Re: [Harp-L] Re: Harmonica Ensembles in America

[Tom Baehr <tombaehr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, John,

I wonder whether you're painting too rosy a picture of what's  
happening in the US. I get the impression that Asian harmonica groups  
consist of many youthful players. Let's say the average age is 20,  
for argument's sake.

Of the few harmonica festivals I've attended so far, the average age  
among participants seems to be closer to 70. Perhaps a slight  
exaggeration, but not by much.

This does not bode well for sustainability. There is no organized  
educational system for teaching harmonica to America's youth.

Tom
On Jun 30, 2007, at 12:51 PM, MilwHarmonica@xxxxxxx wrote:

> In it's latest edition (Winter 2007) of it's newsletter, The  
> Society for  the
> Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica (SPAH), a world-wide  
> harmonica
> organization, lists over 110 affilliate harmonica clubs in the  
> West, if you
> include North and South America, Europe and eastern Europe. Of  
> those listed,
> 93  are in the USA. The SPAH affilliates also include 11 harmonica  
> clubs from
> the  East, including Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia and Australia  
> together.