Re: Get a chromatic?(warning-LONG)

[Douglas Tate <douglas.tate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Great story Joe

I love the conceptual ways different people view the minefield of music and 
music theory.  I used to teach theory in school to 13 year olds mostly... 
and they got to scales and harmony by discovery, not didactic "you do it 
this way".  I always set them a challenge when they wanted to know how to 
do something... they discovered a way and then I would ask a question or 
two which lead to the next stage.   One of the challenges was discovering 
what and why a key and chord sliderule (remember those) was and how damn 
useful the idea could be and how you make it with one piece of exercise paper.

When I started to learn harmonica (chrom.. never got round to a proper 
diatonic... good story for over a beer sometime) I couldn't afford books 
and there was no music section in my town library, I could find no one in 
my factory to teach me notation... so I worked out from a piece of sheet 
music I found, and knew the song, what scales were, the differences 
between  major and minor... and by manipulation of the pretty pictures how 
chords worked... and I had two walls of my room plastered with paper with 
all the failed experiments... and the final (as I was to discover later) 
correct versions.  I also worked out the Root 12 frequency numbers for all 
the notes on a 64 with pencil and paper! and did it for all frequencies 
from 335 to 445... boy, was I a glutton for punishment?  No... I enjoyed 
the challenge and the end result that I KNEW what I was talking about.
Same happened later when I had to teach symphonic analysis... I challenged 
the kids to find patterns in simple folk tunes and come to 
conclusions.  That made the task MUCH easier for both of us when it came to 
looking at symphonies 2-3  weeks later.

So ... when I eventually found the diatonic and heard of what Howard Levy 
was doing I asked my self the question "Why does someone beat themselves 
over the head whilst taking poison sitting on a seat of nails with someone 
shouting in their ears??"  The answer was simple for me... just look at the 
results and think of the immense fun and intellectual challenge that was 
faced along the route.

Luckily, in all fields of endeavour you will find people who are willing 
and anxious to explore the things you can't possibly do or achieve... and 
... get there... and are still dissatisfied!!!    Every instrument has 
things you can't do with them... and some crazy person comes up and does it!

I love some of the writer Heinlein's sayings (mostly not original but good) 
"  When someone tells you something is impossible, just go ahead and do it 
anyway!"

Douglas t

At 05:48 29/06/2004, you wrote:

>A warped persons look at the circle of fifths.
>
>It all started (birthday) Sept 1951, when a 9 yr old boy bought a Marine 
>Band at the British PX in Trieste Italy. This was at the time and place of 
>the beginning of the cold war. Father was a labor attache with the 
>occupation forces. Mother was an interpreter with radio free Europe. The 
>day the boy bought the diatonic, the cashier (Italian civilian) got in a 
>conversation with the boy. While it was in Italian, it went something like 
>this:
>cashier: Ragazzo, whattta you got dere?
>boy:       Un armonica.
>cashier: Whadda you wanna play quesa "Toy" when you canna play "Un 
>Chromatico"?
>
>OK, so boy buys diatonic. Plays with it for a couple weeks, finds it 
>limited. One day while running for the school streetcar, he drops the 
>thing and as luck would have it (or maybe fate), the second HALF of the 
>streetcar (it was 2 piece), runs over the marine band.
>
>We jump ahead to 20 March 1955. Boy is now exactly 12 1/2, goes to the 
>American PK in Naples Italy to buy a swiss army knife. While there he 
>spots harmonicas. The words of the cashier come back to haunt him. He 
>leaves with a brand new Hohner 40 reed. Now there were only 3 kinds of 
>music you could listen to in Italy. One was the armed forces radio out of 
>Frankfort Germany. Mostly 30s & 40s stuff to cater to the people 
>semi-permanently stationed there. Since these was generally officers (and 
>older), the music was geared to THEM. Second was Indigineous Italian 
>music. Nice but too many mandolins. Then there was what "boy" wanted to 
>hear. Short wave from Wien, Praha, Buda-Pesht. GYPSY shit..yeah!
>
>My problem was I wanted to play this stuff and I didn't want to spend a 
>LIFETIME trying.
>
>I view the circle of fifths a little differently than most. Maybe it will 
>seem warped to the educated, but I always felt as if there were 12 
>roads/streets leading into a TRAFFIC circle. The outer lane was the major, 
>the inner was the key signature and the inside was the MINOR lane. ALL the 
>notes have addresses. You and your harmonica are the vehicle and your job 
>is to visit these notes in various assorted variations to "deliver the 
>mail" (so to speak). Mr Blowceefour lives at hole 4 (first floor). Mrs 
>Blowceefive lives at hole 5 (first floor). Miss Drawbeesharp lives at hole 
>4 (SECOND floor). The "slide" gets you upstairs or downstairs. I think you 
>get the idea.
>
>Heres the BEST part. You only have to learn this "route" ONCE. N O  O N E 
>ever moves. They live there forever. AND, everyone you need HAS an 
>address. No guessing who "doesn't" have a hole (like a homeless person), 
>and you have to try to locate them somewhere in a hall BETWEEN addresses 
>or somewhere in the stairwell BETWEEN floors.
>
>No there's several ways you can look at an intersection. It can be just a 
>crossroad, or maybe only a 3-way intersection, maybe FIVE roads lead in 
>and out. The circle of fifths has TWELVE. Now you can come in on F major 
>avenue in the outer lane, cross over the key signature lane and exit on D 
>minor in the inside lane. You can ALSO come in on F major ave in the 
>outside lane, cross over the middle key signature lane and exit on G minor 
>street.
>
>The problem I see with the diatonic is that MANY avenues are missing and 
>it's as if the lanes are closed off with Jersey barrier (those concrete 
>dividers). Sooo, now you and your harp (THE vehicle) have to make your own 
>lanes. This has to be done by getting THROUGH (or over) the barriers 
>(wreck much?). Then, to get to some of the addresses you must drive ACROSS 
>the grassy fields, vacant lots, THROUGH the woods, and as this weren't 
>enough, you are looking for people (notes) which AREN't there, OR (more 
>correctly) are HIDING from you.
>
>While this CAN be done, the wear and tear on your "Vehicle" will be way 
>high on the "wear factor". So this (and ONLY this) is why I feel that the 
>proper tool should be used for a job. If you can do it with a diatonic, 
>you have my undivided HUGE respect. But if a diatonic is so hot why did 
>someone decide that richter wasn't cutting it so came out with natural 
>minor, then there's HARMONIC minor, then diminished, then augmented. No 
>escape for chromatics either as there's Bee-Bop, diminished, augmented, also.
>
>I have ALWAYS been for experimentation, and feel it is the only way to 
>tame this monster we have created. The harmonica hasn't been completely 
>"Wrung-Out" YET. There's plenty of room for the next "phenominon". Just 
>make sure you know what you're getting into.
>
>Well, what happened was the boy (remember him?) played the chromatic until 
>he was 16 and then moved on to other things. In 1983 (at age 41) he came 
>"Back". (Ironically) for the first 10 years he played mostly DIATONIC. In 
>fact, most of his  bigger appearances have been with diatonic.  Now he 
>plays both almost equally. So trust me, he is NOT prejudiced towards 
>either harp.
>
>Just remember what street you want to travel, what address you NEED, which 
>inhabitant (Note) you wish to deliver mail to, which floor they are on. 
>Remember, you must make your rounds rain OR shine....no excuses. No MISSED 
>notes. No strange hallway, stair well, elevator shaft, or "behind the 
>cardboard packing box" addresses.
>
>smokey-joe
>
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