Re: [Harp-L] does anybody NEED another book on playing Chromatic Harmonica?

[JON KIP <jon@xxxxxxxxxx>]

oh, ok.... I think what I wrote was:

There is nothing really complicated about the chromatic harmonica.
That's why it's so difficult to master.

That's, to me, not "Chromatic is easy!  Look, I can do it!  So, therefore it's easy for everyone."

For goodness' sake, my website is "Jon Kip, Chromatic Harmonica Owner". (Unlike other spurious websites, my spurious website doesn't include MASTER in its name.)

I've mentioned more than once that this instrument is much harder to learn than The Real Instruments...

I would never think that "I can do it".... mostly because I'm in a better position than most to fully know what's possible and also to know  that I really don't have the years left to master it. 

One reason, that I was writing above,  is the instrument itself. It gives us really no help. While the more complicated instruments are built with Playing Ease in mind, alternate fingerings to make certain passages possible, the harmonica really has none, unless you count the confusing C's and F's.

So I probably wasn't clear. 

This is a very difficult instrument to master. I have no thoughts of mastering it. I will be better than most, simply because of my history, my location (near Tommy Morgan) and the fact that I'm retired, don't have to make an honest living, and my court-mandated ankle bracelet makes me stay home. Ideal for practice. (another six months, and it comes off)

I have never worked as hard at anything, music-wise , as I've done on the Toy Instrument. Never. And I've played "real" instruments for money for forever. (Ok, sure, some people who hired me must have been deaf, but mostly not)

Read or reread my site where my ghost writers say something about the built in features of instruments. I think it's on the page called LESSONS. 

I have never said this was easy. It's not.

That said, when Tommy sends me a student, we both learn. But only the student realizes it, i suppose. Teaching is not easy. I'm not all that good at it, but getting better. I prefer to teach people who already play an instrument. Makes it all easier.

If I ever said or implied that chromatic harmonica is easy..... well, I didn't.

Most likely I just wrote words in a confusing order.

sorry
as for teaching students with no aptitude for the instrument, sure, I have one guy. He has so much fun, and never gives up....and, in that, has taught me valuable lessons each week.....none of them include the ability to tap his foot on a beat as he plays, or even play the right notes a high percentage of the time, but he has fun... and it's rubbing off on me, the fun part, that is....He's in his 80's.

I'd rather teach people with The Aptitude, but apparently there's stuff to learn by teaching the less Aptitudy people...

To Tommy's credit, and wisdom, when i was learning stuff with him, he NEVER said "that's difficult".... and that's a good thing.

I mean, sure some things are  difficult, but why put that label on it.....that just makes it harder. You always want the student to discern the difficulty for himself, according to HIS/HER skills, not yours.

end.


On Oct 23, 2014, at 9:42 AM, Michael Rubin wrote:

