Re: [Harp-L] temporay lost mojo mormal

[Alberto Robles <grillslinger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Everyone is new sometime. Jason Ricci recently put up a video of himself
playing when he was in high school. He put it up just to show that he wasn't
always a great player. He also had to learn the way many of us are doing
now.
A.



On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 9:12 AM, Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> "Abner Galdos" wrote:
> <As I was on stage playing one of the guys that was playing the guitar
> <with me took my mic from me..
> <I'm new to this whole thing so I found it odd but dropped it...
>
> That guy is pretty damn rude, but the whole jam, as one list member put it,
> sounds like it was a clash of egos.
>
> Abner, a few words of advice:
> 1)  In any musical situation, including a jam session, the role of every
> musician involved is to make the whole thing sound better.  So the first
> thing you have to ask yourself, at every moment, is: am I making this band
> sound better?  If not, stop playing until you spot an opportunity to add
> something to the sound that will make it better.
> 2)  The thing that upsets musicians most in a jam is when someone else is
> "stepping on them"--playing loud over their solo, playing loud while the
> singer is singing, playing notes that clash tremendously with the chords or
> the feel of the song.  You can avoid this by listening very, very carefully,
> and making sure not to play over the singer or the soloist.
> 3)  Finally, if you're not sure what to play, simple (meaning less) is
> best.  I recommend that you listen to Howlin' Wolf or to Magic Dick's work
> on the first couple of J. Geils Band records to hear how incredibly
> effective a very few notes played with a big sound on the harp can be.
>  Space tells a story, and there's nothing wrong with using plenty of space,
> especially when you're just starting out.
> 4) Making a strong contribution to a jam session is 90% about listening,
> and 10% about playing.  For inexperienced players especially, it's often
> tough to listen and play at the same time--novices tend to concentrate very
> hard on their own playing, and forget what everyone around them is doing.
>  So make yourself listen, all the time you're on stage.
>
> As the saying goes, good judgment is the result of experience, and
> experience is the result of bad judgment.  Don't beat yourself up over every
> mistake.  We have all--ALL--had humiliating experiences playing with other
> people.  Just make sure you learn something every time you play with someone
> else, and you'll get better and better over time.
>
> By the way, if you don't have an inexpensive recorder to record your
> playing, get one.  Radio Shack sells a handheld cassette recorder with a
> built-in microphone for about $30 (last time I looked) that's perfectly good
> for recording practice sessions, or you can get one of the newer digital
> devices, or you can get a cheap MP3 player that records to its internal
> memory.  You don't need a high-quality, expensive device for this purpose.
>  Even at lower fidelity, hearing yourself on tape is a COMPLETELY different
> experience from hearing yourself while you play.  You will learn a lot from
> it.
>
> Good luck and regards, Richard Hunter
> latest m3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
> more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
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