Re: [Harp-L] Potato Potahtoe/Cherrypicking

[George Brooks <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jonathan Hill wrote:

>That's a frustrating thing to say to a young
>player like me....We've got our north star....
>why the heck should  anyone dissuade us
>from navigating by it?

By all means, if you have a genuine desire to play complex jazz on the 
short harp, knock yourself, and us, out.  I agree that Howard Levy has 
proven that it can be done.  Some say he is an alien, and he truly 
seems like one at times, but most probably he is a human.  But he is a 
human who happens to be both tremendously gifted and unnaturally 
disciplined and driven.  I can't imagine how many hours Howard has 
devoted to being able to play the way he does, but it is some daunting 
number.

My recommendation applies to the vast majority of people who simply 
cannot commit that kind of time to the necessary woodshedding.  Go at 
advanced jazz on short harp without a robust and highly developed 
technique and the results are not going to be pleasing.  The results 
will not make friends for those of us playing chromatically on the 
short harp.  The results will not make friends for harmonica players 
generally.

Maybe you can do it.  I said in an earlier post that the next person to 
be able to play no-excuses jazz on the short harp will emerge, if at 
all, from a new generation of players who learn to play the short harp 
as a fully chromatic instrument from the beginning.  You say you are 
young.  Maybe you'll be the guy.

Although there is no way to prove this, I believe that if someone with 
loads of talent and drive, someone like William Galison, Mike Turk, 
Gregoire Maret, or Robert Bonfiglio, had decided years ago that what he 
really wanted to do was play jazz on the short harp, the list of 
no-excuses "diatonic" jazz players would contain names besides 
Howard's.  If them, why not you?  But for most people, it's simply way 
too much work to make it sound musical and good.

George