> Nope.  
> 
> People who have an aptitude for understanding how an instrument and music works seem to have a hard time understanding how difficult it is for people without that aptitude.  You, John Kip, seem to be falling into that trap.  Your argument seems to say, "Chromatic is easy!  Look, I can do it!  So, therefore it's easy for everyone."
> 
> What we need is a chromatic book written by someone who has taught many students with low aptitude for learning chromatic, who has learned by trial and error how to explain things to people who for whatever reason have a hard time understanding things.
> 
> It is one of my lifetime goals to write such a book, but to be honest, I am finding very little time for writing nowadays.  Perhaps when my kids get older I will knock one out.  I am sure John Kip will look at it and say, "This is pointless, chromatic is easy.  What a waste of paper, time and energy."  But I believe if I or someone else writes the correct chromatic instruction book, it will up the game for people who want to learn it but would otherwise have a difficult time.
> Michael Rubin
> michaelrubinharmonica.com
> 
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 10:05 AM, Steve Molitor <stevemolitor@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Jon I totally agree with you 98.7%.  You're 10 times the musician I am and
> you know all of this but:
> 
> There would be some very minor advantages to a chromatic etude book.  A
> good etude book is progressive in that it gets harder gradually.  This
> keeps the student progressing without getting bogged down and frustrated
> too early.  What's difficult on one instrument can be easy on another and
> vice versa.  There's a reason why, for example, oboe players mostly use
> oboe books and not flute books.  The ranges are different sure, but it's
> not just that.
> 
> On most woodwinds playing on the high end is difficult - very different
> fingerings, embouchure, etc.  So a beginning or intermediate flute etude
> book will shy away from the third octave for a while.  But on harmonica
> that's easy, might as well start working the third octave pretty early.
> Except for maybe hole 12 and the high D -  might want to hold off on
> introducing that until the student is solid in the standard patterns.
> Conversely, certain trills and ornaments that are very easy on the flute
> are fiendishly difficult on the harmonica.  So you might want to hold of on
> those for a bit.
> 
> Case in point, the very first C major etude in the oboe book I'm using has
> a grace note turn that's a flick of the finger on the oboe but fiendishly
> difficult on the harmonica.  Being the stubborn mule that I am I refused to
> move on to the next etude for a few weeks until I mastered that.  But
> really it would have been better to skip the turn for the time being and
> come back to it in a few months.  But then I'd be afraid I'd forget and
> never come back to it....
> 
> The easiest way to write a good chromatic etude book would be to take a
> public domain flute book and adapt it.  Take some stuff up an octave to
> start working the whole range early on, remove some of those tricky trills
> early on but make sure to add them back in later etudes, augment it with
> some studies focusing on interval jumps, octaves, maybe some double stops.
> You wouldn't need any text, prose or essays in the book - just notes.
> 
> But all of that is pretty easy to do on your own - so I take it back I
> guess I 99.56% agree with you.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 1:23 PM, JON KIP <jon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > I've just been avoiding life and cleaning dishes today, by reading some
> > posts  over on the chromatic harmonica site, from which I'm gratefully
> > banned from posting,  (a great time-saver for me,)
> >
> > I'm disturbed just a bit about the numbers of people who say "we NEED a
> > good book on chromatic harmonica, let's annoy Winslow enough that he
> > convinces his publisher to publish another book, even if they lose
> > money...".
> >
> > There is NO need for another book on the instrument. What people mean is
> > "Gee I'm not as good as I want to be, instead of logically practicing, I'll
> > go look for a book to help me."
> >
> > That's just silly. Avoidance at its best.
> >
> > Playing chromatic harmonica is, in theory, a very simple thing. In
> > practice, however, it takes......er......Practice.
> >
> > You find the right hole
> > you blow or you draw
> > you realize that there are several ways to play certain notes, and you
> > figure out which would be easier in the particular passage you're trying to
> > play..the other silly things about the instrument, you learn to live with.
> > (The "If Toots can do it on the same instrument, then it's possible, so why
> > not give it a try,? approach.)
> >
> > for the adventurous (usually not me), you learn what double and triple
> > stops work....(all the chromatic harmonica books have them)
> >
> > you practice long tones, just like a real musician on most any instrument
> > does.
> >
> > You learn that every piece of music is really just ONE LONG NOTE, divided
> > up into tiny, sometimes, annoying, and difficult,  bits and pieces, some
> > silent and some less silent....and they all count as music.
> >
> > Then you practice for X hours a day for ten years and go play you some
> > music and hope that some very elderly person in your family, after living a
> > great life for well over 96 years, dies and leaves you some money, since
> > you won't make much playing harmonica.
> >
> > But when you die, Nobody will have to say "Gee what a great person he/she
> > was, but what do we do with all these redundant books on chromatic
> > harmonica?"
> >
> > Buy any one of the beginning chromatic harmonica books as a reference if
> > you want, and then buy some flute or oboe studies....
> >
> > And do not, under any circumstances, put the little indications on the
> > flute/oboe music regarding hole number, wind direction, slide position and
> > so on.
> >
> > Actually, perhaps DO put those hieroglyphics in the books, but immediately
> > take the books and quietly (shh! it's a library!!) and secretlly put them
> > in the local library's Flute Study bookcase, just to confuse the flute
> > players....yeah, that's a good idea.
> >
> > there is nothing really complicated about the chromatic harmonica.
> >
> > that's why it's so difficult to master.
> >
> >
> > jk
> >
> >
> >
> > The philosopher Socrates, discovered to his dismay that he was the
> > smartest person in Athens merely because he, and he alone, recognized how
> > ignorant he was.
> > http://jonkip.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 

jk

The philosopher Socrates, discovered to his dismay that he was the smartest person in Athens merely because he, and he alone, recognized how ignorant he was.
http://jonkip.com