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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
RJ Mischo
RJ Mischo
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12gagedan
63 posts
Jun 16, 2011
7:28 AM
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OK, that's four.
My point is not to create a list (start a new thread for that. It might be fun). My point is that the number is small.
Good living solely from playing harp + comfortable retirement + no need for a fundraiser if you get sick = very few people.
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"12gagedan" on youtube
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groyster1
1116 posts
Jun 16, 2011
8:19 AM
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@Diggs
your playing is brilliant but there are some in this forum who said eric clapton cant play guitar it is just difficult for me to understand how they can find fault in somebodys playing that is as good as RJ and as far as comparisons that go on I say why keep score that way nobody wins or loses
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waltertore
1413 posts
Jun 16, 2011
8:29 AM
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making a living off just playing the harmonica is tougher than winning the lottery. That said, if it is in your heart you got to go for it. Life is full of people that have calculated risks and settled for comfortable without blind driven passion. Most people don't have blind driven passion. If most of us did the world would have ended centuries ago. If you are of the driven type personality life has lots of big ups and big downs. But man what a life it is!!
Most big name harp players, and musicians I know that have made it to making a living off it tend to sour on it at some point. Life changes as we age. What worked at 25 probably sounds horrible at 50........ The problem with commercial music (blues included) is society boxes you into a time freeze from you most successful era. Who would go see RJ if he came out playing sitar and no harp?? Creativity usually gets crushed if you stay in it full time too long. Artistic freedom and the music business have never worked in harmony. I am working on changing that by doing it my way and if the business comes my way again they will have to take me as I am or forget it. It use to sound great to think I would have to be playing all my life to survive finacially. That was a teen-30's way of seeing life. Now getting close to 60, it sounds like a living hell. Walter
Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
2,800+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2011 8:32 AM
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12gagedan
66 posts
Jun 16, 2011
12:58 PM
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Good points all, Walt. If you turn your passion into your livelihood, do you risk ruining your passion? I decided to keep hating my job, but keep harp playing in the love category. I suppose I've sacrificed some potential but that was my choice.
Rod tells of cutting hair, running a lawn-cutting business, and he paints/restores old cars on the side. Carey Bell (check me if I've mixed this one up) learned to play bass to make ends meet. Kid Ramos quit touring and worked delivering bottled water for a while.
Some of those decisions are based on kids/marriages. Harman tells of coming home from the road to find his stuff on the lawn. He's been known to spin a yarn, so take that one with a grain of salt.
Passion or not, drive or not, it's likely most of the good, better, and best guys will need other income at some point. I'm not saying they need to put on the golden handcuffs like I wear, but it's pretty daunting how awesome New Blood was, and how little Jason took home.
I think it's great that customizing, harmonica events, and online lessons can provide the modern harp pros an income stream.
I am also glad that Jay Gaunt hasn't dropped out of high school, and that Brandon Bailey is in or planning on college. They will hopefully find balance (Ryan Hartt is a good example of harp success balanced with day gig, IMO) continue to contribute to the modern harmonica world, and wait, or patiently help to create the next resurgence in blues or harp-driven music.
Back to the original topic, I was listening to RJ from the Blues Harp Meltdown CD earlier today. The guy's an entertainer, sho nuff. So, to all, if he's near, go out and see him and then buy a CD.
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"12gagedan" on youtube
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hvyj
1437 posts
Jun 16, 2011
1:38 PM
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There's a guy named John Popper who does pretty well playing harmonica. Incidentally, he happens to have an original and pretty much unique style.
Competence on the instrument can be judged by objective criteria. A player's STYLE OF PLAY is judged by subjective standards--you like it or you don't. Just because RJ's playing happens to bore me does NOT mean he is not a very competent player. On the other hand, I'll drive a few hours and pay whatever happens to be the price of admission to see Sugar Blue whenever i can. Others would not walk across the street to see SB if he was playing. There's no accounting for taste and there ain't no right or wrong about what style someone happens to enjoy listening to.
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waltertore
1414 posts
Jun 16, 2011
1:43 PM
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12gagedan: I have had over 300 day gigs over the years to make ends meat. They were all entry level,usually manual labor gigs that I would walk away from once some more $ came in from music. I was always interested in the special education world. I started as an aide in a classroom (HS diploma I had) and that inspired me to go to college and become a special education teacher. It is a passion. I could not do a job I didn't like, live with a womam that didn't inspire my love, or live in a place I didn't like. I don't judge others, just sharing my way of doing life . Life is so short and is too precious to waste it in meaningless endeavors. I have been happily married for 31 years. From day one I said no kids and be ready to live in shit, move alot, and music is #1. Music is still #1. I mean this not to say my wife is #2 but without my music I would be dead, insane, or in jail. Compromising my music is as bad as losing it completely. I don't understand how people can compromise their art so much. I have had numerous offers that would have put me on a national level like playing on acadamey award winning soundtracks, recording on major labels, being in famous bands, all if I quit spontobeat and did it like everyone else. I will always follow my passions wherever they take me. Money and fame would be a nice byproduct, but not in the original equation. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
2,800+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2011 1:47 PM
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Diggsblues
809 posts
Jun 16, 2011
3:01 PM
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@groyster1 Thanks I'm glad somebody likes my playing I
was beginning to wonder. LOL
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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12gagedan
67 posts
Jun 16, 2011
3:17 PM
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Popper writes and sings tunes that had pop appeal, but I'll definitely count him as a dude who made a good living on the harp.
