[Harp-L] Re: Widening participation in SPAH: Harp-L Digest, Vol 100, Issue 24

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

SPAH sounds splendid - but I am definitely one of the older guys, also I live in the UK so I don't have any plans to be a member or attend a convention any time soon. There have been concerns on the list recently too about the aging profile of SPAH members. I don't have any concrete evidence about this, but I think that there are two issues based on my experience of teaching young people (University Students) and watching how they have changed in general. There might also be issues with gender and race, but I don't see any evidence that these are issues on Harp-L, except that not that many women play harmonica compared to men, as far as we know, and since about 1960 harmonica in North America has become less of a black music instrument - i.e. most of the best players are now white (and usually men). Outside North America it is not any different - but it never was. 
Issue 1: Younger people take electronic forms of socialisation way way more seriously than older ones and may not see a need to attend a physical convention to the same extent.
Issue 2: Younger musicians "mash music up" and I suspect that more of the younger people who play harmonica also do other music stuff; play other instruments, mix, do electronic stuff etc. etc. So their primary identity may not be "harmonica". 
This does not mean that SPAH is over, just that younger people will come back as and when they figure out why they need to. 
I think it needs to be on Facebook, Twitter etc - which I do not pretend to understand. 
Richard