Re:[Harp-L] Critical Harmonica Mistakes

[Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The original question concerned "the futility of practicing if you are doing the wrong things."

"What are some critical mistakes that people are prone to make on the harmonica when practicing?"

Practice makes PERMANENT; deliberate (focused) practice makes PERFECT.

That's a lesson that I learned from my martial arts instructors, which carries over into EVERYTHING 
that I learn (or attempt to learn).

Focus your practice on what you want to accomplish with the tool, NOT on the tool itself. The harmonica
is a tool for making MUSIC. Focus on the MUSIC and practice what is needed to make the sounds of that
MUSIC. Enjoy the process of achieving that MUSIC and that will be directly transmitted to your audience,
even if you are the only audience member.

I am very impressed with the technical skill involved in playing a diatonic harmonica chromatically. It ranks
right up there with playing the William Tell Overture on kazoo, especially since several of the SOUNDS that
are emitted sound like a kazoo in terms of relative intonation and timbre. As a feat of skill on an instrument,
it is of the highest order. As MUSIC, it sucks (IMHO; do I really need to caveat THAT?!?).

 No offense intended to any artist, including Howard Levy and Buddy Greene, who play GREAT MUSIC, only
coincidentally on harmonica.


Pick YOUR favorite genre(s) of MUSIC and work on creating enjoyable SOUNDS on your instrument of choice.
If you can't get the exact SOUND that you want from one type of harmonica, try a different one. At some
point, you will find the tool that makes the sound you hear in your head. Use that tool to continue to make
MUSIC that YOU like. To hell with the masses who are too ignorant to appreciate your brilliant playing.

If you do this, I guarantee that you will have an audience. I can't guarantee that you will become the next
mega-pop-star, but you will have an appreciative audience whenever you make MUSIC.

In this community, there is an ever-present conundrum of how to bring the HARMONICA to the ignorant
masses. That is the WRONG question for me. That ain't my bag, and ain't never gonna be my bag. I suspect
that it is not ever going to be answered in any significant way that makes any real difference in the overall
popularity of the harmonica, either.

Consider this: there are any number of "fiddlers conventions." Imagine going to a fiddlers convention to hear
NO OTHER INSTRUMENTS except fiddles. Somehow, I have the feeling that there wouldn't be a lot of popular
fiddlers conventions in very short order. (Aw, come on, there are bass fiddles, in-between bass fiddles, little
fiddles, and really little fiddles-surely you can IMAGINE a jam session of all those various kinds of fiddles
sitting around a campfire [or at a special convention], playing "Peg O' My Heart" or "Beer Barrel Polka" and 
plotting how to make all those kinds of fiddles more popular with the ignorant masses, can't you?!?)

Or consider this question: How can we (as a partisan group) make the [PIANO] a more popular instrument?
(Feel free to substitute any other instrument you want in place of [PIANO] in that question.)

Imagine if you will a group of carpenters setting up a convention in which the focus is on nothing but the
claw hammer. "Look at Loward Hevy over there: he can hammer in twelve kinds of nails in any kind of
wood! Dang! I got to go get me one of them special Craftsman hammers at Sears just like his, and make it 
the most nail banging tool that's ever been seen! And he has the best back-and-forth swing I've ever seen 
when it comes to pulling out nails with that claw! I just don't understand why any self-respecting carpenter
would want to use one of them nail guns!"

My less-than-$0.02 worth,
Crazy (but unlimited in my imagination, at least in my own imagination) Bob

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger!"