11 months ago

Howdy all!
This video opens with my off-time rendition of "Red River Valley"
3 4 5 5 5 5 , -4 5 -4 4
3 4 5 4 5 6 , -5 5 -4
6 -5 5 5 -4 4 -4 , 5 6 -5
3 3 3 -3 , 4 -4 5 -4 4
You can throw a little vibrato or hand-flapping on the end of each line for a nice effect. I only did this for the last line. It's a nice base tune, and sounds good when played slowly. I recommend it as a practice piece for a few reasons:
1. No bent notes
2. Slow rhythm
3. Stays in the 'easy' holes (3-6)
4. No big jumps

This was the song that I finally played near a campfire! I've been wanting to play out in the open near a fire, and an old cowboy song seemed like just the right tune for the occasion. I had started practicing as soon as I knew the camping trip was for certain.

Clipped into this video is a bit of video from that campfire, though it was too dark to see me or anyone else. Night time featured a waxing crescent moon, temperatures between 35-40F, mild wind, and a total lack of any wildlife. If not for the wind and the crackle of flame, the night would have been dead silent.

In other news - I feel that I've been getting better at placing my mouth on the harp. I recently changed my hand position, which forced me to change my mouth placement, which caused... On and on. Felt a bit like 'if you give a mouse a cookie.' Now that I'm playing a bit more coherently, I can get back to improving.

My plan is to first shore up the basics (playing each note cleanly, no 'dirty notes', make use of the hands), then dive further into the more technical skills (tongue blocking, bent notes). Chugging, chords, and octaves aren't yet on the list, but I practice them on occasion.

Looking back at videos, I've also realized that my neck is rather stiff, and my head jumps around. I'd like to smooth that out, but it's not much of a priority at the moment. It's probably a combination of a stiff neck, posture, and nervousness on the camera.

A side note - Do you think it's possible (without too much machining) to fit a Special 20's comb and reeds into the cover plate of a Golden Melody? I like the shape of the old Golden Melody, but the sound and playability of the Special 20. Maybe that should be a project for much later in the future.

During the end of this video, I improvise a bit on top of the Red River Valley tune.

00:00 Intro
00:54 Campfire
01:22 Updates
04:31 Outro

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These videos are created without the use of AI.
I believe that using AI as a generative artistic tool will inevitably lead to the downfall of human imagination and ingenuity. In the same vein, it will lead to the utter destruction of whole artistic industries.
Do not hand the power of your imagination to something else.
Who are we when we no longer dream?
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