Re: [Harp-L] Theory of scales

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Philharpn@xxxxxxx wrote:
<All this talk about the value of music theory: What is a scale!? and so forth 
<is really counterproductive... 
<Today -- and this has been true for perhaps 20 years now -- anyone who wants 
<to master the harmonica can learn how to play it all PLUS all the underlying 
<music theory in about a year, maybe two.

You can master the harmonica AND music theory in a year or two?  Because the teaching materials are widely available in multiple forms?

I doubt it.  I have an encyclopedia and a dictionary in my house, and I still haven't memorized everything in them.

Like the Beatles said: "in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."  It takes a lot more than an instructional CD to make someone a solid player and overall musician.  It takes a lot of practice, playing, and thinking, meaning time.

What you put in is what you get out.  The only shortcut to mastery is genius, and even the geniuses have to work pretty damn hard at it.  Mozart at age six was able to transcribe a complete symphony--all the parts--after hearing it once, but even Mozart complained in a letter to his father decades later that no one really understood how hard he worked.

Like the Beatles said: "in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." 

Thanks, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com