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

[Moandabluz@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 4/24/06 5:32:32 PM, icemanle@xxxxxxx writes:

> How did you other "old guys" learn to play before 21st Century teaching 
> aids were created?
> 
>    If you call what I do "playing," i am certainly an old guy. I started on 
harp after hearing Charlie McCoy's instrumental version of the Merle Haggard 
classic, Today I Started Loving You Again, along with I'm So Lonesome I Could 
Cry. I played no other instruments, knew absolutely nothing about music (I mean 
zero) and spent much time in the mid   70s just trying to find someone to show 
me something, anything. I learned some folk songs in first position, then 
heard Don Brooks on a Waylon jennings album. THen I found Sonny and Brownie.   It 
was a long time before I could bend a note or figure out second position. In 
the process, though, I learned a little guitar and learned how to play bass, 
at least in a rudimentary fashion.   Little by little by little, as my 
sometimes limited time allowed, I made progress.
But my real progress came after I joined this list and started attending 
Buckeye and SPAH. Since 1999 I have bought a lot of blues music, a lot of harps, 
some amps and microphones, played in a couple of bands in limited fashion, and 
just generally had a big time with it all. Harp is still my main thing and my 
musician friends who are still in bands are kind to me when I show up every 
now and then at one of their gigs. That's how I feed my habit these days.
I should mention that I am 64 years old and still working on so many things. 
As an aside, last week some friends and I played at an independent living 
facility... bluegrass music mostly, with banjo, two guitars and me on upright 
bass. At the end, I pulled out my harp and did a little medley of folk songs I 
have put together, ending with Battle Hymn of the Republic. The response was 
surprising, with people singing the chorus and then coming up to me afterward to 
say thanks. I guess a lot of people that age grew up with a harmonica around 
the house and someone in the family who could play it a little. They sure loved 
the sound. 
My two pennies worth....
Still a fool for the Harp
Steve 'Moandabluz' Webb