[Harp-L] SPAH 2011

[Elizabeth Hess <TrackHarpL@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wow.  Just, "Wow."

Oh, okay, some details:

This was my second year attending SPAH.  As the old scout camp song  
goes, "Make new friends, but keep the old...  one is silver and the  
other is gold."  Elizabeth (EGS1217) had it right when she said that  
the best part of SPAH is the people.  I made some new friends at my  
first SPAH last year, and I made some new friends this year, but the  
very best part of SPAH was reuniting with "old" friends from last  
year.  There's just something about that spark of recognition when you  
see someone you haven't seen in a while, and see that same spark of  
recognition in them.  And it happens tens of times.  (Perhaps hundreds  
of times for some -- lucky them.)  Last year I felt thoroughly and  
utterly welcomed.  This year I felt like I  *belonged*, and what a  
wonderful feeling that is.  So for anyone who was at SPAH for the  
first time this year, go again!  And for people who haven't yet made  
it to a SPAH convention, go twice!  It's never too late to start.

I would like to share two high points and one regret:

The first high point was the morning beginners' blues jam  or  
"Beginner's Mind" blues jam, hosted by Michael Rubin.  I'm kind of a  
cooked beginner, myself, but it's not so long ago that I was a raw  
beginner, and having a jam where new players are explicitly welcome  
was, in my opinion, a good and also a very important thing.  I believe  
the future of any organization lies in bringing in new blood, and the  
way you do that is by actively welcoming and nurturing new blood.  I  
took advantage of the beginners' jam to try out new things that I'm  
not ready to debut in the more established jams:  I played an XB-40  
that I had gotten my hands on.  I tried playing in 5th position for  
the first time.  I found my threshold of risk and dwelled there, for a  
bit.  Michael took a few minutes at the beginning of each session to  
state some rules of "jam etiquette", and taught a different thing each  
day to give new players some traction on  *how*  to jam.  It's easy  
for more experienced players to forget what beginners need.  Michael  
remembers, and SPAH remembered.


My regret is that I didn't attend the youth showcase.  I just didn't  
have my head screwed on right at that moment.  Just as we need to  
support beginners, we need to support young players at every level of  
ability, and some of them are amazing.  I hope that SPAH does another  
youth showcase next year.  I won't make the same mistake twice.


My second high point was more personal.  I went into the Ballroom for  
Joe Filisko's Teach-In, thinking that I would join David Barrett's  
group.  David has been on my radar for quite some time.  There he was,  
promptly at the top of the hour, surrounded by at least a dozen people  
-- easily more.  And over here on the left was Brandon Bailey,  
surrounded by seven or eight chairs and no people (yet).  For those  
who haven't met me, I role-play a respectable middle-aged lady, and I  
really, really do not see myself getting into this whole looping, harp- 
boxing thing.  But I had heard Brandon play the day before and was  
truly blown away by his performance, had heard is NPR interview and  
was blown away by how personable and smart and gentle he is in his way  
of speaking, and decided to take a flier.  "Who knows?  I might learn  
something I didn't know I wanted to know..."

Brandon showed me the basic kick drum, snare, and high-hat sounds, and  
a little bit of how he integrates them with the harp.  I thought,  
"Okay, I get it."  As so often happens, the good stuff happens when  
you hang in there.  So, I tried  *doing* it.  And maybe I got a bit of  
the basic thing.  Then a couple more people arrived, and Brandon  
showed  *them*  the basic move, and they tried it, and I hung in there  
and tried it some more.  Then Brandon showed something *else*, and it  
started to get interesting.  People came and went, and there was a  
flow to practicing the basic stuff, trying to sort out the next-most- 
basic thing, and just having a truly charming conversation in a  
relaxed setting when it was just the two of us.  I was awed when Peter  
Madcat Ruth spoke of his lessons with Big Walter Horton.  I can see  
myself in the nursing home someday, saying, "I spent an afternoon  
chatting with Brandon Bailey, and..."

Am I likely to set myself up on a street corner (or in a recording  
studio!) with a looping box?  Doubtful.  But I don't mind saying that  
I spent a fair bit of my drive home going, "Boomp!  CHAK!  Boomp,  
boomp, CHAK!  Boomp-tsst-tsst-boomp-CHAK!"


Thank you, members of the SPAH board, Joe Filisko and friends, members  
of the Virginia Beach harmonica club (clubs?), and volunteers for  
putting on another truly outstanding convention.  Count on seeing me  
at the next one.

Elizabeth (aka "Tin Lizzie")