[Harp-L] Chris Michalek - Mesa Ramblings - Harmonica People.



I was recently in Mesa, AZ, seeing my daughter do her bit to bring "High School Musical" to some unsuspecting retired people and their grandkids, and spent some time with Chris Michalek, whom I'd met when I was the token oboe player at one of Michael Polesky's harmonica parties here in Los Angeles (3 arrests, no convictions, so far).

I spent an afternoon watching Chris make his custom combs (works of art), tools, and tweak one of my Golden Melodys into submission.

For perspective here, I'm not, by any stretch of anyone's imagination, a diatonic player. I'm a woodwind doubler (40+yrs of film, TV and live work here in LA). I will admit to being somewhat of a chromatic player, in that Tommy Morgan's been teaching me chromatic for five years with the understanding that I'll pay him by not showing him how to play the oboe....so far that's been just fine with both of us.

In any event, after my time with Chris, I ended up with a brain-full of new knowledge and a Golden Melody that's a huge improvement over the OTB version. It became airtight, much more responsive, able to play well over a wider range of dynamics with less work on my part, and FUN to play....still plays the occasional wrong note, but I'm thinking that there's a chance that that's my fault.

While I have no urge to learn to play chromatically on the diatonic instrument this late in life, I do somewhat get the process, and found that all I really have to do is think some of the chromatic notes, apply Bill Barrett's ten-minute discussion on the subject and they come out. That's due to Chris' tweaking, certainly not due to any practicing on my part.

So..... I have a $27 instrument that's better than I am.

On top of all that, Chris made sure that I had the tools and knowledge to work on the rest of my diatonic machines when I got home. He reminds me of Dick Gardner, who also has been very generous with sharing his repair knowledge with me, although Dick's jokes are far worse....which I suspect is a generational thing.

When we were through, Chris took my GM and a pile of his own differently-keyed instruments and played to a track, going from one instrument to the next seamlessly.....that was very impressive. How he does it is a mystery to me. Tommy also does that, going from differently-keyed chromatics to diatonics and back... and I think neither of them knows how they do it. Tommy says he skips the Thinking step.

So far, I skip the Trying step, so the Thinking step becomes superfluous.

Bottom line here, I'm very impressed with what Chris does, his generosity, how he plays and how he approaches his business, and thought it worthy of noting in some place where people will understand. (Polesky says this is The Place.) The piles of instruments in Chris' shop waiting to be worked on and "in progress" says that others are also impressed. Chris' bottom line is that he makes every harmonica as if it's going to a professional, even if he knows it's not. This worked out great for me. Now I have to find the time to practice.

Come to think of it, I'm impressed by the generally kind people whom I've met since taking this left turn into the harmonica world.... Tommy, Dick, Chris, Bill Barrett, Michaels Burton and Polesky, Ron Kalina, Danny Wilson....a fine bunch.. not a butt head in the lot.

Amazing what these folks can coax out of 'toys'.

ok, end of rant.


kip, los angeles





__________________________________________________ jon kip jonkip@xxxxxxxxxxxxx






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