[Harp-L] bluegrass harmonica (referenced in Country Western Harmonica Players thread)

["Cara Cooke" <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

IcemanLE found it interesting that a music vendor told him that there was
very little interest in the harmonica at bluegrass festivals ("after all,
Bill Monroe didn't have a harmonica in the band").  If that were a
requirement, then accordion sales would be much better at bluegrass
festivals and dobro would be totally unknown.  Bill had an accordion player
in the band in 1945.  Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys were the
first to have a dobro player (1950s).  They also had a harmonica player - a
fellow named Earl Taylor.

Bill Monroe's favorite harmonica player was DeFord Bailey, who traveled with
Bill's show in the baseball days.  DeFord Bailey could play the music well
enough, but he performed solo on these tours because he was a solo act on
the Grand Ole' Opry.  Rick Epping was right when he said that Bill accepted
the harmonica (if played well).  Most bluegrassers will, too, if the
instrument is played well, with musicianship and courtesy to the other
players.  That is where WE (harmonica players) fail.

It isn't that the instrument is banned, but the fact that most of the people
who play it cannot play it to the level required and can become obnoxious
while they try to participate in the music.  Like a kid who gets bitten by a
vicious dog at a young age and develops a dislike for dogs later in life,
bluegrassers are accustomed to being invaded by harmonica players who want
to play (all the time), but who still are too beginner to listen and learn
how best to fit in, and tend to dislike playing with them.  Once they figure
out that the harmonica player that just joined them is good enough, skilled
enough, and tasteful enough to really contribute to the whole and not
detract, they won't feel so uneasy about him being there and will be more
than happy to see what else he has "under the hood".

A good blues harp player can still be a beginner in bluegrass.  Bluegrass
has plenty of blues in it, but unless you can find a melody and work with it
and spend some time really learning tunes and developing a sense of when to
be in and when to stay out (and how), you will still have difficulty getting
into bluegrass and not being obnoxious.  What seems simple and
straightforward isn't always.  Bluegrass musicians spend many hours learning
their tunes and their instruments and their roles so that they can approach
the music as if it just came to them.  Anyone who has not put in this
'woodshedding' time will become obnoxious to the other players, regardless
of instrument, unless he at least can learn to improve those things in which
he is deficit.

Harmonica players have to spend at least as much time on their instruments
as the string players do.  And, since diatonic players have a few
limitations, they have challenges to overcome on their own that make playing
bluegrass on harmonica an advanced achievement.  So if you don't learn and
woodshed with the intent to become better than good enough to participate,
you may have difficulty melding in with the others.

Interestingly enough, bluegrassers will most often take the time to help
those they have identified as beginners to help them learn to become better
players.  Beginner string players can be just as obnoxious as harmonica
players.

However, beginner string players are usually obvious and easy to help for
another string player.  Harmonica players are another problem.  Many of them
don't consider themselves as 'beginner' even though they really are
'beginner' to the music, so they are not always open to the same general
ideas that would be shared with other beginners.  And, the ideas that will
help the harmonica player better get along in the music are very different
and somewhat foreign to the string players.  Often, only those who have also
trod that path can help.

One of the things that music vendor could have done for himself is exchange
the Dave Barrett blues harmonica instructional DVD for something done by
Mike Stevens or Charlie McCoy.  Bluegrassers know who these people are and
how they play.  There are so few harmonica players that get to the level
where they can play bluegrass well that there really aren't that many role
models to follow.  And, let's face it, the concept of taking lessons to
learn how to play harmonica is really pretty new, so how many wannabe
players think that they are going to get anything out of such an
instructional DVD at the prices such things usually cost -- especially if
they do not recognize the player teaching in it?  It would be very
difficult, consequently, for a music vendor with this merchandise to have
any clue how popular harmonica really was at the festivals where he is
vending.  The fact is, even if he sold decent harmonicas as such a festival,
he probably would not get many good bites because anyone who does play
harmonica has already set himself up to be self-sufficient -- knowing that,
if he really needed one, there would not be any decent harmonicas for sale
at the festival for a decent price.  Music vendors at festivals usually
always carry instrument strings, because they regularly break, but often
never carry decent harmonicas.

When I started playing bluegrass as a kid, I had no teacher on harmonica.  I
just played what was in my head.  But I took guitar lessons.  The concept of
"harmonica teacher" was beyond reality.  Why would you ever take lessons on
an instrument that plays something the moment that you put it to your
mouth?  Stringed instruments look complicated and really make bad noises if
you don't get lessons, yet, a little over a century ago, people didn't
always take much in the way of lessons on them either.  Over time we are
learning that there really is a need for harmonica instruction, and as
beginner players recognize they have something to learn from instruction,
they are beginning to seek it out.  In time, harmonica instruction should
become more normal and things like instructional videos & CDs should sell a
bit better.