Epiphany...

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 24 May 2020 10:08 pm

I couldn't figure out how to make those pinch harmonics that I saw you guys do...
And then yesterday it happened by chance ! Ah ! OK, I understand now !
So I immediately put at work my very new discovery :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_1zsqSIRuI

This is a swing number, after so much melancholic D minor tuning tunes.
But in D minor tuning nonetheless.

Lance Clifford · Post by **Lance Clifford** » 25 May 2020 5:55 am

Always enjoy your music, Jean-Paul.

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 25 May 2020 12:15 pm

Thanks Lance.
I know I'm a bit of an oddity here (different culture and all that), but thanks anyway.

David Matzenik · Post by **David Matzenik** » 25 May 2020 12:57 pm

That is some really fine music. We don't hear a lot of finger picking and alternating bass anymore. It was something just about all the pickers of the 1960s aspired to. I love it.

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 25 May 2020 5:26 pm

David, I'm afraid it shows my age...

Jim Graham · Post by **Jim Graham** » 26 May 2020 3:11 am

Beautiful! Thanks for posting this.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 26 May 2020 3:37 am

Beautiful tune and playing, Jean-Paul. I always appreciate musicians who follow their own muse.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 26 May 2020 5:27 am

Lovely!

But you didn't tell us the secret of pinch harmonics!

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 26 May 2020 12:48 pm

Jim Cohen wrote:Lovely!

But you didn't tell us the secret of pinch harmonics!

Well I dunno if this is the "official" way, but accidentally, my thumb hit the string at the right spot when I was picking it with the finger, and the result was a delightful artificial harmonic.
I should have know better, because, although there are several ways to obtain the same result, the concept is quite easy to figure out.
Until yesterday, I was using the guitar way, that is blocking with a finger and picking with the thumb, and it's not as efficient that the other way round on the weiss.
When I looked at players on YT, I couldn't really understand what was exactly going on.
So this was a happy surprise. I'll work on it by now. That's a spectacular fun trick, and, even if I am not exactly a spectacular player, a little bit of showing-off cannot hurt, if not overused.

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 26 May 2020 12:51 pm

Andy Volk wrote:Beautiful tune and playing, Jean-Paul. I always appreciate musicians who follow their own muse.

Thanks Andy.
Actually, I can't do anything else, and although generally pleasant, sometimes it's also a handicap.