Oisin
366 posts
Oct 30, 2009
1:18 PM
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Hey Adam and all you other forum members. I was talking to a (non-musical)friend of mine the other day about harps and amps etc and found myself having to stop every few minutes to explain what I meant about things like Hi-Z mikes and valve amps and overblowing. You tend to forget that everyone else dosen't play the harmonica....a bit like when you start a new job and it takes you a few weeks to get your head round the industry jargon.
I then remembered the blank expression I had on my face when I first was taught the harp...my teacher going on about head-shakes and turnarounds and I,IV,V etc and not having a clue what he was talking about.
I bet it's the same for every newbie...so how about we add a Glossary of terms and expressions to the menu on the left hand-side of the page? A sort of Harmo-Wiki.?
We have enough experts on this forum to do it...what do you think? Is it doable? Do new guys think it would be valuable?
Oisin
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MrVerylongusername
592 posts
Oct 30, 2009
1:24 PM
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Big job, but a great idea. I like the idea of a Wiki. Not too knowledgable about setting such a thing up, but I'm sure there are folk on the board who could. Then we could all contribute and Adam could link to it. (I think it'd be too hard to create something within macwebsitebuilder, but linking is easy)
I'm game.
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mickil
598 posts
Oct 30, 2009
1:40 PM
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Hi Oisin,
We already have something that fits your description that's linked to from the FAQs page on this site. Here's the link:
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/myquill/
It describes all the terms, has sound clips, talks about technique - I very quickly got my first overblow from it's descriprion. - and, in short, is one of the most helpful resources I've ever found on the web.
Perhaps a 'Glossary' link with a link to that page would achieve what you suggest.
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YouTube SlimHarpMick
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GermanHarpist
643 posts
Oct 30, 2009
2:24 PM
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What about:
http://www.WIKIMONICA.org
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germanharpist on YT.
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Oisin
367 posts
Oct 30, 2009
2:26 PM
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Mick,
that is an excellent site and one I've used myself many times. However what I was thinking of was a very simple list of words and terms with a very short description and perhaps also a link to sites like this for more detail. As VLU says it would be a big job but I think one that the forum members would be up to.
Oisin
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GermanHarpist
644 posts
Oct 30, 2009
2:34 PM
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I had the same idea in the summer during my exams and got so excited that I snapped the domain...
I think it would be awesome to have a MBH wiki for harmonica.
The advantage of having an own wiki instead of building on the existing ones, is that you can have your own rules.
However, using the wikibook one would of course be less work.
Anyway, did I mention? I'M IN!
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germanharpist on YT.
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GermanHarpist
646 posts
Oct 30, 2009
2:39 PM
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It could be a way of collecting all the scattered harmonica information on the internet.
Of course it would be an ongoing project and a lot of work but if there's one community that could stem it, it's us!
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germanharpist on YT.
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MrVerylongusername
593 posts
Oct 30, 2009
2:46 PM
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I think the potential is awesome, like the harp-l archive, but in a more concise, structured format. Now that Adam has finished "giving it all away" I think this is a fitting way to keep alive that spirit.
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Delta Dirt
15 posts
Oct 30, 2009
4:21 PM
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Hell, ive been playing in clubs for 30 years and dont know what half the techno jargon means.
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MrVerylongusername
594 posts
Oct 30, 2009
4:40 PM
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Delta Dirt - a wiki is a website that is collectively written. Anyone can contribute on the understanding that what they write is subject to edits by their peers. Generally it is a self-regulating system that works pretty well.
That is the idea behind the huge online encyclopaedia that is wikipaedia. The technology has been used to create smaller "wikis" - same collaborative process, but perhaps a narrower subject focus.
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sopwithcamels266
224 posts
Oct 30, 2009
5:14 PM
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Ha ha 3 or 4 of you on this site kinda follow each other around in little clicks mention no names.
I am just finishing up in studio after a long day noticed an interesting little chain.
Oisan:That aside no I don't think it is a good Idea at all.
Putting that sort of a chart out will get rid of more folk than it will attract.
Yea you'l get some but you know, if your hungry enough you find out right. Hand outs don't make good copy.
It's not rocket science.
Last Edited by on Oct 30, 2009 5:15 PM
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Oisin
369 posts
Oct 30, 2009
6:03 PM
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Come on SOP...don't get all negative on me man!!
