From: "Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Chris Michalek" <Chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] virtuoso (vs crap?)
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 10:45:05 -0400
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