Chromatic

I've been spending much of this summer practicing my chromatic. I play piano at church sometimes and have church music books at home so I've been working my way through some of those songs. I am improving slowly and am getting better at playing in different keys. I still find it very hard to judge big jumps (4ths to octaves) but that's what practice is for! Breathing can be surprisingly tricky, depending on the key, because sometimes it involves a lot of draw notes.

Also I have become pretty good at the 12 blues scales page I've been working on.

Summer Fun

Over the summer I've been working on various things. Let's Stick Together works well on my D harp (2nd position) it's been fun to try and steal some of the sax riffs.

Also, at band the other day, we started on Love for the Common People (1st position A) and Born to Be Wild -which I need to work out a solo for. 3rd position C, I think covers the key (Dm) but I'm lacking inspiration as regards the solo.

I've been reworking Bright Side of the Road too in case it comes back into the set. The intro is sounding better and I've tried some of the brass lines as fills. Still find the riff in the middle of the solo hard but it is coming.

There have been other licks which I've tried too but I can't remember them (oops). I think a run from 6 blow down to 2 draw with the flat 3rd down to major 2nd was one. Either way, I've enjoyed playing a lot. I'm going to work on the chromatic and try to get Madness's Our House next. The brass lines should work fairly well on the chromatic but it will be interesting to see if it is the harmonies which really make the song.

Onwards!

New vintage Chromatic Harp!

So a few months ago there was this chap who liked my playing. I couldn't go to the pub last night but when I arrived at work today I was presented with a new harp! This chap had been back and given the harp to D! Turns out it is a vintage Hohner Chromatic which could date back to 1926!

The man is coming back to our next gig so I intend to work some harp stuff out on it. Time to let him hear it played! Yay!

Easter Holiday Over

Nearly finished the Easter holiday and have had plenty of time to practice the harp. I've got my groove back and found it huge fun. I've tried to get some triplet runs going (in the style of Paul Butterfield) with some success. What else have I done? Ah yes I've slowed music down to help me figure it out. Adam Gussow plays some fast runs which I've sort of got but the speed is still massively beyond me. Now, as the new term looms, I have my traditional mouth ulcer-a-thon which makes playing painful. Oh well, at least I've had a few weeks off from them! Still completely neglecting the chromatic I just can't get my head round it so I'm using it for just 1 song in the set at the moment -And She was.

And that's it!

Tales from the pub (again)

Last Wednesday (20.11.12) I played at the pub for what will probably be the final time this year (because of L having theatre commitments). At the end this chap who'd listened to the set came and had a word. He was glowing in his praise and really full of warmth about my playing. It was a really nice confidence boost. As I was about to leave, he said he had a chromatic from way back which he would like to give me! Whether that materializes is unimportant, I just took it as a huge compliment to my playing. Yay!

No beer, just cars

So another 2 nights 2 gigs goes by. The first was at the pub and was supposed to be a beer festival except the landlord hadn't ordered in any novetly beers, so it was instead, the pub. It proved to be good fun and although I couldn't be heard -again- in the first half, I still enjoyed it.

The second night was the Morgan owners yearly get together. Average age appeared to be around 60. I was delighted that we were well received. Folks got up to dance. Nice moves! Confidence levels are on the up and the chromatic worked well for And She Was (although it is hard to play 1 handedly).

Plus I got some money out of the gigs!!!!!! Yay!

Chromatic

I've worked out some very simple parts for some of the key changes in And she Was. I think it will sound ok, kind of brass style fills really. I'll see tomorrow night with the band whether it fits.

I've also started to practice major scales on the Chromatic (for the common keys the band plays in) and I am going to learn each blues scale as well (I know F so far). It's a fair bit of work but I think in the long run it will be worth while. The main problem is that I am so used to thinking in terms of flats. The flattened 3rd, 5th or 7th are often referred to in blues music but everything is sharp on a chromatic so I'm starting to try and think of it as sharp 2, 4 and 6. Confusing. I'll get there. I hope...

Chromatic woes

The next two gigs are next weekend. We are going to do a version of Talking Heads' And She Was. Good song but it goes through 3 keys. So I picked up the chromatic I bought at Christmas time and...

...found it really hard. Sure it can play in any key but trying to establish where I IV and V are between 3 different keys was a huge headache. I am going to persevere because it will make a difference to the song but I need time to go wrong a lot.

Watch this space.

Chromatic

Just a quick note. I picked up a 12 hole chromatic just before Christmas and am having lots of fun learning how to play it. Very complex. I need to learn my scales. I am trying to learn For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder version.)

Very excited. Very excited indeed!