RE: [Harp-L] what else do you do? (aka an introduction)

["Rich Beaubien" <RichBeau@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'll use this a my intro hook...

First off let me say I'm a newcomer to this list but a long-time harp
player.

My first instrument was a accordion. I must have been 8 or so when I
started. Sometime in the 60s of course I changed over to guitar. When I was
younger I thought music would be my existence but life had other ideas.
There was a war (Vietnam), there was school (engineering), there was family
(my daughter is 24). I was around when Arpanet started (I was on one of the
first nodes). Now I'm a refugee from hi-tech. 

Music has always been there though. I've got a piano and have had a couple
of synths; always a guitar hangin' round. Sometime in the 70s I picked up a
harmonica (Marine Band) because of its portability. The harp became more
essential as another hobby, high altitude mountaineering, did a number on
the tendons in my hands.

Occasionally I would play guitar with friends but only one friend (Geoff)
knew of my harp playing.  It was a way for me to enjoy myself. A few months
ago at a get-together Geoff gave handed me some harps and said "we've got
enough guitars play these."  We had a good time and hey, I was pretty good. 

So I decided to go out and buy an amp and mic (hunting around in the Harp-L
archives was very helpful). It was then that I realized how adept I had
become because I could stop a room full of guitarists in the Guitar Center
<g>.

I use Hohner Marine Bands modified by Tim Northcutt in Austin Texas
(http://hotrodharps.com/hr_harps.html). I do have an old 10-hole chromatic
that I keep trying to make work but even a few kind words from the master
himself, Toots Thieleman, couldn't help <g>. I tend to use chording and
rhythm techniques but I'm not afraid to step out front. I've listened to so
much jazz I steal horn lines <g>. I love music so it's more of a question of
what don't I like (soft jazz, muszak, musicals, opera -though I'm tryin').

What else do I do?

In an attempt to move away from the usual work-life I wrote a book with my
wife about the architecture of Miami Beach (for more traipse over to
www.domanipress.com) 

Next I'm preparing to try some open mics <g>.

-Rich
(my name, not my condition)