[Harp-L] How we learned diatonic harmonica in the "olden days"

[icemanle@xxxxxxx]

A lot of us older, more experienced players and pundits grew up in an era when the only way to learn diatonic blues harp was Tony Glover's book and listening to records, figuring it out yourself. There were no camps, workshops, videos, teachers, etc, in the old days.
 
So, how did we actually learn to play? An interesting question.... you had to really love the harmonica to spend 6 months trying to learn how to bend one note without the aids that exist currently.
 
I spent 4 years struggling with basics that one can learn within 6 months with all that currently exists in educational materials.
 
Corky Siegel's solo on the live version of "Hush Hush" started the process for me and was one of the solos that I struggled to learn note for note for many years until I accomplished this goal.
 
However, along the way I had to learn the techniques. Canned Heat had a great album (was it Future Blues? I don't remember now) that had a long, extended piece of music composed of a few movements. One had a great harmonica descending riff that was what I used to try to learn the techniques. The other song was their version of "Walkin'" ("Yes, indeed, I'm walkin'"), which was my intro to TB sound which Alan Wilson used to break into a double time section of the tune. Remember, no books, tapes or teachers. Just THAT SOUND coming off the turntable into my head to work with.
 
Once the skills were in place (after many years), I tackled "Whammer Jammer" and played it successfully in a rock band "The Goodness Group" in Pontiac and Detroit, MI.
 
However, my formative years were spent with harmonica in pocket, traveling the world in 1972, playing on the road. It was in Goa, India, one night when someone (who called himself "The Doctor" - he would say "Open wide and stick out your tongue. Do you want 2 drops or 3?) turning all us hippie western travelers on with liquid LSD, that I sat on the beach that night, knees up, head and arms between them, playing my harmonica softly for hours while tripping, that my breakthroughs came.
 
How did you other "old guys" learn to play before 21st Century teaching aids were created?
 
The Iceman