Re: Standardizing Skill Levels

["Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

>Will Vogtman wrote:  For other instruments, say clarinet, a student is 
>labelled as
>beginning, intermediate, or advanced by a set of standards.
>
>Does any such rating system exist for harmonica.
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>8<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Will,
>
>I think the short answer is No.  I don't believe there is a
>"standardized" set of criteria for the various playing levels...... I think 
>each of the teachers on this and other lists have their own view of what a 
>beginner should be able to do to advance to the next level.  I also think 
>that a standardized approach/criteria would do well for advancing the 
>instrument.
>
>
>Best Regards to All,
>
>Larry Boy Pratt

This is an interesting thread, even though there has been some
levity in messages subsequent to Will's and Larry Boy's (and why
not!)  One problem with getting too detailed about criteria is that
a high proportion of harmonica players are self-taught (probably
more, pro rata, than with most instruments) and many will have
become instinctively averse to the notion of "jumping through
hoops," and those of that ilk, including me, start shifting
uncomfortably in their seats when they see detailed lists of
attributes supposedly meant to be acquired at different levels of
attainment. For example, I can't remember practising a scale
properly in my life to be honest - I've just learned to play tunes
by ear, and practised the difficult passages separately, which then
helps me when that kind of passage comes up, or a slightly different
one, in another tune, and so it goes on haphazardly....That is not
good, and I've given myself difficulties along the way that could
have been avoided had I received some tuition, but - subjective view
coming up - it's my hobby that I can pick up or put down (the latter
is unlikely), I don't make money, and I have tons of fun... It's
possibly hard to believe, but I had been playing "seriously" for
years and getting popular for it (people lie to me) in these parts,
before I'd even HEARD of tongue-blocking (and even now I'm still not
doing it).  Likewise, I had been playing away happily tunes in 1st,
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 12th positions before I'd even heard the
term "positions" applied to harmonica-playing.

You only have to look at the formal system of tuition and graded
assessment (speaking for the UK at any rate) for most "orchestral"-
type instruments (sax included there too) to see the contrast.  The
system comes in for a lot of stick (allegedly killing off enthusiasm
and so on), but it does mean that the learning process is
streamlined and not haphazard, and is to some degree diagnostic in
that feedback to the teacher is designed to inform the next stage in
the learning process.  My son reached Grade 8 on both classical
guitar and clarinet by the age of eighteen, but by the end I was
having to force the little bugger to practise anything at all, and I
virtually had to drag him physically to his final guitar exam!
(c'mon - I HAD already paid the fee).  Six years later he plays
neither of those instruments at all, but at least the musicianship
he gained has been channelled into other spheres, which is some
compensation.

Larry Boy's point about a standardised approach leading to the
advancement of the harmonica is well-made.  I can't help feeling
that if it were possible "do Grade 8" on the harmonica the
instrument would gain more widespread respectability, but I wonder
how many of us would still be playing the thing had we been
channelled down that route.  Then again, you might get other people
in who otherwise wouldn't have played it.   Then, of course, you
have chromatic...tremolo...blues harp...etc. (sorry if I left yours
out!) - are they really all the same instrument?  In Ireland they
love to have competitions for the different traditional
instruments, and there's a harmonica category, but chromatics are
not allowed into it - ha!

Steve Shaw




Want more than the blues?  Try Irish!
http://mysite.freeserve.com/trad_irish_harmonica

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