French Canadian Folk
Hey Winslow, I'm interested with Quebec "folklore". Since its my roots i would like to play some classic reels.
Do you have tips for me.
What is the most used keys of harmonica. Is it mostly played is first position.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Thanks allot Winslow.
Your site contains allot of good information.
I like "Trois Reels Quebecois" especially the last one with the tremolo harmonica. I was wondering how they did that, it sounds like the traditional accordion. I has notice the use of chromatic harmonica but this is completely new to me. I will get one, i really like the sound.
You put much attention to details in the description of "La femme du soldat". I tough that this kind of music was a more "primitive" form of playing but it seems that there is tons of technique to it, changing tuning, different kind of harmonica, octave, chords and melody.
Thanks. The tremolo harmonica has been really used a lot in Quebec and some really good players have used it. including most of the ones I featured on the site.
La Femme du soldat came from a fiddler who would drone on the fiddle strings while he sang. I used a lot of split intervals to get a similar effect.
Thanks for your observation that the music isn't primitive. Good folk harmonica generally isn't. You might think it was if you only heard guys like Bob Dylan, who isn't (and never was) a folk musician anyway. But you will hear highly evolved and sophisticated harmonica playing If you listen to the old rural southern blues guys, like De Ford Bailey, or Cajuns like Jerry Devillier and Isom Fontenot, or Irish guys like Eddie Clarke, or Québécois players like Louis Blanchette or Adelard Saint-Louis or Gabriel Labbé.
macnoland -
I'd suggest you have a look at one of my web pages specifically on this subject:
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/harmonicanuck/
This gives some thumbnail history links to multiple sound samples from many of the great French Canadian players of the 1920s and '30s.
Older players of more recent times include Gabriel Labbé, one of the last in the old style and a folklorist in his own right, Aldor Morin, Wilbrod Boivin, Ludger Foucault, and Moise Filion.
More recent players include as Mario Forest, Yves Lambert, and Daniel Roy (all alums of La Bottine Souriante) and Carmen Gaudet of la famille Gaudet. Andre Lamontaigne is someone doing interesting things that are quasi-traditional - folkish but not really drawn from French Canadian tradition.
There's also a guy in France who's big on Québécois trad who plays good harmonica, Bruno Kowalczyk. he's got a few videos up on Youtube.
Most of the playing is in first position, and nearly everything that isn't a waltz gets called a reel, But you will find the occasional fourth, third and second position.