What song are you working on?

Lounge
476

Yess. This is the type of exercise where you get good from practicing it! (yeah that sounded totally tautoligical but you get my drift)

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477

Yes, it is at that!!

Thanks for listening :sunglasses:

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478

Being a total newbie, besides working on the B2B play list activities, I am practising Morriconi’s “The Death of a Soldier.” A 2/4 time piece with only 4 tabs to learn. Being slow and played with great feeling, with the fermata duration at your discretion, allows one to find the note and breath!

I promise I’ll get back to blues improv.

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479

Sounding great @HarpinBobbyMcB ! You’re getting the bends and you’re playing along with the metronome! :clap:t3: EXCELLENT my man. Working on good time and good intonation at the same time. That’s how to do it like a BOSS!!

As far as how to improve it, if you listen, all of your -4’ bends are releasing a bIt right at the end. It doesn’t sound bad, but it’s something to be aware of. You want to be able to stop your airflow on the -4’ without changing your mouth position. Something to note!

Keep up the great work!

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480

Its one thing to play the tabs but another to playa tune exactly on time as its written. I pick tunes I like but do not knew well like Moon River. Why Its these that really help with playing things on time and every small mistake you make shows up. If someone has a better way to learn please advise.

481

Thank you for this sound bite.

Very good example for a newbie, I like it! Will help a lot to get more rhythm and life into my practice sessions.:wink:

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482

Makes sense!

Gives me something to work on :+1:

Thanks

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483

Moody’s Mood For Love

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484

I’ve always loved this song but never knew the name of it.

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485

Thanks Luke for the detailed advice! Took me a while but I finally think I’m getting the hang of it:

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486

@yuriythebest YESSSSS!!! So proud of your, now for the first time you’re playing the actual rhythms!! BIG CONGRATS my friend. This is a HUGE accomplishment. You should feel very proud of your hard work on this. Many never bother to work this stuff out!

Now here’s the fine tuning:

1.) Now that you’re used to holding the whole notes for 3 counts, try to disperse with the pulsing of the note and just have it be one long note. You can tap your foot 3 times to keep the beat instead of tipping the harmonica in time and/or pulsating your breath.

2.) Listen back and try to notice how many notes are arriving ahead of the click very often. Try to NEVER have your notes arrive ahead of the click. Our time will never be perfect, by try to err on the side of being late. Either on the click, or late - never early.

Note, that you naturally are rushing, so working on #2 will correct that so you’re playing with great time.

You got this! :oncoming_fist:t3: Keep it up man. I’m honestly blown away at how much you’re growing.

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487

Thanks for the encouraging comments Luke, it means a lot!

I think, for progress it’s sometimes super awesome to hear about “having done a great job” or whatever cause that, well, gives a sense of progress - just as important as being given advice on how to improve further - so in that way, you have done a great job in this website/community also!

  • For keeping the notes for 3 counts, I was imitating what I was doing for the “bagpipe effect” but in slow motion - I can try to just keep it without that effect (constant note) just in case though
  • Yup, listening back, I think I see what you meant about not having the notes arrive ahead of the click - it’s mostly in the second part right? It’s sometimes super difficult to be slow but I’ll keep working at it! I think, all our lives we’ve been conditioned “guitar hero - style” (even if I’ve never played it) where “you must press the button quick or you loose!”
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488

Thanks Luke! I made the 3-count notes into the single note, and added foot tapping in addition to the metronome - for me foot tapping/adding motion is challenging since it’s one of those things that needs to be done “in addition” to the main thing, so it’s a bit like juggling two things at once. In this video, I kept my hand on my knee since I found that helps “sync” things and prevent my leg from just “doing it’s own thing”, if that makes sense. Depending on the tune, I need to think up “tricks” to keep with the beat (it can be visualizing myself riding a horse, being atop of a bird/butterfly so I can visualize the rhythmic beating of the wings, etc) - hopefully someday it will be more natural.

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489

Bravo @yuriythebest . That really feels to flow now. :smile:

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490

Your upper body is moving with the beat. You’re getting there.

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491

thanks toogdog, davidw, I guess I’m “beat-blind”, in the sense that, I “believe” you that it’s better, but to me it looks just like it’s “visually” cooler/more interesting since I’m moving. I guess I must just always incorporate sheet music and using “the beat” from now on to retrain myself.

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492

I’m biased but I still believe you need to dance. Get the rhythm inside your muscles. How about that slapping slapping thing kids do? You need to be on the same beat exactly as the other person. It’s a tool used to teach little children to count the beat. Do you have someone you can do it with?https://youtu.be/8yC7yxju-mI?si=W8TKJ8lN_oF15JGd

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493

thanks toogdog! yup you might be on to something - I’ve heard that advice independently from other sources as well, so will probs have to give it a shot at some point!

continuing on, I’ve decided to try “oh Susannah.” Initially I scoffed at this tune since back then all I saw was that it didn’t have any bends and didn’t sound all that impressive, so I thought it was “just for people from the 1800’s who want to play something simple after getting their first harp,” and it’s only NOW that I see the point of it - the actual rhythm. It has a simple rhythm that’s within my grasp to play “correctly” based on the sheet music and with the foot tapping and all:

I’ve created the sheet music using the ABC injection tool thing - no more learning by just TABS

notesOhSusannah
notesOhSusannah852×747 41.9 KB

I’m treating this as a “hello world” thing for programmers (i.e. the first “simplest” program). Next up - this thing actually has a backing track one can play to, so I’ll be attempting that!

EDIT: ooh noticed Luke actually made a tutorial a while back - will need to incorporate the “effects” from it as well!

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494

I too have been using ABC tool :+1:

Very cool since you can also make it with different colors to show for draws and blows, as well as to put in the wirds.

Keep harping @yuriythebest

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495

thanks HarpinBobby!

Continuing on, I attempted to play it to a backing track. This one was specifically for “oh susannah” at 75bmp. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m supposed to “double time” it (play 2 beats per one beat of the backing track), since at 75bmp it’s very slow and there is an even slower 50bmp backing track.

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