[Harp-L] Remarks and questions regarding Blues Harmonica for dummies

["Peter Karp" <pit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Winslow,

(and whoever might feel inclined to comment on my long post :-) )

I began exploring the harmonica world about two months ago. After buying a  
german (highly rated) harmonica book I soon found that this specific book  
is much too short and leaving out many of the subtle details which I'm  
eager to learn. Adam Gussow suggests your harmonica for dummies as "the"  
harmonica book to buy. The reviews where favourable, while stating that  
your newer blues harmonica for dummies is even better liked. Because I'm  
mainly leaning in the blues and rock direction of the harmonica I  
purchased the latter. I have to say I really love the book and all the  
information you contribute there. :-) This will (together with online  
videos) keep me busy for a while ;-) I also started to get contact to  
local harpers.

I have some comments and questions regarding the book.

First my remarks:

* This is the first "dummies" book I bought, because I do not consider  
mayself a dummie and think most "dummie" books are very basic -- while in  
fact your book is very detailed and sure not meant for dummies (even when  
it starts from scratch)... :-o

* the drawings of the harmonica layout are very uncommon where blow holes  
are shown on the bottom and draw holes on top, while the actual layout of  
the reed plates is the opposite way and all other resources I have found  
use the notation to reflect the physical layout of a harp -- in a new  
revision it would be great to have the figures reversed I think :)

* The explanations of bending with the K-spot where really hard to grasp  
for me, because you write that the tounge touches the roof of the mouth  
when saying K. I said the K-consonant, but I did find that my tounge does  
_not_ touch the roof of my mouth. The tounge touches the roof when I say  
"T". So I was really struggling to follow the explanations about the  
K-spot. I then found a video where someone explained bending to get  
basically happending when making a "Darth Vader" like sound (inhaling). I  
tried that Darth Vader approach and it worked and _then_ I realized that  
in fact my back part of the tounge touches the roof of my mouth. I was not  
aware of that fact, even when trying to paying attention to feel if /  
where / how my tounge touches the roof of the mouth. I think the reason  
that I did not felt this, was that normally we mainly "feel" with the  
front part of our tounge (where if I'm not mistaken) many more nerves are  
then on the back part of the tounge. After I found out that I _do_ touch  
the roof of my mouth with the back part of my tounge (more or less  
unconsciously, unknowingly) when saying K, I was able to combine the Darth  
Vader approach with the K-spot approach and therefore when using the K to  
articulate the bend note. I guess that in that experience I'm not alone  
and my "discovery" and surprise that I make things with my tounge I'm not  
aware of -- even when I'm trying to look for them -- was a great learning  
experience. In a revision of the book or addendum or somewhere else those  
observations might be helpful ot others too.

* One idea could be to set up a simple wiki or start a thread in Harp-L or  
MBH where one could collect experiences and discuss questions regarding  
your book? I'm currently still not sure where would be the "best" plays  
for this of the many harmonica forum (and mailing list) options.

Last not least my questions:

1) in some figures where bend notes are shown (example: page 112, Fig.  
7-7) it's not clear why the bend notes "between" the unbent notes are  
represented with a specific area. It seems that (in the example Fig. 7-7)  
D flat (hole 1) is drawn with the full area coverage of the "bend" row,  
because there's only one bend, while (hole 2) F sharp and F share the area  
because there are two bends. But for hole 3 the area of B flat is smaller  
than the area of A. What is the meaing behind this?

2) I found that some tabs and / or sheet music in the dummies book contain  
some errors. Is there an Errata für Blues Harp for Dummies available?

3) How to create bend notes is explained in chapter 11 of the book. But  
bend notes are written in tabs much before chapter 11. I think the first  
(or at least on of the first) bend notes appear in the tabs on page 92 in  
chapter 6 when showing the first five blues riffs. It's not clear to me  
how those bend notes should be handled at this early stage of the  
learning. Also in following chapters between 6 and 11 more bends are used.  
I think there is no remark how to address this (or did I miss that?).

I hope my e-mail posting is not too exhaustive, but as an assiduous  
beginner many questions arise :-)

Best regards from the southern part of germany
Peter