[Harp-L] competition

[jim.alciere@xxxxxxxxx]

I got a nice email from R Sleigh about competition. Whether you
believe music should be a competition or not, how do you keep score
these days? Seems like we have a lot of harp players who have the
equivalent of a hundred mile an hour fast ball, with no batters and no
stadium. Sure you have to learn your instrument, but you also you have
to learn how to pay in a group--like not playing over the singer,
keeping a groove, those kind of things--everyone working as a unit not
a collection of soloists--heck, practice singing harmonies. Takes a
lot of concentration to play with other people. And aside from
existential philosophy, what's the point of playing in a group unless
you play in front of an audience? Shlepping gear schmoozing with the
crowd maybe this comes natural to some people, not to me Who's going
to be the front man (front woman)? With one band, I got picked to be
the front man. I have no natural talent for doing this (for one thing
I can't sing).

 It seems like learning your instrument gets easier every year while
learning ensemble work, and getting live experience get harder and
harder.  I don't know if this is because there are so many bands now
or if there are so few live music venues.

Before the Grateful Dead became the psychedelic whatever they were,
they played six days a week, two gigs on Saturday and two gigs on
Sunday. Not touring, just playing locally. That's a learning
experience few people get anymore.

So if you're going to keep score, like who's a better harp player,
Chilly Kurtz or Jason Ricci, it seems to me that it's not just whether
a person has practiced a lot, the band has to be tight and know what
the audience wants to hear.

Rainbow Jimmy
 "Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would
be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
Lewis Carroll

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