[Harp-L] Re : A brand new year

["" <party_man1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Tim & Happy New Year :

One would assume that it is true that you can not serve two masters as far as playing a musical instrument well . The idea is that it is impossible to do this is similar to the school of thought that said it is not possible to play chromatic like runs on a diatonic and we all know now that this is not particularly a truth anymore .

In my experience it appears to be an " individual " type limitation and that , just as in the case(s) of some great diatonic players doing the so called impossible ( like Howard Levy & company ) on chromatically structured music .

Not to brag on my end of this take on the subject , but at 48 I began a journey like quest when a little tiny piece of glass came out of my left ring finger tip and made me  think " what if " I try to play the guitar - - again - - Something I had to concider is what I would look like to others ( fellow peers in music ) if I failed miserably on this attempt , yes it was scary to say the least when I fully understood what I was about to try and accomplish at 48 years of age . some of the songs in my guitar repertoir are " Lady's a Tramp  , Santin Doll , Carmichael's Goergia , Destination Moon , La Bamba , Gershwins Summer Time , I could go on and on :) man I am covering some ground Blues to Country to Standards ! ! ! I sometime have nightmares where I am dreaming that I failed at learning the guitar or never did , wow they scare me everytime ! I don't take this for granted I consider myself super lucky to have been given another chance to try it again and cut it . It was a 36 wait to get that chance again that was taken away from me when shattered glassed ended up deeply embedded in my left hand and fingers .

Now 6 years have passed since that glass came out - - -

Now I have two really superb guitars ( that I truly deserve because I proved I could play guitar well on a cheap one first before I justified the really good ones I have now ) that I have begun to show really great results playing them life on stage . One , a steel string acoustic electric ( not at all a forgiving guitar I might add ) , the other a electric with acoustic piezos ( one for each string ) and the triple threat of also having midi access - - - Wow - - - again I'm wow'd that now in my latter years I have added guitar playing to my live performance . 

I just saw John  Mayall on PBS TV , it was  Eric Clapton hosting his :

" Crossroads Electric Guitar Festival "

Now at John Mayall's age seeing him blow a harp ( also recently here in southern Cal I saw him ) I realized he's not doing " Room To Move " anymore ,  can't blame him it's a ball buster for anyone to do and I still can do it , but I know some day I won't just like John Mayall can't do it these days ( he's older than me by 7 years or so ) , but I did see him do some fine stuff on his electric keyboard & also on an electric guitar , seems to me he planned his future out well as an entertainer .

John Mayall's Room to Move was and still is a cutting edge diatonic harmonica song and for that John Mayall will always be super respected no matter what level of harp playing he ends up cashing in his chips over when he hits that final curtain call we all face . I for one dig the fact he plays more than harp .

I first began on diatonic in " 54 " from there I learned trumpet at 8 in 58 , then waited till 1987/88 to begin to learn keyboard and lastly in 1999 the guitar . 

What I heard a long time ago was this and I live it :

" You truly begin to get old when you stop learning " . 

Maybe my desire to continue learning other music and musical instruments is a form of denial on my part to the aging process , oh well I am only human :)  

Seeya man , dig your comments in the forum one harp man to another .


Happy New Year again .

Sincerely 

HR
      



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