MUSICAL MAGIC or MUSICAL MAYHEM

THE HARMONICA REVEALED

by Robbert Trice

Almost everyone in the Western World and much of the Far East has at one time or another possessed one, and perhaps even today, laying forgotten in the littered bottom of a toy box or dresser drawer of your home is one of these little treasures of instrumental technology - the harmonica.

First invented in the 1830's and mass marketed by the M. Hohner of Germany in the1850's, the harmonica's design has remained basically unchanged for over 150 years. My journey as a harmonica player began when I was eighteen. New to Blues and Jazz music, I was deep into an educational listening session at a friend's place. He, a musician, was the same age as I, but had been an avid listener to these musical forms from the age of twelve and had amassed a vast collection of albums.

Being as I had a lot of catching up to do, we were buried in a blues exploration. At one point, after listening to several cuts, there was a pause as he rummaged for something particular to place on the turntable. A tune began and suddenly, I am hearing this instrumental that just blows me away. Having no idea what this is, I turned to him after the cut was done. "What was THAT?" "Harp" "Harp?" "Harmonica" "No way. Harmonica doesn't sound like that." "Well, I guess you've never heard Chicago Blues, Little Walter, or amplified harmonica before."

So it started like that. I just could not believe anyone could get that sound and that quality of music from the humble harmonica. It was a huge sound, with an incredible, edgy bite to the tone and the artist known as Little Walter played the blues like a horn player might play it. From that moment on, I was hooked on wanting to play the harmonica. Mouth organ, blues harp, Mississippi saxophone, tin sandwich, whatever it was called did not change the fact that you could get a lot of music from a ten hole piece of wood sandwiched between two pieces of metal and containing twenty little brass reeds all of which cost at that time about $5.25. That was magic. This wasn't just about amplification, either. If you sounded bad unamplified, there was no way amplification would improve that.

So, I had to solve this mystery. I had to find out how to play the harmonica. It would take me another 25 years to begin to accomplish this. I tentatively began to explore the harmonica's possibilities. With little music background, and virtually no comprehensible harmonica instruction available, I used the time honored method of learning some licks off of records. I bought a few different keys of harp, and practiced during my long commute to work and back.

However, other questions of life took precedence and the mysteries of the harmonica remained largely unsolved. I continued to listen to blues and jazz and expand my knowledge in this arena. I began to gain an appreciation for many forms of music. And my love for the music continued to deepen. Time passed, adventures, jobs and artistic projects came and went, a family happened. And always this annoying, unscratched itch of how to really be a musician was there.

Years passed and I kept revisiting the entire scenario of playing music. I decided that it had bothered me long enough and that I would learn to really play some kind of music before I bloody well died. So, I took out my harps, some of which I still had from when I was a kid. Oh I had continued to play a little during those intervening years, and I had increased my harp arsenal, but I had never succeeded in really learning to play it in the right key with other musicians, playing the right stuff at the right time.

I decided I would commit to the harmonica and to playing some blues. A friend, a 40 year veteran rock musician, told me,"Well if you really love the instrument and you're serious, find a good teacher." In one way, although I felt I had lost a lot of time, I also realized that where there had been a derth of information, there was now a wealth of information and it was all a mouse click away. Several evenings of exciting research later, I had investigated the worldwide harmonica community, located upcoming local performance dates for current pros, updated my harmonica album collection, augmented my instruments and equipment, obtained learning materials, found a teacher, signed up for workshops. Talk about getting up to speed in a hurry!

Also, online was an amazing variety of free learning materials to try. Now, of course, there is youtube which has innumerable webcam lessons and clips of all the past famous and current players. I really wasn't doing all this because I had nothing better to do, or because I was retired and needed a hobby. I had never fulfilled the aim to play music. I had been playing some percussion for many years, but I always had felt that I wanted to deepen by ability to really articulate in the language of music. And my voice was the harmonica. The moment I began to toy with seriously learning the harp, I felt that itch replaced with a smoldering excitement. The moment I committed to the instrument, those coals which had been heaped over with the ash of life experience burst into a small flame, fuelled by all the recent input.

