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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Bus stop harp lesson
Bus stop harp lesson
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SuperBee
911 posts
Feb 15, 2013
11:23 AM
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I often do a little practice while waiting for the bus. The other day I was heading home early, to be ready for a radio interview and performance. I had a harp and decided to run through a couple of songs I'd be playing later; wish you would, and have a good time.
This bus stop is right outside the salvos office in town, where folks come for food vouchers. Across the street is some new welfare housing, and next to that is an old pub which is now a backpackers hostel...and the social security office occupies about half the block. There's a fair bit of passing foot traffic. Most ignore me. Sometimes people look at me pointedly, mainly kids. I guess there's a chance I seem to be a transient person. The folks at the salvos have heard me enough to pass comment...
Anyway, I was playing with my back to the street, into a corner which gave a nice resonance, and I turned around to look for the bus, to find a young man staring at me. I finished the song and he began speaking to me. He said he was also a player and produced a hohner pro harp. He told me he'd been playing 2 weeks and was proud he could already bend.
Well, my bus was in view, there wasn't long to speak, but the guy demonstrated a very weak and breathy 2 draw bend to me.
I guess he was a backpacker, maybe French, maybe 20. I told him I used to think I had the bends under control, but then I did some work with a tutor who sorted me out about that. I could see the bus, I decided there was only time for 1 idea, so I played 2 draw. G, F#, F, F#, G.
"How do you do that?" How do I give this guy something to take away, in 1 minute? I said, just play 2 draw and start to bend it, take the bend all the way down and let it back up, like this, and demoed taking it down and letting it back up. I said, when you can do that then you can practice stopping at the notes, and showed him my 2 hole exercise. The bus was at the stop...the kid was smiling and saying thank you, thank you
I dunno, that's the weirdest lesson I ever gave. Not that I've given many. But thinking about it, it may have actually been about the best thing I could have shown him. Given the same situation I think I'd do the same again.
Anyway, when I started writing this I was just gonna tell the story, but now I'm curious. What would you show an aspiring player who had little knowledge but had a rudimentary grasp of how to bend a note, if you only had time to give them one idea?
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Last Edited by SuperBee on Feb 15, 2013 11:24 AM
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nacoran
6499 posts
Feb 15, 2013
11:54 AM
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Make sure they know that you can play a single note at a time (if they are getting bends they probably already have that figured out), and if they don't know about tongue blocking, explain the principle. And give them a couple good sites and search terms to find more. Show them the joys of the dirty double stop if you've got time left. (Why does everything harmonica sound so filthy?)
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Nate
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SuperBee
912 posts
Feb 15, 2013
12:12 PM
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That's 4 things Nate!
But fair enough...
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Last Edited by SuperBee on Feb 15, 2013 12:13 PM
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isaacullah
2326 posts
Feb 15, 2013
12:13 PM
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That's a great story and really interesting question! I used to take the bus to campus every day back in Arizona up until this year when I moved out here to South Bend. Over the four or five years of that, I had maybe 20 or 30 "encounters" at the stop, where another person would be there. Some ignored me, but most engaged me after. Only once was it someone who had an interest in playing harp. He didn't have his harmonica with, but I showed him about the bends, very similarly to what you did. That was something that he had heard about but never actually HEARD, so was going about it all wrong. I'm not sure if he ever figured it out (I never saw him again), but that's the thing I thought was most useful to him at the time, and that's probably still the thing I think I'd teach if I only had one minute to do it.
Thanks for sharing that great story! BTW, if the radio interview you did is available online, post a link. I'd love to hear it!
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BronzeWailer
884 posts
Feb 15, 2013
7:05 PM
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Great story, Bee. I might show them a simple train chug. I showed one of my young muso friends how to tongue block single note to start with so he would begin on the right foot, as it were.
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Last Edited by BronzeWailer on Feb 15, 2013 7:05 PM
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Thievin' Heathen
154 posts
Feb 15, 2013
8:33 PM
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1 Thing?
MODERNBLUESHARMONICA.COM
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SuperBee
914 posts
Feb 16, 2013
2:02 AM
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TH, its not quite in the spirit of what I was thinking, but its not a bad thought. Thinking back to my own story, my discovery of MBH was certainly a significant moment.
BW, tongue blocking! I didn't think of that. I guess I take it for granted now, but looking back, that was a major moment for me too...this forum made me curious...
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Littoral
775 posts
Feb 16, 2013
6:11 AM
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I definitely have a version of this. Single notes comes close to the top of the list but my #1 point is Buy a New One When It Breaks Or You Lose It. It seems a given but the very high % of people who get one will eventually say, "yeah, I used to have a harmonica".
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jbone
1194 posts
Feb 16, 2013
10:08 PM
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I doubt I could show someone ONE thing to do. I tried last year to teach two local kids to play and what I realized was, I take so much for granted, I've played so long, it was a real challenge to break down all a person does to make a certain sound, and keep it interesting. The kids drifted away, back to skateboards or whatever.
I was trying to get these 2 kids to just get basic chugging down. Lungs too small!
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