[Harp-L] Subject: Re: Dumping on other harmonica players' Videos for no good reason...

EGS1217@xxxxxxx · Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:07:34 EDT

I don't know why you'd bring SPAH into it Billy,  but your post does bring 
up something I've wanted to make clear  to anyone tuning in for the first 
time: the harmonica world isn't ONLY made up  of Blues, or Jazz, or Classical 
players, or harp-l for that matter. 

There actually ARE those of us who prefer to play other songs on our  
harmonicas.  I do get that the majority of people posting here are Blues  players 
and believe that the world revolves around blues only, but that's far  from 
reality.

While there are people in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America  who 
enjoy copying American Blues, they are certainly not in the majority. The  
harmonica is predominantly used to play whatever music is played IN their own  
countries, even to the Pop music of the day.

For my part, I prefer to play R&B, Classic Rock, Old Standards or  Smooth 
Jazz (whichever interpretation you make of that) or any other  song which 
strikes my fancy no matter the 'genre'. While I wouldn't recognize a  Lady gaga 
song and have no interest whatsoever in that particular singer, there  
still are some reasonably contemporary artists whose music I consider  perfectly 
acceptable to cover. I play Sade songs, Gloria Estefan, Cyndia Lauper,  The 
Eagles, Simply Red, to name just a few. To each his own. 

There's an interesting interview with Elvin Bishop in the current  BluesWax 
Ezine referring to his earlier descriptions of 'Blues Nazis'  who dumped on 
him for his playing which he reaffirms to the interviewer.  

I personally don't feel anyone has earned the right to be a  'harmonica 
nazi', I don't care how good you are.
Where is it written that the instrument MUST be used for one 'style' or  
sound only? If that were the case shouldn't we all then still be playing 
German  Oompah music?

Thank goodness for those willing to step outside the box...a la LD Miller  
at last year's SPAH, so ably backed and encouraged by Brendan Power. It was  
incredibly brilliant and to my mind at least shows one direction the 
'future' of  the harmonica just might take...I was dying to hear more. 

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqvnIalGgBk_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqvnIalGgBk) 

We should all be able to play and enjoy whatever music floats our  own 
particular boat without being looked down on or made fun of by  other harmonica 
players. EsPECIALLY other harmonica players!  

Speaking of SPAH - the entire premise of SPAH in case some of you don't  
know or have forgotten is: 'Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica'. 
It's  not: 'Preservation and Advancement of: blues, jazz, classical - 
harmonica to the  exclusion of all other types of music'.  

What's particularly interesting is that the very best players who have  
achieved the highest pinnacles of success and skill (and this is true with most 
 instruments as well) are the ones least likely to dump on other musicians.

Martin made a comment earlier about wondering why would we think  it'd be a 
good thing to promote the playing of harmonica among children and  I see 
this as part of the same discussion:  Because - with new players of  any genre 
coming along - showing interest in harmonica, buying instruments as  they 
develop their interest, keeps harmonica companies in business which in turn  
helps YOU (and all of us) still have access to the instruments we hope to 
keep  playing. If for no other reason than pure selfishness, it behooves us to 
welcome  new players.

For some strange reason people here seem to believe they speak for the  
harmonica community at large and have no real recognition that they are  only a 
tiny microcosm of the HUGE harmonica playing community around the  World. 
There are hundreds of thousands of players out there who have absolutely  NO 
idea that this and/or any other harmonica group exists and would care less  
even if they did know. They don't care what conclusions you all come to, 
don't  care what 'tests' are run (and decisions made which are then supposedly 
binding  on the rest of them), and for the most part - a lot of these 
players don't  go online to discuss anything harmonica related. 

I've been conducting my own extremely casual survey of people at  different 
conventions for the last 5 years and even at Buckeye, SPAH and  GSHC one 
might be surprised by just how many players and even headliners  didn't ever 
go online or think of using a computer and had never heard of  any of the 
harmonica lists including this one. Although perhaps some are  becoming more 
computer savvy now.

 What a huge majority of harmonica players do is play on their  back 
porches, or with their friends, or down at their local bars or other  musical 
gathering places - play by their own (very democratic) rules  as Angus so nicely 
explained it, and don't give a hoot whether or not another  player meets 
certain lofty standards expressed here. They're there to play MUSIC  and for 
the pure absolute joy of it, not to savage and belittle other players to  
perhaps make themselves look or feel better about their own skills (or lack  
thereof?) 

When did it all turn into such meanness is what I want to know?   As a kid 
I played harmonica and never heard any of this back-biting or  viciousness 
directed towards me, thankfully, since I doubt I would ever  have come back 
to playing harmonica if I'd known this attitude was THE most  prevalent one 
among the people I've come to know.  And like Angus, there is  no way in hell 
I'd ever post a video of my own amateurish playing despite being  asked 
dozens of times - even if the playing of a particular song  gave me the 
greatest pleasure, since a lot of people here seem to think of it as  purely a 
means to tear another person apart. 

I find this very uncomfortable, and it should be beneath you all  as 
self-described musicians. 

Yes, I've watched some videos where I found the playing not great (in my  
own opinion) missing crucial notes and even far off the tune being played. 
But  who or what gave ME the right to dump on or savage the person playing? No 
one.  So I don't. IF asked, I might gently steer them to listening to the 
actual song  to hear where they went 'off', but other than that, it's neither 
my place nor my  right to judge.

And now I'm quite sure the same people will round on me and attack because  
(like last time) I'll be told that because the person put his/her video on  
youtube he/she 'deserves' to be savaged/dissected here on harp-l.

 Despite many of you rationalizing it thusly, I still beg to  differ.  In 
many cases the person putting up their video closes the  dialogue comments 
box after the first few vicious comments in order to NOT  have to tolerate the 
awful 'slings and arrows'. They just might be posting  videos on request 
for family and friends living distances away.  Or, could  be doing it as way 
of watching their own progress to get the feel of performing  in front of 
others. Who knows? General audiences are far kinder for the most  part than are 
harmonica 'aficionados' who come across as so much  more cruel...at least 
by my experiences over the past few years. IF they don't  post their videos 
here to be critiqued, I don't believe anyone else has the  right to bring 
them here for criticism without their knowledge or  permission.

The old saw  'if you don't have anything nice to say, then say nothing  at 
all', sure seems to apply here...

Elizabeth

"Message: 7
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:49:39 +1000
From: "Billy James"  <billyjames@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] YouTube -Pew harmonica  player plays pop tunes 
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>,  <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Ha ha ...the clip of this guys 'version' of  the Lady Ga Ga hit..was... 
indeed 'different'...[for about 30secs].I particulary  enjoyed your Randy 
Singers comment [you are a gentleman indeed Randy]...this  this is a whole new 
level of passion. Challenge No.361: now I've gotta go out  and get a green 
screen and learn a bunch of asinine tunes from Sepeltura to the  The Pussycat 
Dolls... SPAH is going to really be something 'unusual'  this  year if this 
idea catches on? Does anyone know 'Sexy Bitch' by David Guetta  ?
By the way, I wonder if he learnt this stuff from:  
http://www.volcano.net/~jackmearl/
The  Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/motorgrass#p/u/1/AE2XY8rxjf4

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