Re: [Harp-L] How we learned diatonic harmonica in the "olden days"
Very cool thread. I think that I was lucky INITIALLY. I say that because
about 15 years
ago my friend comes over with a beat up Marine band in C. He was very
excited in what
he learned and wanted to show it off. He played a real simple 2 hole riff
and I thought it
was cool so I said "let me try". he handed over the harp and I played it
just like he did. He
then (a little aggravated) said "try this". He did a similar little riff
with a bent 2 draw. I asked
him to give me a little explanation on how he did it and he did. I then took
the harp and
played the same little riff with the bent notes and all. At that point he
looked at me and the
harp and said "keep the damn thing". He also gave me the little harp for
dummies book with
it. That's where the luck ended. I spent hours with the harp and somewhat
scanned through
the book and pretty much figured it out. Within about 2 years I had figured
out all of the tunes
on Jonathan Edwards CD and Whammer Jammer (without the blow bends) so I
thought my
shit didn't stink. I later got into a weird rock kinda band with 11 pieces
and did that for about
2 years. At this point I realized that I really sucked. I had seen all of
the local cat's and
bought up all the blues CD's but I didn't sound like any of them. My tone
was thin like a needle
and I hung around at the road block I had hit years before. I then got in
touch with a guy by
the name of Tom Townsley and took some lessons. I learned more in 3 weeks
than I did in
the proceeding 10 years. WOW, I was on my way..... After a few month's
Tommy and I
became good friends and started hanging out a lot and that was about the end
of the formal
training. Now I still suck but at least I can get the elusive sounds out of
the harp that used to
seem impossible ; - )
I really wish I knew about all of the resources out there back then. The
trip would have been much shorter.
Scooter
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