[Harp-L] Geezer stories.....

["Tom Ellis" <tomsmics@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Back in the old days, when guys like Iceman and I had to walk to school in the snow, suffer in the Summer with no air-conditioning, and gas cost $.38/gallon, we had to actually learn how to play the harmonica without any help.  That meant getting a record and figuring out on your own that Little Walter didn't use an E harp on all those songs the required using an A.  That Butter was playing octaves on the intro to "Everything..." on the Live LPs (note here:  LPs).  And that if our turntable wasn't spinning on the right rotation speed we might not EVER figure out what harmonica to use on any song we had on record since nothing would be in pitch.  (This actually happened to me during the first six months I had Walter's "Hate To See You Go."  Drove me nuts.)

Or you had to have some blind luck to meet another player who happened to have a bunch of diatonics (after you'd spent over a year trying to figure out Butter's playing on the first LP on a KOCH!) and he just might take the time to explain cross harp.  And if he actually told you about other harmonica players you'd have another reference point besides the names of the authors of those songs on those LPs by Mayall, Butter, Cream, etc. Of course finding any music by those guys--Waters, Dixon, Harpo, etc.--was almost impossible since few of whose LPs could be found at your local department store, the only place you could buy your records.

But it was worth it--all the woodshedding, headphone time, playing in the tiled bathroom to get some reverb.....It put hair on our chests, lead in our pencils and a firm belief in hard work, apple pie and the good old USA....

Seriously, I wouldn't trade what I went through for all the instructional CDs, DVDs, festivals and internet schools of today.  You found out quickly back then if you really loved the instrument, or, like Butter said, you might be lucky enough for it to find you.   Either way, it became a very special part of your life.  Like Larry, I'm over 40 years into playing that little horn, and I know I've got another 40 or so in me.....Tom Ellis/Tom's Mics