[Harp-L] What is Harp-L?

[Will Jennings]

Started on this forum when USENET was how people with accounts linked to servers on the Web’s various nodules could start a discussion group on pretty much anything.

USENET was a haven for a smaller group of enthusiasts of all types with shared interests, who then developed FAQs so that groups could self-govern as if the Internet was a commons.

If you do not know what a Commons is, please refer to Eleanor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize winning research on the subject and The Rules For Governing A Commons she refined from international study of their successful and sustainable practice.

When AOL and PCs (all makes) Bega to have default WYSISYG interfaces, then AOL and ORACLE and others started subscription services to mimic USENET and open access—for a fee.

Many mark this as the point of no return in the complication a even degradation of USENET as a commons.

Harp-L transferred from USENET to an email Listserv that was built and maintained by a group of dedicated and often unthanked volunteers.

It served, as had been noted, as a gathering commons for All Things Harmonica.

It has weathered periods of troll storming, misinformation, people trying to use it to self-promote their personal sales of teaching materials, and all manner of behaviors that straight up broke rules or shaded the truth enough to sneak by,.

I played, toured, recorded, and still perform occasionally.  I have learned a great deal about set ups and different playing styles and ways to approach everything from classical to Cajun music.  It ain’t all the Blues.
I’ve played more than one iteration of Buddy Guy’s club in Chicago and all over the US, Canada, and sold recordings world wide.  Not bragging. Far from it.  I’ve retired from that part of music.

The gist here is that this is A COMMONS.  And “The Tragedy of The Commons”, if you take time to study it, is a piece of bullshit written to argue that capitalist & corporate control is the only way to keep people in line.

We are self-governing, and if AA—run by a bunch of drunks—can work as a commons which has helped save a great many lives (and is NOT the only solution…so spare me) can change and survive and still deliver the goods,
Then I’m guessing so can Harp-L.

As for the diminishing returns of content, a great deal of what Harp-L used to provide is now available on YouTube and Vimeo and a vast array of search engine produced sources.  

It’s still an oasis, just not the only oasis.

So post some content about playing that introduces what about the harmonica drives your passion, and accept that truths that other angles of passions are just as valid and not confuse them for arguments.

Me?  When I went through chemo a few year back, continuing to play harp every day kept my blood-ox levels up and helped me woodshed some tunes.
I also learned to finger pick a Low G Tenor Ukulele so I could learn, after decades, to play an instrument and sing at the same time….
Now I’m experimenting with playing diatonic accordion with a harp rack to see how I can mix octaves and runs.
Loopers, FX pedals, re-tubing amps to make them more harp friendly, finally learning some overblow and overdraw passages.
Putting years of tips on proper setting up of reeds and slots, shading tunings for different musical styles….practicing all manner of major and minor and harmonic minor scales….

Yeah, plenty to keep us busy here.

Got a warm up or practice routine you use to keep your embouchure in shape? Your tongue blocking nimble? The sometimes-monotony of scales more interesting?

No shortage of ideas to share that lead to learning.

I taught writing for 30 years, I really don’t want to critique other people’s playing and suggest how they ‘fix it’…..but that’s me.  Others may benefit from the upload-critique model.  But if the elect a bunch of suggestions about how you will learn much more quickly by paying into someone’s lesson plans…well, that’s business and not a learning commons.

My 34 cents of years being a part of this in one form or another.

Hiya FJM, if you’re still out there. Miss ya.  You, too Jim R and Rick Rocket.

Will