Subject: [Harp-L] is harmonica your first instument ?

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

Alexander asks:
 
"hello friends?
as far as i noticed the harnonica is not the first  instrument to learn
music.    many of us played other  insruments:  guitar ( I do) , piano, sax 
etc for a long period  and  harmonica is our second or third "axe"
(i do not mean here to play  simultaneusly  guitar and harp on a rack.)

it's very interesting how  that "previous" instrument  influences the
player's technique and   perception of music plyed through the harmonica.
>From Russia with  harp"

......I had no other musical influences and the harmonica was my  very first 
musical instrument at age 4.  Played full  songs immediately...so what was I 
"seeing" or "hearing" at that age? I  don't believe anything other than the 
music I heard in my head.  At 4  I also began piano lessons and studied that 
until age 14, as well  as the violin and a smattering of some other instruments 
but  even so, as an "ear" player I could never imagine a piano  keyboard in my 
brain while I'm playing harmonica, nor harp draw or blow  notes since both 
instruments to me are "feeling" instruments and I prefer to  play both with my 
eyes closed and experiencing the emotion of the music I'm  hearing in my head.    
I had no harmonica instruction and  never cared  about what the numbers on 
the harmonica meant.   Someone here once asked what we did with "that little 
piece of paper that came  with your harmonicas?".  I honestly don't remember 
there being  one...perhaps my first Hohner was missing its inclusion or my mother 
threw it  away.  I've no idea.  I can read music (at least I used to...I've  
probably forgotten everything I was taught) ....I just don't enjoy it... find 
it  stultifying.  Having to think about playing music makes no sense to someone 
 like me who plays instinctively.  When I play, if I'm doing anything other  
than feeling the song....I might be listening to the piece in my  head as it 
was sung by my favorite artist...or I'm actually singing it  myself mentally.  
If it's an instrumental....I'm likewise humming it.   It's a bit difficult to 
explain verbally since I've never really thought about  how it worked before.  
If I want to learn a piece of music  new to me I could copy what the artist 
is doing a passage at a time...but I  find that boring and too mechanical.  
It's so much simpler if I learn  the piece wholly as a song or an instrumental  
by hearing it many times,  then pick up my harmonica and play it once it's 
embedded in my brain and  familiar.  I can then riff and improvise/harmonize in my 
own  fashion....my preferred method of playing any  music.... (of course this 
 excludes Classical a la Bonfiglio  :-)  
 
 So I suppose if any "instrument" was an influence on my harmonica  playing 
it would have to be solely the human voice. 
 
Elizabeth