[Harp-L] Golden Melody

[Mick Zaklan]

   Just as an aside; back in the late 70's or early 80's, I was fortunate
enough to take lessons from Howard Levy for a couple of months. At that
time, no one seemed to be modifying or tuning diatonic harps. Or at least
advertising it. Whatever you played was out of the box. Howard was
insistent that only Golden Melody harps could be used for the lessons. He
felt they were the easiest harmonicas to overblow. I remember being
chastised for using a different model harp one lesson.
   I had to be one of his earliest students and I believe he was largely
unknown outside Chicago. At that time a good portion of his income came
from playing diatonic harmonica on jingle sessions. My lessons were often
interrupted by phone calls checking on his availability for studio work. I
doubt anyone would have called him if the Golden Melodies he was using were
not blending in with the rest of the instruments. His main squeeze was a GM
in the key of G.
   I recall that occasionally he would hit a horrible sounding overblow,
pause the lesson, and drill that passage over and over again until he had
it sounding smooth and in tune. It was almost like I wasn't in the room and
he just had to erase that bad sound from his brain.