[Harp-L] Outer Banks Harmonica Intensive With Howard Levy

["Alan Hall" <alanmhall@xxxxxxxxx>]

I returned this October for the second year to Howard Levy's weeklong
workshop on the Outer Banks in Duck, North Carolina. The first year, I
really had no clue what I was getting into, and as Mike Stevens
(mikestevensmusic.com) said, I had "jumped into the deep end of the
pool."

Lost almost from the beginning, thinking that blow-bends were the same
thing as overblows, draw-bending about halfway, and producing the tone
of a dying chicken, I was, as Howard gently said, "in trouble."

So, I remembered the advice of a good friend and, "never missed a good
chance to shut up." I soaked it all up as best I could, receiving lots
of help from other participants -- especially Mike, Ben Hewlett, Bob
Meehan, and Jouko Kyhala. There were only 7 of us there, and it was,
as advertised, intensive.

Pat Fleming, an accomplished jazz guitarist, was there voicing when
Howard wasn't playing piano. They both were encouraging, answering
questions candidly and earnestly. Howard never holds back ... the guy
is ready to share anything he knows, and when he tells you something
about technique that may at first seem trivial, you will find later
that it isn't. He lives for music, and as Bob says, just hanging
around causes "osmosis" as you soak up information.

At lot of stuff blew right past me the first year, like when Howard
demonstrated playing in 7 by, "just for the hell of it," playing major
scales in every key -- 7 notes up and 7 down, landing a half tone
higher each time. He walks this right up the harp, and sounds as
natural as rain. It was only when Mike shared his recordings with me
months later that I realized what I had heard. I am still struggling
with it today.

So the first big hurdle is, of course, playing chromatically on the
diatonic harp -- and it's a big one. But we also focused on theory,
positions, tone, vibrato, tremolo, embouchure, rhythmic breathing
patterns, techniques for speed, scales (blues, pentatonic, diminished,
half diminished, whole tone, major, minor... all of them), arpeggios,
soloing over chord changes, odd time meters, major and minor modes,
choosing harp key, all the bends and overbends, cupping, guide tones,
drones, tongue blocking, double stops, double stop bending, reed
adjustment (Bob M. who customizes fine harps, does a great demo on
changing reeds, and tuning), microphones, amps, and more.

We listened to and discussed a lot of music. We heard many  jazz
standards demonstrated and everybody got a shot at them, and at
original tunes too. There is an astounding mp3 download available at
levyland.com of Amazing Grace. And it's amazing to see the grace with
which Howard can listen to a student (me, for instance) absolutely
massacre one of his songs, knowing that we might go home and tell
people, "Howard Levy taught me to play like this!"

Making headway learning these techniques requires finding ways to
enjoy a measure of failure every day. Thanks to recordings, I can
alleviate the suffering of others by studying  in private. Because of
these workshops, I know what the boundaries are -- what is possible --
and I made a lot of progress last year. It was a big boost, and I
cannot recommend it strongly enough. There were only 5 of us this
year, and the course is limited to 10. Everybody got a lot of
individual attention.

Hosted by Margie Farmer of http://www.classactsontour.com/, the  scene
is luxury vacation houses in the dunes. There were cello, drum, voice,
and guitar workshops concurrent, and everyone gathered in one house
for  home-cooked meals... fresh fish, roast turkey, roast pork,
artisan breads, loads of veggies and fruit... too much good stuff to
list. Margie and members of her family take really good care of
everyone. The Trio Globo concerts were a big plus. This year it was in
a beautiful concert hall in Manteo, NC, and Howard, Eugene Friesen and
Glen Velez were awesome.

Howard has a new instructional DVD coming out soon via
http://www.levyland.com/. All the tunes are original, are played on a
C harp, and are designed to push the boundaries of advanced players. I
found the previews we heard and worked with fascinating and beautiful.

Musically fearless, generous with his knowledge, time and energy, and
talented beyond belief, it is a tremendous opportunity to study with
Howard Levy. At age 50, I decided to walk out of a thirty-year musical
desert into the deep end of music, and at the same time, I changed
careers.

I've met two people in my life that are the best in the world at what
they do.  I've gone to work for one of them, and studied harmonica
with the other. Life is very good.

Alan Hall