A recommendation for the next SPAH

[John Galvin <johngalvin@xxxxxxxx>]

I want to thank SPAH and HOOT for what was--for me--a perfect 
convention. I have no complaints (though the dearth of restaurants did 
compel me to enter the room of one non-harmonica-playing hotel patron 
to kill and eat her. But that is more an observation than a complaint.)

More importantly, I want to recommend that SPAH continue to invite 
teachers the likes of David Barrett and John Costa.

David has done more than anyone I know to professionalize harmonica 
instruction for the diatonic. His material is clear, logical and 
purposefully organized; and his ability to diagnose and correct problem 
technic is astounding. He had a table crowded with players of every 
level, and never appeared to lose the beginners or to bore the more 
advanced.

John Costa had the duty of working with the absolute beginners whom he 
had playing within minutes of  their first session. They were excited 
by the immediate results, and returned faithfully to his table every 
day that week. (John, incidentally, is a sociologist specializing in 
helping overweight children).

I can't help feeling that teachers like John and David are 
indispensable to the success of such events. They help to make welcome 
a  substantial contingent of beginning and intermediate players who 
need more guidance and more encouragement than might be got from 
question-and-answer sessions dealing with various and random queries.

Finally--and incidentally--I wanted to salve the curiosity of those who 
were wondering who that women was who was forever at the side of Phil 
Wiggins or Robert Bonfiglio or James Conway or Joe Filisko or Buzz 
Kranz. Well, that was Ruth Leicht, a regular at Buckeye and SPAH. If 
and when you see her, ask her to play her rendition of "Amazing Grace"; 
Joe Filisko did.

John

- -------------------------------------------
John Galvin
Translation:	French into English
			Italian into English
Phone: 	(513) 923-4206
Fax: 		(513) 923-4206
e-mail: 	johngalvin@xxxxxxxx