For me, the most viable strategy time - wise and financially, was to sign up for a future 3 day workshop in the Bay area, then study and practise like hell to get ready for it. I added some necessity to the situation by deciding I wanted the extra training to able to teach the instrument as well. If I wanted to teach, then I really would have to feel I played well enough and understood well enough what I was doing to be able to help someone else.

Learning to play has less to do with ability then it does with love, intention, persistence, listening to the music you wish to play, and wanting that vehicle for expression. And it should be fun. Maybe challenging, but that should be fun too. If you aren't having fun, then reconsider your approach. Your approach will probably be different if you fully intend to be a professional player, or if you simply wish to play in the privacy of your own home, because that's what you enjoy. Often, you start because of an initial attraction, with no idea how far you'll take it. It doesn't matter why you decide to start, just start, if you are so inclined, and see where it leads.

With harmonica, an initial investment of around $25.00 for a decent harp in the key of Cmajor and some time on the web is all you need to start. Take it a little further, get some instructional material, or a first lesson, maybe you are looking at another $30.00 or $40.00, certainly under $100.00. The harmonica is so versatile. There are famous players in almost all genres of music…blues, jazz, classical, rock, country, Irish, folk and more.

Learning to play the harmonica well, I guess, is like learning to do anything well; the work never ends…but the key is while you may have a destination in mind, you are also enjoying the journey. I try to put myself in the framework of a musician who happens to play the harmonica, rather than just a harp blower. I mean I like being a harp blower, but if I consider myself as a musician then it's more inclusive of all the skills necessary to play music with others. Harp players come in all brands. Just depends on the context. On what you do.

In Blues music, a harp player often is the front man or band leader and singer. So, he'll sing the tune, play a lead line and maybe fills in between his vocal lines(James Cotton, Paul Butterfield, Mark Hummel). You might be a singer songwriter, accompanying your vocals with guitar and playing leads and fills with a racked harp(Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Jackie Green, John Hammond). These are often pretty different styles of playing. A jazz player (Toots Theilemans, Mike Turk) or a classical soloist(Larry Adler, Robert Bonfiglio) will usually play a chromatic harp and be backed by a jazz band, or classical ensemble, respectively.

There are professionals in Rock, Irish, and Country music as well and lots of cross over players known for versatility(Norton Buffalo, Clint Hoover). There are very unusual players who can play anything on the diatonic harmonica, the most famous pioneer being Howard Levy. So, many artists have made a career from playing the harmonica and have been doing so for 150 years. When I started playing the harmonica, there was basically one brand…Germany's M. Hohner, virtually originating the mass market instrument in the 1850's and probably today still the biggest selling brand.

However, during a quality slump somewhere in the later 70s and early 80s, several other brands began to claim more of the market place. Lee Oskars, developed by the renowned player from the band War, became known as a high quality instrument. Herring, from Brazil, Susuki, from Japan, Huang from China, Seydel from Germany are also competing in today's market. There are a variety of types of harmonica as well as brands. The two main types are diatonic(meaning 8 tone scale)and chromatic(meaning 12 tone scale). There are also bass harmonicas and orchestral harmonicas which are meant to be played in a harmonica ensemble(the Harmonicats, the Harmonica Rascals).

The most common harmonica is the diatonic. That's the one that is employed by most artists in most of the musical forms mentioned above. In Jazz or Classical, the chromatic is most commonly used. The diatonic is designed so the player can play a simple melody in the middle of the instrument and sound a couple of chords to accompany himself on the low end. The note layout of the chromatic gives the player full chromatic scales to play. This instrument was invented in the 1920's to answer a demand for jazz, as the diatonic was next to impossible to play jazz on.

I play mostly diatonic, and some chromatic. They have a different voice and I find both very useful to have in my repertoire. A chromatic was only produced in the key of C and maybe G, the idea being that if you were playing chromatic, you knew your scales, etc. Now, the chromatic is produced in all 12 keys, for various reasons. The diatonic was always produced in most keys and today, the player will generally have several keys to choose from depending on the song and will switch keys for different songs and even during one song may switch harps more than once. Being that the diatonic is already transposed for the player, you need less knowledge to play it than a chromatic, if you are playing a chromatic, chromatically, that is. It still takes knowledge to play the diatonic well.

R.C. Trice

Resonance Fine Art and Music

P.O. Box 83 Penn Valley, CA 95946

530-274-0388

artframeshop@yahoo.com