Learning Vocal Melodies
You can learn a lot about phrasing by copying vocal melodies. Because singers have to breathe, their phrasing sounds more natural than an instrumentalist who plays endless fast notes. Although this may impress a few of their friends until the novelty wears off, it won’t move people the way a great melody does.
Singers have to fit their melodies to lyrics and get the meaning of the song across to the audience. This means choosing the most effective notes and creating the right mood with the melody and phrasing. Since most harmonica players tend to overplay, studying vocal phrasing can lead to a more authentic Blues sound and more emotion and communication in your playing
The best way to learn a vocal melody is to sing it before you play it. Sing the melody using either the song lyrics or any syllables you like. Do this until you have it in your memory. Then find the notes on the harmonica and play the melody in its simplest form until you have it memorized.
The final step is to add some expressive techniques like bends or vibrato. Use these to get as close as possible to the expressions used by the singer. If you are unsure of the expressions, listen carefully to the singer and then imitate the expressions with your voice and then transfer them to the harp in the closest way you can. Singing is the memory link between your ears and the muscles used to produce sounds on your instrument.
The following example demonstrates a vocal phrase which is then played by the harmonica. once you know it, create your own variations. Learn to play the melody of every song you know. This will prepare you better for playing with other musicians and will also help you build a repertoire of your own.
One of the most common situations where call and response is used is when you are playing fills in between lines sung by a vocalist. This is demonstrated in the following example. The trick here is learning to play lines that fit well between the vocal lines instead of running over the top of them. First learn to copy the melody of the song and then come up with your own variations, then finally play a response which is different to the melody but complements it – like the singer is asking a question and you are providing the answer. Audiences love call and response and other musicians always like playing with harp players who can do it well.
