Re: [Harp-L] Was The Woodshed - Adler detrimental to playing

[Pierre <slavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Has anyone noticed in Adler the sort of
technical oddities that might have worked for him but would be detrimental 
to
someone trying to learn the harmonica and who does not necessarily have 
Adler's
phenomenal talent?

The amount of time you spend trying to cop his tricks will be detrimental to 
your life. He seems to have extremely fine control of pitch and tone on 
every hole and a whole lot of other skills. He must of spent years working 
on improving his fine control. I don't think this can happen by "just 
playing", seems to me it requires constant focused practice.

I'm not so sure Adler was a natural talent, people who are natural talents 
often don't want to work because they are so used to getting things easy. 
They tend to peak quickly and move on to something else when it gets hard. 
Stevie Wonder was probably a natural talent. He was great, but he never 
became a virtuoso. People without talent have a lot to prove.

> with.  Whoever thought playing the harmonica could be a dangerous business
> unless it was a chromatic and you got your tongue caught while moving the
> slide?....

Hey playing the harp isn't dangerous, but messing with someone's girl is... 
risky.

Pierre .



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Wolman" <kwolman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] The Woodshed


> Pierre wrote:
>
> > I ordered The Best of Larry Adler CD a few weeks ago when a Larry Adler 
> > post
> > popped up and received it this week. I new his vibrato was amazing from
> > hearing a few of his tunes a couple of years ago; but I was in disbelief
> > when I carefully listened to the entire CD rewinding on occasion. His
> > technique is unbelievable. He controls the harp so well that he can 
> > imitate
> > clarinets, flutes and violins. When I listen to his vibrato, I start
> > thinking that he must have practiced it hours a day every day for more 
> > than
> > 20 years. It probably took him hundreds of hours of practice to learn to
> > imitate a violin. He must have been fanatically dedicated to learn to 
> > play
> > like that. I guess he had to, to gain respect and make a name of himself 
> > in
> > the classical world.
>
> This is the obituary from the BBC news service in August 2001:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1477249.stm
>
> The BBC article indicates that Adler was indeed self-taught.  If so, the 
> talent
> was prodigious.  But the "common wisdom" I absorbed over the years 
> regarding any
> kind of instrument is that self-tuition can also create some very 
> idiosyncratic
> "Don't try this at home" habits.  Has anyone noticed in Adler the sort of
> technical oddities that might have worked for him but would be detrimental 
> to
> someone trying to learn the harmonica and who does not necessarily have 
> Adler's
> phenomenal talent?
>
> Probably everyone's heard the nasty story of Adler, all of 14, going to 
> audition
> for Borrah Minnevitch's Harmonica Rascals and being summarily dismissed 
> with
> "Kid, you stink."  Adler must've had the ego of a pro quarterback to have
> handled that and kept on going.  I have to wonder what Adler--who was 
> reputed
> not to be Mr. Nice Guy and whose later interviews (transcribed online, I 
> recall)
> disclosed an acid tongue--thought of how Minnevitch met his end in 1955: 
> thrown
> down a flight of stairs in Paris by the boyfriend of the woman he was 
> sleeping
> with.  Whoever thought playing the harmonica could be a dangerous business
> unless it was a chromatic and you got your tongue caught while moving the
> slide?....
>
> Ken
> ----
> Kenneth Wolman
> Proposal Development Department
> Room SW334
> Sarnoff Corporation
> 609-734-2538
>
>
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