Re: Honking patrons

[rocket@eden (Rick Barker)]

Craig Smoot writes(in response to other messages):
>[Honking patrons]
>Wow.  I have never heard of people actually playing their harps in the >crowd
>along with the band,

Unfortunately, it's not that uncommon. It's due to a complete lack of
etiquette. I've been playing harmonica professionally for 16 years in a
wide variety of situations and have seen it often. I believe this is
closely related to blues jam etiquette as well. I don't know how many times
I've seen harp players(good ones and wannabe's) playing all through songs
at blues jams. They play through the guitar player's solo, the
keyboardist's, the sax player's, etc. They leave no holes. In a full band
situation, a guitarist can back up a harp very nicely(as we all know). But
when it's the guitarist's time to take a ride, harmonica has to be added
very selectively, if at all. Often, you can tell more about a musician by
what he doesn't play than what he does play. Silence is an extremely
worthwhile concept in music. The ideas presented in this paragraph are not
limited to harmonica players.

Rick Barker