Re: [Harp-L] Big River followup

["eskeene@xxxxxxxx" <eskeene@xxxxxxxx>]

Regarding how much to take from a Musical Director: This is something I have run into a lot during my career, and I'd guess I'd have to file it under; "When Worlds Collide". The musical directors I have worked with have all come out of the Western (European) Music world, which has evolved over many centuries in order to perpetuate itself through training and hierarchy. Most of us in the harmonica world come out of more of a "folk" tradition, and though we may have had a lesson or two are largely self-taught "ear" players. This is quite different from the (for want of a better word) "Classical" music world, where children are taught to play and interpret music in a certain way. As they progress in their education, the most talented are even taught how to syncopate, and then can explain it to others in an intellectual way. So it's essentially a "top down" process. Conversely, most of us probably "feel" something before we play it-or we don't bother to play it. We understand stuff in one way, they understand it in another, and we often get little respect for what we know, and get treated like simpletons as a result. I'd guess it's as close as most of us can get to understanding how a colonized people might feel. But you suck it up, and improve your reading skills, and you get paid, and you get referred, and a piece of your soul dies (and you take to drink and drugs and die a ignoble death, and they write a Broadway musical about YOU, and some harmonica player gets work, and the cycle of life continues). I have a guitar playing friend who LOVES to sight read under pressure. His "highest" experience was being called at the last minute to play in a pit orchestra for West Side Story. I'd rather base jump (and I'd rather not base jump!). When I saw Sonny Terry many years ago, he told a story about appearing in a Broadway show and being told he had to play the same thing every night. He said, "I told them I couldn't do it. Then they told me what they were going to pay me and I told them I could.". Best, emily 
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