[Harp-L] harmonica- most difficult instrument?

randy singer <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 8 Aug 2005 01:21:46 -0400

I received permission from jon kip to post this.
He offers a brilliant professional musicians perspective on the 
relative difficulty of the harmonica compared to other instruments.
I have often wondered if the chromatic  harmonica is one, if not, the 
most difficult instruments to play in the Western World.
The only other instrument that I think that might be harder is the 
Howard Levy style of diatonic playing....
Does anyone want to weigh in on this one?
randy
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From: jon kip <jonkip@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 7, 2005 3:45:30 PM EDT
To: randy singer <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

thanks for the advice....I'm getting a late start on harmonica...been 
working out here for forty years in studios and 'broadway' shows as a 
woodwind player...oboe, sax, clarinet, flutes...and last year there 
were two shows that had what they told me was "a few harmonica 
notes"......

they lied..a week before we opened the first show (110 in the shade, 
pasadena playhouse) , the director said that,  instead of five notes, 
they wanted me to play four entire tunes as part of the 
show..........so I got some advice, bought a kilo of 270s, sent half 
of them to  Bill Romel to make them work, and spent five or six days 
figuring out the basics of the tunes.
It actually worked out pretty well, we finished the year with "Paint 
Your Wagon"...with  harmonica parts  added to the oboe/clarinet book, 
and I had so much fun that I've been harping away for the last year 
and a half....
and for the record, the chromatic  harmonica is THE hardest horn I've 
had to learn..no question.. .....and the most fun....
go figure..

http://www.randysinger.com
http://www.randyandnatasha.com