[Harp-L] In Which My Super Chromonica Is Miraculously Resurrected Only to face an Ordeal by Lenny Kravitz

["Bradford Trainham" <bradford.trainham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Should I just sign this post and send it now?
No, I have to tell you the whole story.
My Hohner 270 Super Chromonica arrived a few weeks ago with an oft-sticking
slide.
I'd play the harp for a few minutes like any insane person who does the same
thing over and over while hoping for a different result... And finally, I'd
get that blessed different result and gain access to the button-in blow/draw
universe.
But the sticking problem grew worse the more I played the harp to the point
that I got the Hohner repair address from Michael Rubin when I went for my
lesson last week.
I had noticed... That sometimes, if I blew the notes on the higher end, (10
- 12) that the holy moment of un-sticking tended to come sooner, but this
system was not dependable and I was getting a little annoyed what with my
budding ability and all. 
(What's so funny about that?? Stop it!!)

So yesterday, on my way to band practice, I absent-mindedly pulled out the
harp from its place in the bag and... Seized with an inspiration, I blew air
directly into the place where the slide joins the body of the instrument.
And.. In a few seconds, the slide "un-stuck" and is still "un-stuck"... 
So now we have the harp resurrected, but we still have to face "the
ordeal"...
This is a rock band, and as such it's composed of people who glibbly refer
to themselves as "rockers".
(One's a realtor;  the other, a salesman of... Many things, all of them
legal of course...)
These "rockers" have a very televisionesque sense of their musical heritage,
but they are tight musicians and I've learned so much about singing just
from singing behind a group of such tight musicians that 90% of the time,
it's a healthy enough experience for me to continue my labor in their
"rocker" vineyard. 
Besides, a realtor can smell a dead president ere he should leave his
newly-minted office and some of those gigs end up paying pretty well. 
But I don't get a whole lot of opportunity to play harp... !!yet!!!
So I got there... And we set up... And began running through our set of
"rockers" me all the while secretly wishing the practice was over and that I
could be back home checking out my born again Super Chromonica.
So after we'd warmed up... And worked on a few things..., our venerable bass
player, the nicest, quietest member of the group... Asked about...
"Let Love Rule" by Lenny Kravitz. 
He had the music with him... And since he never asks us for anything but the
right notes, I was hard put to veto his proposal and at the same time
preoccupied with silent prayer that I wouldn't be asked to sing this one. 
Either he had worked it out with the rhythm guitarist beforehand, or the
prayer took, but the rhythm guitarist donned that mask of ersatz profundity
requisite for the vocal execution of this one... And we were soon about the
business of learning the song with me and the lead guitarist (You think I'm
bad; You should hear what he said about the song.( bringing up the
harmonies. 
We were all doing well enough.. Until we got to this great... Gaping hole
where there's a sax solo on the recording.
What to do!!  The lead guitarist sometimes switches to keyboards, and I just
assumed he'd find some synth stop equal or greater in intrinsic cheese value
to the song and get us through that sax break.
But he, being generally disinterested in us doing the song at all
forebore... While I..., already obsessed with my recency of "un-sticking"
was suddenly seized with yet another an inspiration and retrieved my
transfigured Super Chromonica from its place and started in on something to
fill in that "gaping hole" where the sax should have been. 
And may I say... That within the context of sliced American musical cheese,
my effort was working!!
At the end of the practice, the bass player thanked me specifically which
had me feeling at once guilty and noble, but I knew not to worry about that
nobility sticking around for long.
But the harp is still "un-stuck" and "Love still rules" and I'm now past the
point of waiting for an opportunity to play chromatic in this band.
Brad Trainham