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

["Howard Parks" <Hparks@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Iceman, you skipped over the middle-aged geezers but I'll try to
overlook that... I really don't remember first picking up a diatonic,
but I do recall a friend of mine showing me a chromatic harmonica in
high school and being intimidated by the button (my relationship to the
button has improved over the years though I'm still intimidated
sometimes).
 
I do recall in my senior year of high school (1977) attending a series
of group lessons by a local guy named Rich Matthews, who I've completely
lost track of since then. The lessons were sponsored by the county
recreation department, and included both blues and bluegrass harmonica.
I was too green; I didn't take a whole lot away from them. But I still
have the materials he handed out; they covered early blues harmonica
players (Will Shade, Jazz Gillum), the Walters, the Sonny Boys, and all
that stuff, including tabs of classic blues tunes. His bluegrass
harmonica notes mostly covered fiddle tunes but also included tabs of
several Charlie McCoy tunes. He talked theory... modes on the harp,
positions... and even went into how to play the diatonic harp in a
jazz/rock fusion style (Soft Machine, Brian Augur). All that stuff went
right over my head; I had no appreciation of what he'd given us. Boy, if
I could go back now and kick my green eighteeen-year-old-self in the a$$
I would do it in an instant.
 
My younger brothers like to remind me of the countless versions of "I'm
A Man" I played back then as I tried to get the 3-hole draw bend. I
think I found that in Tony Glover's book.
 
Mr. Richard Hunter's book Jazz Harmonica was the second harmonica
instruction book I bought. I still have it & have no plans to part with
it.
 
A few years later, '84 or so, I decided either to find a teacher or drop
the instrument altogether. I met up with Piere Beauregard at the Glen
Echo folk festival, where he was part of a panel of harp players
performing on stage (Phil Wiggins was there too); I asked him about
lessons and he referred me to Jimmy Powers (a terrific player who is now
based in LA). I took lessons from JP for a couple of years, got involved
with the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra through him (they had a chapter
in DC), and the web of human and musical connections related to the
harmonica has spiraled out ever since. Actually, in a convoluted way,
I'm married to my wife now because of that decision to find a harmonica
teacher back then, but that's another story.
 
Howard Parks