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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
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Blowhead9
3 posts
May 29, 2014
2:39 PM
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OK, I tried this before, blues harmonica, starting back in the early eighties. I remember reading everything I could find, which wasn't much, and listening to everything I could which was quite a lot, concentrating on the Walters and Kim Wilson. Picking up the needle, playing licks over and over, same thing was even harder with CDs, when they came around.
Anyway, it was hard, and I never reached a level of proficiency that would allow me to play out with others on the harmonica.
Then I found and read an interview with K. Wilson, where he talked about going to Austin, etc... and he stated that he had never practiced, would never play an instrument that required practice, and that the harp just came natural to him. I was completely broken...and around the same time some other musical opportunities presented themselves and i dropped the harp. I know now that Kim was pulling legs in that interview.
Anyway, the learning resources now are amazing by comparison, and I'm back!
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For every moment of triumph, every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. HST
Last Edited by Blowhead9 on May 29, 2014 2:39 PM
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nacoran
7787 posts
May 30, 2014
1:10 AM
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Welcome back, then. I think I once disheartened a musician. He was struggling to play bass after a couple years of unfocused practice. I was just learning harmonica (maybe a month in) and I asked him to call out a song and see if I could play it. He did, and I did, on the first try.
Of course, it was only London Bridge is Falling Down, and I'd grown up singing and playing other instruments, but it was beyond his bass skill and put the nail in the coffin of his bass career. :)
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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Blowhead9
4 posts
May 30, 2014
3:31 AM
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Last night was playing along (poorly)with Carey Bell on the Jimmy Rogers Blue Bird album. Man, Carey put on a complete chicago blues clinic on that one.
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For every moment of triumph, every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. HST
Last Edited by Blowhead9 on May 30, 2014 3:32 AM
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jbone
1636 posts
May 30, 2014
5:21 AM
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Carey Bell was a phenom all by himself. The cd Tough Luck changed my whole perception of how to address the instrument. Carey to me actually showed real love with a harmonica. I don't know how else to say it.
In '84 I was a lost soul harp-wise, and for many years after. What changed? I think for me, becoming much more a student. A sort of humbling myself and admitting that I needed help and I needed to get down to basics.
Even so, I have never taken a course or learned a scale, probably to my detriment. I do damned well though. 40+ years of struggle- and success- if one has not got it by then one needs to find a new avocation! Fortunately there have been some very kind people who have helped me along.
The resources available, starting with this site right here- are so great these days. But I have no time to wish for what was not, only to mover along and keep the joy going!
I got a lot of benefit starting early on, playing with people better than me, and playing out at jams and such. These days at the drop of a hat wife and I will do a set on the street, at a business, a cafe, restaurant, fundraiser, whatever. We have a locally successful cd which went to IBC a few years ago and a new one on the back burner.
I encourage you to get in all the way and don't look back!
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Blowhead9
5 posts
May 30, 2014
7:39 AM
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I have a bunch of harps left over from the 80s to early 90s, but just bought a new C MB. My god, are they all this good?
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For every moment of triumph, every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled. HST
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