Before Adam came along there wasn't a great deal out there for us harp players ...now look at what we've got. Why should we have to trawl the web to find out what something means when we could have all that info right here...or at least a link to it. I'd like the MBH site to be THE site of choice for every harp player with all the information you ever need either available here or a click away (link).
Maybe you had a bad day at the studio eh? You weren't recording those Irish X factor ejits were you?
Oisin
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nacoran
299 posts
Oct 31, 2009
9:02 AM
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Sopwith- I disagree with your assessment of the epistemology. Searching all over the place just teaches you to search, not how to harp. Learning to search has value but if the searching takes up time that could be spent practicing? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a little Liberal Arts/ Gen Ed, but I think this is a great idea. It doesn't have to take over the boards. The key is to run it effectively as a side project.
One of the first things we'd need to do is just start compiling lists of good source material. I've got a list of websites I've found while searching my harp for answers. I'll weed through and post some of the best.
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Oisin
370 posts
Oct 31, 2009
5:04 PM
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Well so far most people think this would be a good idea (still waiting to hear from Adam but I'm assuming he would think this also).
So how would we go about doing it? Set up a new site with a link to it on the main menu on the left or is there another way?
I was also thinking that we could link other sites to the wiki for example under "tuning" you could put a link to Pat Missins tuning page where you can download nearly every tuning known to man.
This could be such a great resourse and with the number of experts we have on the forum I'd say we have thousands of years of harmonica expertise at our fingertips......
Adam
Buddha
Harpwrench
Dave Payne
Barbeque Bob
Issachcullah
and not forgetting Jon Sparrow
However I think that the main man will end up being German Harpist as he did such an awesome job with the forum archive.
Is this doable????
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arzajac
77 posts
Oct 31, 2009
8:35 PM
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It is doable. My only concern is that we would be reinventing the wheel. What would make this wiki different from the other two resources already available?
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/myquill/
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Harmonica
Setting up the site is trivial. We could use Mediawiki (which is the software Wikipedia uses) or any one of a dozen other wiki engines (docuwiki, MoinMoin, etc...) We could also use another type of Content Management System. It depends on the needs.
I could set this up in about 20 minutes either way. If someone already has a domain name for this, I could host the site for free. I host several sites from one "bulk" web hosting package so adding others don't come with any cost.
Here are a few of my sites all hosted from the same account:
http://apqi.com
http://oscp.ca
http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org
http://andrewzajac.ca
Domain names cost 10 dollars per year - that would be the only expense. As I mentioned, if someone else already has a domain name for this, they could point it to my hosting provider's server. If at any time you want to reclaim your site, just point the domain name back to where you want it.
So, I, too, think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't want to waste anyone's time if the information is already out there. But I'm willing to volunteer to get this going if enough people think it makes sense.
I would insist on making the information on this wiki available through a non-restrictive license such as Public Domain or Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. Basically, anyone who contributes content to this project does so in a way that doesn't prevent others from accessing, copying, remixing and redistributing the information. The difference between the two example licenses I suggest are that the latter (CC-BY-SA) insists on attribution; you can copy the text, but if you re-use it anywhere else, you have to give attribution to the source ("I got this from the MBH wiki", "written by...") A Public Domain license basically means everybody owns this, do as you like without any conditions.
The kind of license I don't think works well for this kind of thing is one that has a lot of restrictions such as saying that you need permission to copy and paste the information, or you can use it for anything you like so long as it's non-commercial... People need to be able to interface fully with the content or they tend to be less keen on contributing.
Anyway, that's just my two cents...
Last Edited by on Oct 31, 2009 8:48 PM
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Oisin
371 posts
Oct 31, 2009
8:51 PM
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Hey Arzajac thanks for that reply. I was totally unaware of the Wikibooks site and have just checked it out...it's sort of what I was thinking of in the first place.
After reflection of what you have said and also SOP, I can see your point of view in that what ever we tried to do, it has been done somewhere already.
However in my head I see a pretty simple sort of page where we would have like a harmonica dictionary , for example, the term headshake;
Headshake.....also know as warble: playing two notes next to each other at various speeds by moving the head or harp back and forth. For more information clink this link...http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Harmonica/Advance_techniques#Shake
I know, not the best description but just an example of what I mean. A new harp player can instantly find out what he needs to know and in the case above it could also be linked to a sound file (or youtube video)of someone doing a head shake.
It would take a lot of work but it would be a great harp resource.
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