Breathless Swing
An attempt at a fast swing - I've got hooked on this sort of thing lately after buying Dennis Gruenling's 'That's Right!', which is definitely recommended. He makes it sound light and casual - it isn't: I had to chop the jam track down to 2 minutes to avoid hyperventilating (annoyingly, you can hear the cut) and it took me a staggering number of takes to play it straight through without completely losing the beat. By the time I was finished, I loathed the damn thing and was just relieved the pain was over! Anyway, some remarks on the choruses:
1st chorus: The head was based on a Wynton Marsalis swing tune I came across on YouTube - I was aiming for a bouncy sax sort of effect. David's advice about yawning to get a deeper tone was useful here; I could hear a big difference when I forgot to drop the jaw. On the V chord, I more or less shadowed the piano lick from the backing track (something I heard Filisko do and thought was a cool way of making the whole thing sound less artificial). Had to pucker to double-tongue the 2 draw on that bit and I can definitely hear the difference in tone.
2nd chorus: variation on the head (in fact, a shameless attempt to stretch out the tune by trying to squeeze more out of the same lick)
3rd chorus: the lick here is a very rough version of the head of Gruenling's '1313 stomp'. I wanted to do a descending triplet thing from the 3 draw to the 2 blow, but couldn't articulate the different bends fast enough, so what you have instead is a sort of slur. Oh well.
4th chorus: the last chorus was quite busy, so went with a simple lick emphasising a different note.
5th chorus. an ascending lick. V chord lick based on one from George Harmonica Smith's 'Juicy Harmonica'.
6th chorus: mostly single-note stuff so far, so trying to change the texture by using splits. Tried to incorporate some of the three hole splits from Joe Filisko's video as well as four hole splits.
7th chorus: almost entirely lifted from 'Juicy Harmonica' again. The 3 hole bends at the end are a bit of a mess, though.
8th chorus: repeats the head (damn that cut in the jam track!)
Comments
Nice
I hadnt notice you posting on MBH lately,I now know why you have been woodshedding a bunch man you sounding tight,I like how tight your hitting your notes,I would like to get better at that,and hope this course will help me so i dont sound like a noodler as much,your sounding great.and you know where your going in a solo sounds like youve done your homework.
breathless swing
reminds me of something george smith would play its that good. i like the tone and the soul swing beat. this was enjoying to listen to. tell me about the harp key your using ect, thanks I loved it enuff to study this one. takes the harp into a new place for this old blues man. keep/rollin.brother.
Thanks! It's a low F harp.
Thanks! It's a low F harp. David's right about the 5th chorus though: something different needs to happen there. The most useful thing about it for me is hearing the tone change when I listen to it again. I'm happy with the tone in the first eight measures but I noticed that when the head comes back at the end, the tone's become thinner. That was the most useful thing to learn - next time I play anything I need to plaster the room with Post-It notes saying stuff like 'drop the jaw' and 'yawn' to remind me to focus on it not just at the beginning but all the way through.
Wicked Stuff!!
Now that was one fine piece of work IMHO!! great tone - gutsy, sax like tone for sure!! Nice bounce swing feel and you hit the nail on the head with your descriptors. It sounded and felt like you were enjoying playing through the whole piece - big band stuff!! Good on you!!
Thanks
Thanks for the encouragement and detailed comments, guys. I thought there was something wrong about the 5th chorus, but I could figure out what. It hadn't occurred to me that I was using the same holes over and over - good advice and definitely something to listen out for - I'll keep working on it!
Trombone Man
Nice tone... great swing... I like it!
CH1 - Nice AAB C.F. - The ii7 V I lick was real nice, great job.
CH2 - I like the head variation, it works well (repetition is good!)
CH3 - Killer licks here
CH4 - I like how you played the 3' on the IV, that shows you know your chord changes
CH5 - At this chorus it starts to get a little old for me... we've heard those pitches (holes) quite a bit already... this is the one chorus that I think could use a little work.
CH6 - Great idea to use to octaves here
CH7 - Nice "Juicy Harmonica" quote, I love it!
CH8 - Head came back, great choice / Nice ending
Great job... keep it comin!
Breathless Swing
You definitely accomplished the bouncy feel. This was just downright fun to listen and tap the feet. I am sure if I was examining this with a critical and/or instructing ear I would notice all the glitches you talked about..
However from an "audience" standpoint I was just enjoying the music and nothing about it set my teeth on edge even for a second. I am equally impressed that along with Adam, you have enough creativity to create two original instrumentals.
And by the way, it did not sound like it was painful for you to play (sounded like you were having a good time) and frankly if I were you I would keep at this song until I was personally happy with it because this can only make you even better by sticking with material that is currently at your challenging stage.
Very enjoyable!