Re: [Harp-L] Re: YouTube-Les Thompson - and Cham-Ber Huang

[Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Funny thing about this. When this post came in, I had just read the 
section on Cham-Ber in Al Smith's book "Confessions of Harmonica 
Addicts" (which is very informative and entertaining, btw) and there it 
says that Cham-Ber had learned to play as a kid on diatonic tremelos 
with the high notes on the left and that when he got his first chromatic 
he wanted to have the button on the right because he was right handed 
but didn't want to have to start over with the high notes on the right, 
so he customized the harmonica to have the slide on the right with high 
notes on the left.

So, I just checked. I have two Cham-Ber Huang LPs and both show pictures 
of him playing with the button on the right ;-).

If I remember correctly, Jerry Adler plays with the harmonica 
upside-down, like Les.

- Slim.

www.SlideManSlim.com

Winslow Yerxa wrote:
> Here's the weird part.
>
> Cham-Ber Huang plays harmonicas with the low notes on the left (same as most players) but with the slide button also on the left - extremely unusual, and perhaps completely unique.
>
> Why? He says it's because the first chromatic harmonica he received in China as a youngster was set up that way, so that's how he learned to play.
>
> Winslow
>
> Winslow Yerxa
>
> Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
>
> --- On Fri, 9/4/09, Emile Damico <oatss_oatflakes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: Emile Damico <oatss_oatflakes@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: YouTube-Les Thompson
> To: "mike wesolowski" <mwesolowski@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Friday, September 4, 2009, 4:01 PM
>
> Cham Ber Huang does
>
>
> --- On Fri, 9/4/09, mike wesolowski <mwesolowski@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> From: mike wesolowski <mwesolowski@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] Re: YouTube-Les Thompson
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Friday, September 4, 2009, 12:11 PM
>
> I was watching with amazment at Les Thompsons playing and then noticed that he's working the button with his left hand.   Is he playing the chromo backwards?   Not that it's the wrong way to play.   I was wondering how many chromo players on the list play this way.
> I've seen some diatonic player play with the high notes on the left but never a chromo player.
> Mike "Wezo" Wesolowski
> www.myspace.com/harpwezo 
> www.megatoneamps.com
> www.bluesworldorder.com
>
>