[Harp-L] Playing Harmonica at Bluegrass Jams

[David & Jackie Naiditch <french10@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with many of the recent posts that it is important knowing  
when not to play.  I just returned from a 2-day bluegrass jam in  
Bakersfield, sponsored by the California Bluegrass Association.  I  
was the only harmonica player out of the 150 or so musicians.  As a  
harmonica player who has attended dozens of such bluegrass jams (and  
hosts a bluegrass jam at a local coffee house), here are a few  
observations:

1.  Despite a few famous harmonica players who have played bluegrass,  
the harmonica is not generally considered a traditional bluegrass  
instrument.  One of the announcements for the Bakersfield jam  
warned--“Participating instruments appear limited to traditional  
ones: banjo, mandolin, fiddle, bass fiddle, guitar, dobro.”  One  
needs to play particularly well, therefore, to be welcomed.

2.  Bluegrass musicians often tell me about the bad experiences they  
have had with harmonica players who play over everyone’s break, play  
bluegrass as if it were blues, and can’t follow the bluegrass  
melodies or chord changes.  I think these harmonica players have  
given the harmonica a bad reputation.

3.  Learning well-known fiddle tunes is essential for bluegrass  
harmonica players, but not enough.  I’d estimate only 25% of the  
tunes played at most jams are instrumentals, and of these, some are  
dobro, banjo, and mandolin tunes.  For the 75% of tunes that are  
sung, instrumental breaks are freely given between verses, even when  
the tune isn’t well known.  It is important, therefore, to be able to  
hear chord changes and improvise over them, and to develop an ear to  
play melodies on the spot that one has never heard before.

For those wanting to break into bluegrass, I’d advise carefully  
listening to it, attending “slow jams” where beginners are welcome  
and are taught bluegrass jamming etiquette, and not playing (or  
playing very quietly off to the side) at jams where the musicians are  
much more advanced or where the tunes are too difficult.

For myself, I now almost exclusively play a C chromatic, regardless  
of the key the tune is played in.  This technique serves me well in  
jams and in my new bluegrass CD—High Desert Bluegrass Sessions—which  
recently received a favorable review in the California Bluegrass  
Association’s Bluegrass Breakdown.  But as demonstrated by great  
diatonic harmonica players such as Tony Eyers, a diatonic can  
certainly work.

To hear how I got hooked on bluegrass, go to
	http://www.cbaontheweb.org/cba_news.asp?newsid=3210

David Naiditch
www.davidnaiditch.com
http://www.myspace.com/highdesertbluegrasssessions
http://cdbaby.com/cd/naiditch2