It's Shawn Adam Williams with another harmonica improvisation! So jazzy. So bluesy. So soulful. Please enjoy another harmonica improvisation. Tell me what you think! https://youtu.be/9Hsq_hYW_WY
Last Edited by BluesHarp87 on Jul 16, 2022 11:19 AM
@diggsblues Coming from someone who cries when people don’t tell you how great your 40 year old recordings are.one thinks you would be more supportive of someone posting their videos.
Last Edited by schaef on Jul 21, 2022 4:39 PM
BluesHarp87 made his first post on a well established blues harmonica forum with a membership including many highly skilled players. He linked a video of his playing at an intermediate level.
The playing is typical of many players on the blues harp journey at that stage. The context of this being his first post on this forum and the self-congratulatory text was troubling to me.
I struggled to think of what could be said that was constructive and encouraging while also noting that the level of play did not warrant the wording of the text, particularly on this forum. I could not figure out what to post in response.
I really liked the response from BnT. I encourage BluesHarp87 to take advantage of that offer.
The playing in the video is a good representation of an enthusiastic player who is making progress and has the potential to continue to improve. The video is symptomatic of the influence of social media that encourages self-promotion without consideration of overall skill level on the instrument and without consideration of the audience chosen for the post.
Diggs is a highly skilled and knowledgeable harmonica player. Diggs is not wrong that improvement in technique IS needed if BluesHarp87 is to promote himself as "So jazzy. So bluesy. So soulful" on a blues harp forum with many professional members. The text is self promotional and does not take into account the forum as the audience. However, those words seem to be part of the overall promotion of the video, not specifically written for this forum.
I give BluesHarp87 the benefit of the doubt in that he is an enthusiastic young player wanting to get his music heard on YouTube. I hope he continues to develop his skills and playing. His error was that in joining the forum he used his first post to inadvertently "throw down" with his apparent self-promotion.
BluesHarp87, I encourage you to keep on playing and keep on improving. Harmonica is a great soulful instrument that is simple to begin playing and an endless journey to continue to improve skills. I encourage you to seek out and take advantage of whatever assistance you can find, including reviewing the many posts on this forum. ----------
Sometimes English isn't someones 1st language. In this case i didn't know??
I Don't mean this sarcastically, but the way I read it was that "Blues harp 87" was implying the backtrack was "so jazzy. So bluesy. So soulful." Like it was fun to play to a track like that.
At any rate---I have my own theory that many harp players,INCLUDING MYSELF, think they are better than they really are.
every 5 or 6 years- I think Im at a certain level--only to look back and realize -I really wasn't all that good. So I keep pluggin and keep realizing Im not really that good.
THE MORE U LEARN ---THE MORE U REALIZE HOW MUCH U DON'T KNOW
BUT NEVER GIVE UP ---LEARNING KEEPS ME YOUNG AND HECK iM 70 NOW mucho viejo
