Reinventing The Wheel

["ozharp" <harpgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 WVa Bob wrote:

> P.S. I also really like the way Paul described the learning process that
> most of us harmonica players go through as "reinventing the wheel." I've
> been playing for close to 30 years and,in retrospect, a great deal of that
> time was wasted insofar as learning technique on my instrument.

Anyone who read my 'interview' with Eddy Gordon that was published in
Harmonica Happenings some time ago may recall how some of the professional
chromatic and diatonic players were using altered tunings many decades ago
to help them play things not otherwise possible on standard tuned
instruments. Sadly most of this knowledge disappeared as these players quite
the business or passed away, and it's only in recent times that people like
Pat Missin and Greg Dyer have practically had to start from scratch in
investigating the potential of altered tunings without the benefit of the
experience of  many of the players that went before them who had used
altered tunings. Had there have been some formalized 'school' of harmonica
playing or accumulated body of knowledge that was readily accessible one can
only speculate that not only would knowledge of these altered tunings be
common place now, but maybe the standard layout for the chromatic may have
lost popularity to, or be sharing popularity with, something like the be-bop
or augmented tuning! Sadly we'll never know.

Cheers,

Paul