Mr Sankey has some serious points. We live in a YouTube world and you can create a facsimile of music very quickly. It's one thing I found when I rejoined my band. In the 90's, we'd copy C90 cassettes and work our arses off learning tracks. Subsequently, we would later realise we were a semi tone up or down. Ha!
The only thing I didn't agree with is the timelines. Some people nail stuff amazingly quick. Others take years. I feel he's imposed his own timelines on something that may be different for others.
Thanks, harmonicanick for your words of wisdom and encouragement. I am a beginner (8 weeks) and it is good to hear how much hard work and time it takes to play. It seems like we live in what I call the microwave generation. If it isn't done in a couple of minutes we seem to loose interest and move on to something else these days. It seems like I have always wanted to get to the destination and never really enjoyed the journey. Maybe it is my age but after 56 years I have begun to slow down and smell the roses so to speak. I have wanted to learn the harmonica since I was 17 yrs old. I think it took me this long to have the discipline to put the time into learning how to play.
I understand what you mean by the small breakthroughs or small steps. It seems like I am progressing at a snail's pace.
The context povided here of what's involved in learning the deceptively simple looking diatonic is much appreciated. The journey of spending time with the instrument is what attracted me in the first place. I very much like the way Lee Sankey says if playing blues harp was easy it wouldn't be any fun because everyone could do it. Will let u all know in 2017 how things progressed!
Last Edited by SmokeJS on Mar 14, 2013 3:25 AM
@swamp That is Lee Sankey on the vid, not me, I just posted.
Lee is a great songwriter and vocalist as well Here is his band doing 'suspicious woman' which can be found on his very excellent cd 'my day is just begining' one of my favourite cd's of the last 20 years:
Wise words from Mr Sankey, I know I am often guilty of trying to find the Quick Fix, in fact I have done it all my life! so it's kinda reasuring to hear him say just how long he's been at it. I think the message is. enjoy the journey coz that's the fun bit and you may never arrive at the end anyway so what's the rush?
Like Paul deLay he is one of the most interesting harp players I have ever listened to......His "monkeylips" tune is verve on a roller coaster! ---------- Facebook
I thought "five years" just before he said how long it should take.
Truth is, though, that I've occasionally run across players who haven't been playing that long and who surprise me with their technical proficiency. But they haven't played a lot of live gigs, and so they haven't done all the learning--about how to comp, for example, and how to keep listener interest over the long haul--that goes on there. There's no replacement for at least ten years' worth of gigs, including session work, live unplugged radio gigs, the street, and the occasional wedding. The combined effect of all that work is to teach you what and when NOT to play, and that makes a huge difference.
Harmonica can really fool you when you first start out. I was doing all kinds of stuff inside of my first 7 months, clumsy bends, overblows, note for not imitations (and perversions) of famous licks, and whatnot. I had been a lifelong enthusiast/collector of blues and jazz recordings and have seen all of the big guys who were still alive when I first started sneaking out of my moms house late at night with my fake ID. Real monsters up close and in person.
After a life of listening to that good stuff and after 6 months of harp, I still didn't know anything about making real music. I was just another common music snob who, for various reasons, had neglected the earlier call to enter into a personal relationship with music. That first 6 months into harmonica is where I had been fooled into thinking that everything that happened next would be an easy walk. Well...
Here's the thing as far as I can figure it out- it's going to be different from what you thought it would be like. Sincerely striving for that connection with music is a really satisfying thing. It's also a pain in the ass. I would say that anyone who really loves the music should get ready for a real fight. Hold on to that harp "until someone pries your cold, dead fingers off it". All the would be heros, and the girls and boys who just think that it's a camp thing, or fashionable to play a little blues harp will eventually wash out.
If there's ever going to be a big payoff for all of the effort expended it might not arrive in a currency that can be converted into the coin of the realm. Well, that's not always so bad. Sometimes the small perks all totaled outweigh the value of those big doings and ambitions that people tend to hold in such high esteem. "Underrated treasures" versus "overrated pleasures", or something like that.
Last Edited by Chickenthief on Mar 15, 2013 2:00 PM
Goodwill to you Nick. If I should ever have the pleasure of running into you out there at your favorite venue it would be my honor to buy you a beer or 2.
Last Edited by Chickenthief on Mar 15, 2013 10:16 PM
