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

["Tim Moyer" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

iceman wrote:
> How did you other "old guys" learn to play before 21st Century 
> teaching aids were created?

I remember picking out some single note stuff listening to an Eric 
Clapton song ("Goin' Down Slow", I believe).  Then I heard the J. 
Geils Band, about the same time a friend who worked in a music store 
demonstrated bending notes -- not how he did it, just that it could 
be done.  I spent hours, weeks, months woodshedding (lots of free 
time at age 14) with "Full House", from which I learned precise note 
bends, shakes, 1st, 2nd & 3rd position, blow bends, and lots of 
other essential techniques.  I moved from there to Paul Butterfield, 
where I learned octave splits and heard improvisation as imaginative 
and fluid as Duane Allman.  

I didn't even know there was a "harmonica community" until about 
1996.  

-tim

Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/