Re: [Harp-L] virtuoso (vs crap?)

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
Chris, Robert, and Steve make extremely valid points here, much of which I 
have expressed in a different way on numerous occasions and on a couple of 
different harp forums. Are these the kind of things that a lot of harp 
players want to hear? The obvious one word answer is NO!!! Why?? For some, 
when it hits too close to home, being the cold, hard, brutal truth, it gets 
them totally ticked off, even if they know that it IS the truth, so all of 
you harp players need to pay attention, because it's wake up and smell the 
coffee time.

> From 30 years of professional playing experience and observations, more 
people go ga-ga over a mediocre guitarist than they will for many truly 
great harmonica players, which is sad but too often true. Why?? We work hard 
enough, don't we?? Well, the things to consider is that for one thing, 
guitars have been considered legitimate musical instruments FAR longer than 
the harmonica has been, and then on top of that, they have (for the most 
part) have developed a far stronger sense of professionalism that, 
unfortunately, a good 75% of harmonica players often don't have. How many 
harmonica players TRULY take the time to do the things that's required for 
people who play other instruments like guitars, horns, keyboards have to do, 
like learning theory, scales, rhythm, time, and REALLY listening with 
"bigger ears," meaning not like the average Joe who listens to their music, 
but in a much more concentrated way, listening to EVERYTHING carefully in 
finite detail so that what they do, actually FITS with what's going on 
around them???? I'll bet that if you put 100 harp players in a single room, 
maybe 10-20 at best will. Is it this a very harsh commentary about harmonica 
players and their habits??? I'm sure a lot of you out there will give that a 
resounding YES, and hate like hell hearing this, especially if you know this 
is the truth. As long as the average harp player continue doing things as 
thegy've been doing for decades, it'll never get truly recognized as a 
legitimite instrument, like it or not. This means the truly good and great 
players are forced to work 100 times HARDER than they really need to in 
order to get even the barest amount of recognition of their efforts OUTSIDE 
of the harmonica community. So, as I've said countless times before, who's 
the party most at fault as to where the blame lies: THE HARMONICA PLAYER, 
the same one who may or may not be aware of it, the same one who too often 
will refuse to own up to it, and nearly ALWAYS the very SAME people who are 
constantly bitching and moaning with the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome of I 
GET NO RESPECT!!!! Well, the bottom line is that as long as you don't make a 
concerted effort to do the things it takes to get rid of this stereotype, 
which means a LOT of very HARD, painstaking work, it's gonna ALWAYS be the 
noose around the neck of EVERY harmonica player for generations to come, 
meaning that the instrument will never be regarded as much more than a play 
toy, and so the onus belongs squarely on the harmonica players, like it or 
not. Instead of the constant griping abouit, get off the duffer and do what 
it takes!!!! We need to lift the harmonica player's level of musicianship 
upward so that you should never hear a dumb excuse from them like DON'T 
BLAME ME, I'M JUST THE HARMONICA PLAYER AND I DON'T KNOW NOTHIN'!!!!

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/