[Harp-L] What first attracted you to harmonica? Why did you learn to play it?

[Chris Hofstader]

Hi,

Way back in the late seventies, early eighties, I was the vocalist for a hardcore punk act. We were not a very good band but we got a lot of gigs, toured US on the Rock Against Reagan tour and Europe on Rock Against Racism. Thankfully, we are a long forgotten act and all three of us (we don’t count the drummers as they were in and out so often that you couldn’t keep track without a scorecard). In 1983, we broke up and I moved to Boston to join the MIT hacker scene.

My musical tastes grew more sophisticated over time and I spent my late twenties and early thirties going to a ton of jazz and blues performances. I was at the Regatta Bar in Harvard Square to hear James Cotton play. Between sets, he came over to our table to shake hands and, as is often the case, to play with my guide dog. I told him how I enjoyed his playing, he gave me a harmonica and told me to learn to play it. The next day on my way home from work, I stopped in Sandy’s Music on Mass. Ave and they told me to get Dave Harp’s original “Blues Harp For The Musical Idiot” and sold me a Huang harp in G as G was what Dave was using for beginners.

A year or so later, I’d meet Dave Harp up at the Vermont Blues Festival and we became friends. Most of my time since, though, was spent making software for people with disabilities (if you’ve an iPhone or other iOS device and turn on VoiceOver, you’re hearing some of my work) but I’d always continued to play around with the instrument. In the last couple of years, I’ve been slowly trying to retire and have started taking my harmonica playing more seriously. I have a real teacher (Tomlin Leckey) and I practice at least a half hour per day, most days more.

I’ve no aspirations to greatness, I just love the instrument as a listener and I enjoy playing the things I can. The other day, I was walking up Haight Street in San Francisco, heard a guy playing slide guitar and sat in with him busking. We did pretty good on tips but I think that’s a function of people seeing a blind guy with a big goofy black Labrador playing blues on the street and open their wallets. This was the closest thing I’ve come to “professional” performance since I was in that hardcore act back in the late seventies, early eighties. 

I play for fun, I play to distract myself from my partner’s cancer, I play for the joy that one feels when they hit a lick right for the first time and say, “damn, that was pretty cool.”

So, that’s my story.

Happy Hacking,
cdh