[Harp-L] Adam Gussou in Salt Lake City

["M. Erickson" <erickm001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Adam came to town recently and gave a two hour seminar. It was well
attended. (He also did some gigs in town.)


He started with the basics. His handouts included the “blues scale” and a
diagram of a basic 12 bar blues, with turnaround.


He kept my attention. He is articulate and intelligent. His harp playing is
masterful. There was no “attitude” or arrogance. He is a world class
monster harp player but comes across as just a nice guy showing you about
harmonica (kind a like his Youtubes).


We went over the basics, he gave us a neat explanation of the blues scale
and where it came from, he gave us an 8 beat exercise (draw for seven beats
and exhale for one beat) for working vibrato, then we hit the basic 12 bar
blues and “The Test”.


He says “OK, play the 12 bar blues, but in such a way that I can hear all
the changes. This is The Test. Any brave souls want to volunteer?”


I thought this is too easy. I could do it in my sleep.


First volunteer, totally blew it.

Next guy, again, totally blew it.

Third guy, nothing but 2nd position riffs. They all did that, just
2ndposition riffs and no changes.


I’m thinking *we are one sorry lot in this backwater town.*


When I got home and did the test, thinking no problem, and blew right past
the turnaround.

I go, what happen? I try again and totally missed the turnaround. I tried
real slow and got the turnaround but my timing went to hell.


I’ve been doing 12 bar blues exercises ever since that since that seminar.
I make up little riffs, and run them through 12 bars of I-IV-V with 3
positions. Its fun. I make up little songs and sing with it. It’s now the
first item on my practice regimen.


The two-hour seminar was spent mostly on basics, which is exactly where it
needed to be


He did, however, talk about and demonstrate overblows. He answered
questions about gapping.


My attitude towards overblows has been (with the exception of Levi) is that
they sound horrible and  you have to spend an inordinate amount of time
messing with your harps.


Adam’s overblows were velvety smooth and beautiful. I don’t know what else
to say. He would play these amazing lines that I’ve never heard out of a
harmonica. Beautiful stuff.


More important, he explained overblows and gapping in way that stripped
away all the mysticism. He made it sound not exactly easy, but doable.


(He made an interesting comment that if he were learning overblows today,
he’d get a custom harp.)


What I got out of this little two-hour seminar was a revitalization. I did
Jerry Portnoy's Blues Harmonica MasterClass back in 90’s. At that time I
was fascinated with the harmonica. It was so special. It was magical. It
was an adventure and a journey. As time went on that fascination faded.
With bands, and gigs I got sick of drunks and druggies and loud guitars. I
got sick of irresponsible musicians who need to be high to play to a
roomful drunks. I wondered why do I even play? I wondered why I worked so
hard for so little reward.


But that’s not what it’s about.


It’s about being the best one can be with their instrument. It’s about
perfecting ones craft. It's about making the best music possible.


My fascination is back.


I hope Adam comes back to town. If he does I will pass his test easily. But
so will a lot of other people. I suspect there’s a lot of harp players in
town taking hard look at what they are actually doing on the harmonica.



Lastly, Adam is a superb writer. When I heard he was coming to town I
picked up “Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir”and loved it. Highly
recommended, especially to people on this list.