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

[Mike Price <mikerockin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is an interesting subject to me as I have acquired many harmonic books over the last 25 years. The majority are diatonic but I do have a handful of chromatic guides which I thought were great ( David Harp, Blackie Schackner and Richard Hunter to name a few )

So to answer the question. "Does anybody NEED another book..â I would say Yes! however I think I am done buying harmonica books.

I have around 30 books, the first purchased in 1988. Just curious, I wonder how many harmonica books other folks have picked up over the years? 

Mike
> On Oct 23, 2014, at 12:42 PM, Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx> 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
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>