Walt, good for you. That's your path. For the record, I'm pretty ok with my career. I like seeing new molecules with amazing healing potential move through development, towards waiting patients. I also think I would go nuts in a touring/performing sort of life.
I should've clarified that I'm unhappy with my current role, but I took it to avoid quitting and to get moved across the country again. Life's too short for me to worry about my next meal, or to dread bankruptcy as a result of an illness.
I think you're inspirational, Walter. You've followed your musical heart, and your day gig fulfills you too. That's the balance I was speaking to, a balance I hope others can find.
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"12gagedan" on youtube
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waltertore
1415 posts
Jun 16, 2011
3:53 PM
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from my experience being around the music business the key to being successfull is a willingness to compromise yourself. I am talking about compromising things likethese which all came my way and I said no to all of them:
#firing your longtime band to get signed to a label
#playing songs, styles that don't appeal to you
#be willing to do the drugs of choice in a scene that wants you in it.
#allow labels to dictate the songs, instrumentation, tones of the instruments, you will put on a record
#never say no to anything that involves an upward movement regardless of what it may be
#be willing to be a sideman on any project that will pay you
#don't offend agents, club owners, media people, festival organizers even though thier actions would make a normal person puke
#shape your sound around what is currently popular
#never say a bad word in public about anyone who could affect your career(why most pros stay off these forums)
These are a few that come right to mind. Walter
12gagedan: thanks, but to be honest I am driven to my music my way with no compromise. If I did compromise I would have killed myself a long time ago. I mean this in all seriousness. That is the option for someone that is driven/has to get thier sound out the way it wants to come out. I am talking about being a channel for the music vs. controlling the music. When I try to controll it, it is like trying to hold water in your hands. It disapears. Sure I could do the compromises and release a real slick sounding album but then it would just be another one of millions that are much the same- full of compromise, pre thought out to maximize income, and polished over and over until perfect. I would be ok with this way for building a house, but for me, art needs to flow without any worldly concerns. It is the one place I can do anything and still live to see tomorrow. The traditional way of doing music(write, edit, rehearse, repeat, record, tour the song) is of no interest to me. Bagging groceries at walmart sound more exciting. At least there I would get to meet some interesting characters........
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
2,800+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2011 4:07 PM
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REM
77 posts
Jun 16, 2011
7:14 PM
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hvjy says:"Like many players tend to do, RJ is, for the most part, bending the blow note down. A big part of the emotion of the blues comes from playing one of the blue notes bent or flatted against the corresponding major chord tone and then RELEASING the bend UP so that the blue note/bent note resolves UP into the chord. On the high end, this requires the player to hit the blow note bent and release it up, not bend it down. Of course, this requires a higher level of skill and control. This is what I am referring to when i say that I find his blow bends (for the most part) unaesthetic."
I agree with most of what you're saying in regards to hitting blow notes bent, except for the fact that that's EXACTLY what RJ is doing. Almost every blow bend he plays is hit bent and then released up. Only a couple times does he bend down(and there's nothing wrong with that when done right and in the right context), and even then he often starts by hitting the note bent, releasing it up, and then bending it back down. A good example of blow bending down in first position is a riff like: +9 bent down to +9b, +8b, +7. This is just like playing: -4, -4b, -3b, -2 in second position, which is a blues riff that is played all the time (both these riffs can also be, and often are, played by hitting the note bent and then releasing it up before bending it back down).
So I don't really understand your critique of RJ's blow bending, considering he's doing exactly what you saying he should be doing.
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2011 7:17 PM
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crawfishdave
14 posts
Jun 16, 2011
7:35 PM
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I discovered RJ through Mark Hummel's "Blues Harmonica Blowout Vol. 2" and became an instant fan. The man has a great voice and I really love his harmonica playing. It is by no means cliche or boring. "He Came to Play" is pretty amazing stuff.
Last Edited by on Jun 16, 2011 7:42 PM
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groyster1
1121 posts
Jun 16, 2011
10:54 PM
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@Diggs
yes I have listened to your postings before you blow harp very well but RJ is not bad also actually wish I had not argued about it in the first place I am only a rank amatuer and look up to all of you
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hvyj
1438 posts
Jun 17, 2011
10:02 AM
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@REM: Maybe i need to go back and listen more carefully. The blow bends down caught my ear and jumped out at me. Perhaps his hitting blow notes bent and releasing them up were so smooth I didn't pick up on them all with a relatively quick listen.
After all, by any objective standard, he is a technically very proficient player. If i could play like he plays, i wouldn't play what he plays--but, that's a purely stylistic consideration and such preferences are inherently subjective.
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