[Harp-L] Re: Practice material (blues) for intermediate level students



All of the stuff you mentioned are great for this purpose and there are hundreds and hundreds more. Please bear in mind, though, that learning blues harp or any other instrument doesn't mean playing exactly like a recording sounds. Little Walter and Sonny Boy never played a song in the same way twice. What ended up as a studio recording was just one version of the song.

That is why beginning or intermediate players should rather learn the rhythm and the basic feeling of a given song.

I've heard harp players being criticized because they don't play "Juke" exactly like Little Walter did on record. You can have a respect for the Chicago sound of the fifties but trying to make an exact copy of a recording is, in  my opinion, a wrong approach.

Just listen to covers of blues classics by modern masters like Rod Piazza, Kim Wilson, R.J. Mischo, Mark Hummel, Rick Estrin and many others. They are not copies but interpretations played with respect to the original but with a distinctive sound of their own.

Good luck in keeping the blues alive with your students!

Harri 





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