Re: [Harp-L] RE: no standards of harmonica

[philharpn@xxxxxxx]

This subject always amazes me, too.


Especially when everybody pisses and moans (old blues phrase) about how the harmonica never gets any respect. Or it's regarded as a toy. Guitar Player magazine once wrote that piano players would be ashamed to admit they knew as little about music as the average guitar player. Harmonica players -- with some exceptions -- brag about their lack of musical knowledge and ambition to continue to ignore it.


At about the same, most of those people mentioned at the end of this quoted post read and are ready to record because of that when they walk into a studio for a tune or jingle. Their jocular  rejoinder: "Don't learn to read music. More jobs for us."


The  music theory to thoroughly understand a diatonic (or chromatic) harmonica amounts to understanding the notes on the treble clef. How difficult is it to memorize Every Boy Does Fine for the lines and F A C E for the spaces? And then -- ta dah -- connect them to the holes on the harmonica. Just the key of C for starters. The blow notes are ONLY C E G . Anything else is a draw note.


Everybody makes this sounds so complicated! it"s not. As one noted sax and harmonica player once said, "Music is really about as complicated as third grade math."


Obviously, there is more to music than the key of C. But the key of C lays out perfectly on the keyboard -- any keyboard -- and if someone can understand the key of C and how reading music works that someone can understand the rest. (Bent notes are between blow & Draw.)


I once watched an acoustic guitar led band at the Ark coffee house in Ann Arbor trying to kick off a song without first counting off. I thought everybody knew that you have to count off a tune before starting. But obviously these guys didn't and after the third train-wreck start kept on going.


We did the same thing at SPAH a few years ago. The workshop leader couldn't get people to start on the right note. Class members all had notation-tablature handouts. All the leader needed to say was: "Take it from the G in the first bar." Finally, after a couple of failed starts I suggested: "Count it off and start on the 3." That worked.


I personally don't care if anybody who plays harmonica ever learns to read music (and the attendant music theory that accompanies that skill). 


Reading music takes about five minutes. Sight reading (getting the fingering) takes a little longer. 


Of course, if you've been playing harp for 20-30 years you can pick up just about any tune by ear. The only problem is when the recording or performance is faulty. It's played wrong and you learn if wrong. And in 2014, just about every jazz and blues riff has been reduced to a fake book or folio -- unlike in the good old days when nothing was. You can work your way through any of the several blues fake books in a portion of the time it takes to listen to the Little Walter box set.


Also, reading music will not make you great, but it just might make your travels easier. And at my age, I need all the help I can get.


 I never heard anybody say he/she regretted reading music.


Who cares? Lot's of people, judging by the comments here. 


Phil Lloyd
American Harmonica Newsmagazine
Contributing Editor emeritus


PS: Illegitimi non carborundum




-----Original Message-----
From: Warren Bee <wbharptime2@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, Jun 9, 2014 10:36 am
Subject: [Harp-L] RE: no standards of harmonica accomplishment


this subject always amazes me. why does our instrument need to be
validated? standards of accomplishment? I am 180 degrees away on this. I
love that Bob Dylan and Neil Young etc are the "standard" for the many
mortal listeners. how nice that I play an instrument that opens ears and
eyes wide open quickly when I share even my humble level of accomplishment.
the guitar world is full of standards. big deal. the mortals have a really
high level of expectation before they are impressed in any way with a
guitarist. at least inside their heads. we all know that what some folks
say isn't really what they are thinking.

and when they hear a Bonfiglio, Filisko, Ricci, Paparozzi Raines Arenas etc
they are floored. it takes a lot of lickity split licks to reach that level
of excitement to the guitar.

it is the mortals that buy CD's, attend shows etc .... they pay the bills
and or they feed our souls ... what do they care about standards?

WHO CARES? obviously many of y'all do!  thought I would gas up the fire a
bit.

Bee