Re: [Harp-L] in defense of Gus

["James D Hoskins" <jameshoskinz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Your story doesn't sound as though you were uninvited?

Every bass player that I've ever heard describe blues bass as boring, 
certainly turned out to be a boring bass player. Just sayin, as they say.






----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mox Gowland" <mox.g@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:29 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] in defense of Gus




> Zen Blues Harmonica

A beginner's guide to playing blues harp effortlessly

© 2007, Brian Kelly

Act without doing. Work without effort.

- Tao Te Ching

When I was a teenager, I tried very hard to play blues harmonica. I tried to 
copy what

I heard exactly. I tried very hard, but produced only sounds that even I did 
not like. I

failed because my effort was misplaced. Like paddling upstream. More effort 
did not

translate into better music.

Then one night I found myself on stage with a blues harp in my hand. I had 
accepted

a dare from a friend's band, and didn't expect them to ask me to solo. They 
did. The

drummer and bass player were still playing. The guitar player went back to 
the table

and sat down. I had to do something.

But I didn't know where the notes were on a harmonica! I didn't even know 
the song.

That's when it happened. Zen. Music. Spontaneous, improvisational, full of 
energy.

Instantaneous enlightenment. I literally learned how to play harmonica 
overnight by

discovering the tao of the harp (way of the harp). Zen.

So what changed? What enabled me to suddenly play an instrument that had 
baffled

me for 20 years? Zen. Which I will do my best to describe (no words can 
describe

Zen, as they are like the hand pointing to the moon. The words are not the 
moon.)

I had been playing bass guitar for a couple of years. We played a lot of 
blues. It was

Zen, but I did not know it. Zen by practice. Zen by boredom (did I mention I 
was

playing bass)? But then like Zen, it suddenly appeared. The 12 bar blues 
progression.

I did not count measures anymore (counting is left brain). I simply knew 
when the

chord changes were going to happen (very right brain).

I had become one with the problem - problem - resolution structure of the 
blues

progression. I had learned it the Zen way. An instant realization. Books and 
teachers

must describe this structure to bring the student near it. But the names of 
the chords,

the names of the structure, the terms, notes, language are merely the hand 
pointing at

the moon. They are not the moon. They are not the blues.

Like life, every verse of the blues tells a story. It is analogous to a 
story, movie, or

book: Set the scene, elaborate on it, build to a climax, end (resolve). The 
elements of

every great story.

- Brian Kelly 2007

- WalkingRidge.net

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