Re: [Harp-L] New Member Introducing Myself

[Chris Talbot <ctalbot@xxxxxxxxx>]

Another Skype option is Carlos del Junco. I've been taking lessons from him
over Skype for some time, and I'd highly recommend him as a teacher. Carlos
takes a very methodical approach to harmonica instruction with a focus on
what he calls "transcribing to memory."

Chris


On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 4:56 AM, Tom Watson <fountain@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Chris,
>
> You can get Skype lessons from several people, but (arguably) the best
> teacher is Jason Ricci, if you really want to take your playing to the next
> level.  Besides being a harmonica genius himself, and very knowledgeable
> musically, he is an extremely nice guy to deal with.  The only catch is
> catching him, as his touring schedule has escalated recently.  Reach him at
> www.mooncat.org and click on "Skype".
>
> Tom Watson
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Chris Hofstader
> Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2015 7:27 AM
> To: Brian Stear <brianstear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Harp-L] New Member Introducing Myself
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Iâm an incredibly rank amateur would be blues harmonica player who just
> joined this list. Iâve been playing for something on the order of 25 years
> since I bought Dave Harpâs original âThree Minutes To Blues Harmonicaâ book
> and cassette at Sandyâs Music in Cambridge along with a super cheap Huang
> harp in G. Over the years, Iâve bought a ton of books, tapes and CDs and,
> now, in the Internet age, I enjoy lessons from a bunch of guys on YouTube
> and elsewhere online. I enjoy playing mostly for self satisfaction and have
> only rarely played with other musicians in the past.
>
> The other thing that changed in the years since I first picked up the
> instrument is that I lost all of my vision. I am totally vision impaired
> now, no light, no shadows, nothing. While a lot of the online materials are
> nice for a blind person to use with a screen reader (a screen reader is the
> software we use to have our computers and mobile devices read aloud what
> everyone else would see), most is pretty hard for us. Iâm especially fond
> of Tom Lind and Will Wild but find value in lots of others as well.
>
> The other big change that happened is that I turned 55 in July and have
> decided to mostly retire from my professional commitments and start working
> 20 hours or fewer each week. Thus, Iâll have far more time to play music
> and am planning on starting to attend jams in the three cities where I live
> (Cambridge, St. Petersburg, FL and San Francisco) and maybe do some
> busking. I never expect to be a professional player, I just want to have
> fun, meet fun people and make some music that might bring a smile to some
> strangerâs face.
>
> Iâm an admitted gear geek. I know the first rule of learning to play or
> get better at playing any instrument is all about practice and that the
> hardware is secondary but, as a career engineer, I find the technology
> alluring and my collection of such grows all of the time. The one area I
> might be able to be helpful to others around here might be with getting
> recordings done as, while Iâm not much of a player, Iâve done a lot of
> podcasting work around disability issues and understand both the gear and
> how to get it set up to sound really great. Sorry, the blindness keeps me
> from helping with anything related to video for what Iâll assume is an
> obvious reason.
>
> So, Iâm hear to learn more, maybe meet some people (in addition to living
> in three cities, Iâm traveling a lot and one never knows where Iâll turn up
> next) and hopefully find resources to help take my playing to a level where
> I can have a good time jamming with other peeps at local watering holes.
>
> Lastly, I am looking for a private instructor. Iâm pretty good at the
> technical side of harp playing, I can hit all of the draw bends and make
> decent sounding (to me at least) little solos, 12 bar improvisations mostly
> but would enjoy working with someone who can help move from what Iâve been
> able to learn independently to more formal training. If youâre one who does
> private lessons, please write to me at: cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:
> cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>.
>
> Thanks for having this list available, Iâm grateful to have found it and
> look forward to learning a lot from you folks.
>
>
> Happy Hacking,
> cdh
>   =
>
>
>