[Harp-L] Reading Music, Respect, etc.

["Joel Thomas" <theloveboxquartet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

The debate on music theory and whether it's necessary to learn or not
seems a bit of a waste of time to me. I don't read or write music, but
have a small knowledge of musical theory, like what the notes are, what
chords are, which ones tend to go with each other, that kind of thing.
This has been learnt through playing with other people, reading books
and watching others play. I've written (ho-ho) lots of songs and musics,
that I've successfully been able to communicate to other musicians,
trained or not. You just teach them the tune. Likewise I have learnt
many, many tunes from other musicians, trained or not. And there was
never any kind of snobby expectation that I should read or write music.
They were all fantastic musicians (well, mostly)
I used to think that classically trained musicians didn't have as much
feel as self-taught players (and this is often argued), but in my
experience there has been no difference.....there are good and bad
players of both routes.

Here's a quote about Django Reinhardt, the famous GYPSY (for gg) jazz
guitarist..."Django rarely if ever played a solo the same way twice.
Numerous recordings prove this to be true. His creative genius was not
only that of the master improviser, but also that of the composer, and
he can be credited with numerous pieces with beautiful melodies and
sophisticated, subtle harmonic structures. However, Django could not
read or write musical notation and he was at the mercy of others that
could get his ideas down on paper." (got off the net, so don't believe
everything you read)

I'm sure the same can be said for many, many musicians, alive or dead,
so if you want to learn music, go ahead, that's fine, and if you want to
pick things up yourself (as you inevitably will) as you go along, then
that's fine too.
Seems people haven't got over the nature/nurture argument yet....it's
what your mother used to say "well, it's six of one and half a dozen of
the other"

On the issue of respect, I can see lots of players getting respect here.
We as harmonica players have the greatest respect for all of the harp
players we like, a little less for the harp players we don't mind and a
lot less for the harp players we don't like. Nothing new there then...
As for other people (aaargh..non-harmonica players) are we seriously
expecting them to drop the love of whatever instrument they favour, for
the one we play? Why don't we play with them instead? If you can play
OK, it's not difficult to do, with so many open mike nights, sessions
and festivals around. So depending on what style of music you play, you
may or may not need to learn overblows, as I certainly don't think that
you can only truly play harp if you can overblow. Earn your own respect
by listening and learning and then joining in (or if your really great,
wade in with both feet if you like, but don't expect to be playing with
people for too long)

And don't you have to be dead to get true respect nowadays?

And if by respect we mean money, then why should someone buy Little
Walter or Howard Levi's album when they went out to buy whatever was No1
(or No50, or No150) on the hit parade? or the Club Dance Chart? or
Gothic Doom Chart? or the Indian Raga Chart....see, we all like
different styles of music, that's what makes music so good...WHAT it is,
not WHY it is.

In Britain in recent times, the Ukelele has been slightly popularised by
the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain. A bit like Hayseed Dixie and
their country style pop tunes. Perhaps a few players from the list could
get together and do something similar with a variety of more modern and
popular tunes and songs. It would certainly raise the harmonica's
profile if it were successful. So if you feel undervalued, go out there
and get better value(d)

Cheers,
Joel.

-- 
  Joel Thomas
  theloveboxquartet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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