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

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hah, nice Larry! Now I know what I've been missing. So ah, what is that
"Doctor"'s phone #, and does he make house calls? ;^)

I'm really interested to see some of the other responses from the folks
you're asking. I bet a lot of them learned just like you. Turntable and
trial and error. 

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of icemanle@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 11:39 AM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] How we learned diatonic harmonica in the "olden days"

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
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