Page 13 - BiTS_02_FEBRUARY_2025
P. 13
BiTS: Okay. When you first started playing with a band, how did you find playing in
public?
WW: Yeah, it's always been very natural. I think when you're younger, because I started
playing that when I was about 18 or 19, you have quite a big ego at that age [laughs].
BiTS: Yes. That’s true.
WW: Which you need, I think in order to get out and do it, because I wasn't very good
when I started, but I was confident. I probably thought I was much better than I was
at the time, but that gave me the confidence to get out and do it.
BiTS: People don't realise that
playing the harp, blues harp anyway,
is actually extremely physical work.
Do you do any kind of training or
anything like that in preparation?
WW: Yeah, I mean, I lift weights and
stuff at the gym anyway, but the way
that I play harmonica in particular is
very demanding on the breath.
BiTS: Yes, of course.
WW: Because I use my own tuning,
it's called the Wilde tuning, which
lets me play more of the upper
octave, blues rock kind of licks, and
90% of the notes that I play are draw
notes. So inhale.
BiTS: Yes.
WW: So I'm always like right on the
very edge of my breath capacity
[chuckles] when I'm on stage. I need
as much lung capacity as I can get. So
I try and do cardio. I avoid smoking and vaping and I do some yoga breathing exercises
as well, which I find help a lot.
BiTS: That's absolutely fascinating. Really, because I've tried to talk to harp players
in the past about how physical it is, and most of them are reluctant to talk about it in
a sense.
WW: Right, yeah. When you start getting into the sort of fast blues rock stuff especially,
it is like an extreme sport, you know [laughs]?