response is so long I don't have time to right it. Seriously, contact me offlist and I would be happy to explain my thoughts over the phone.
For starters, the audience doesn't care about technique, notes, tone or OBs etc... only the player and other harmonica players care about that stuff.
I speak of predefined notion and you refer to conical songs that don't have them... ummm thats more or less what I am talking about. The conical songs ARE predefined notions of what traditional harmonica is. The notes themselves have nothing to do with emotion or relating to an audience.
In Eastern European the Vibrato modulates ABOVE the pitch not above and below... You're misquoting howard.
Anyway, contact me groovygypsy at gmail and I'll give you my cell number to chat.
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"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." - Joseph Campbell
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htownfess
21 posts
Feb 21, 2010
8:29 PM
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"In Eastern European the Vibrato modulates ABOVE the pitch not above and below... You're misquoting howard."
Hey, give me credit, I'm probably playing it wrong too :-).
I'll be in touch--
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