Re: [Harp-L] re: harp as a toy

["Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

> Hi,
> Harmonica is considered the easiest instrument to learn how to play, but it 
> is EXTREMELY diffocult to sound truly good/great at, and the ONLY 
> instrument that one can sound worse at than harmonica are vocals. The fault 
> for the bad reputation harmonica and its player's have belongs SQUARELY on 
> the shoulders of harmonica players themselves, and the large majority of 
> them are the LAST to acknowledge this, and they're the ones who make things 
> so damned difficult for the truly good players to get their due props, and 
> that's the cold, hard, brutal truth!!!!!! BTW, for every really good harp 
> player the average person comes in contact with (regardless if they're 
> musicians or not, pro or amateur), they're usually gonna come in contact 
> with 10,000 really AWFUL players with equally awful musical habits 
> (regardless of genres they play or think they can 
> play)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Sincerely,
> Barbeque Bob Maglinte


The harmonica may be relatively easy to get the rudiments of a tune out of, 
and that undoubtedly aids its popularity (as well as the low price).  But it 
is very difficult to get good tone and projection and just as hard to get a 
good sense of internal rhythm, what with all those changes of air direction. 
I've heard a lot of button melodeon players having exactly the same 
difficulty as harp-players in the internal-rhythm department (of course, 
half the battle is recognising that you have a problem!).  The fact that 
most OOTB harps at the lower end of the price range are not very well se-up 
to say the least doesn't help.  One of the skills required of a harp-player, 
unless he/she's a millionaire, is to able to get under the covers and 
improve the playability of their instruments.

Steve



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