I've decided to reanimate my teaching ministry on YouTube in support of my new channel. Hand-held videocam offers some unique possibilities for communicating information. There will definitely be a follow-up to this one, because there is much more to say:
Great video. I am absolutely a harmonica player. A journeyman to be sure but I'm ready to roll on a moments notice-can't imagine a day going by without playing SOME harp or working on something. Only play out about once a month and rarely make more than $50-$75 on a gig but that $50 means A LOT more to me than a paycheck 50 times that much.
My mouse blew up 5 years ago- now I need to fix it or find a good used one. The leader/singer/slide guitar player of my band wants me to busk the farmer's market in the marina with him on Sunday mornings. We tried it acoustic with a National and me unamplified and it just didn't cut it. I feel naked without a JT-30.
I do hope that people understand that there's a certain element of tongue-in-cheek about all this. Obviously I'm focusing on externals here as well as internals: the shoes you're wearing along with the way you're keeping the beat with those shoes. The internals are more important
The crazy is important. I don't trust any blues harmonica player who pretends to be sane. Actually, check that: PRETENDING to be sane is an approved survival mechanism. But we need to know how to let it out of the bag in constructive ways.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Sep 22, 2015 4:33 AM
Although Adam is being a bit tongue-in-cheek he is really in the psyche of the BLUES harmonica player and he knows it!
I mean, imagine (for me anyway) seeing that back in the 80's starting out, a pro player showing his case and everything in it, his thinking and right down to his shoes that is so on the money!
kudos to Adam for doing this and all the other stuff he takes the time to just give away! ----------
"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
I love this. It is BANG on the money! I play strictly as a side man in three different duo formations, each one very different material, so my huge weakness is no repertoire of my own. In fifteen years of gigging I have not needed to be the front man. I need to know everyone else's stuff, though. I feel incomplete somehow not having my own act, and hope to remedy this one day. Great vid! More! More!
Yup, that was huge. Repertoire; nail it down, write it down, get it down, it's got to be done.
I've got a half dozen tunes in a half dozen keys in a half dozen arrangements. Time to lock en all down. ----------
Last Edited by JInx on Sep 22, 2015 5:33 PM
I love this video. And you're right, it captures the attitude that is part and parcel of being a harp player. It reminds me of one of your early videos when you talked about the warrior (and other) aspect of being a player. It also reminds me of something you said in a long forgotten video, along the lines of "If you're the harp player, you need to be having more fun than anybody else on stage". I live by those words.
Thanks, Garry. I'm glad to have inspired. (And yes, Bronze: it's all about practice! That's video #2. This weekend, I hope.) One of the best harmonica players--and I mean PLAYERS--I've seen in the past several years was Juke Joint Johnny over in Charleston. Just a guy with a bunch of harps and force of personality, and a mic, through a PA. Watermelon Slim has the same vibe. Band, no band: doesn't make much difference. The gig will go on. I'd urge everybody here who wants to be a harmonica player to get to that point: be ready to bottle up and go.
Here's Watermelon:
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Sep 22, 2015 8:06 PM
[Gusswood walks casually over to the wounded baddie, who is lying in the middle of the shattered band room, a Blues Band harp close at hand.]
"I know what you're thinking - "'Does the "Juke" riff have six notes or only five?'" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself.
[Marching music can be heard in the distance, coming closer.]
But given this is a Marine Band 1896, the most powerful harmonica in the world, which will blow your ears clean off, you gotta ask yourself, "'Do I feel like a harmonica player?'"
[The baddie silently declines the offer of a "Juke" duel, but then whispers,] "I got's to know …"
[Gusswood raises his harp, preparing a 3 - 6 octave split. The baddie gasps in terror, as the harp sputters, "Pffftt!! and then cries angrily] "Bob Dylan!"
But Gusswood just smiles and walks away as the marching band closes in.
Last Edited by the_happy_honker on Sep 23, 2015 12:14 AM
Here's a new "video"--a live track that I recorded solo in the Bluesville studios, with a few photos. It reminded me how hard I used to push when I was working the OMB thing. I don't play quite that hard with the Blues Docs!
This is one of the best, most honest talks I've ever seen; the basic message easily applies to just about everyone who decides they want to make the arts a profession. The unvarnished truth is that walking such a road is not really something you decide. You either is or you ain't.
I'll spare the majority of details, but I've spent most of my life eeking out a living as a writer . . . a pretty good one . . . and one of those nobody has ever heard of (which is the case with most working writers . . . we just do it because that's what we do). Hell, I got my first newspaper job by writing a fake resume, as I had no training or credentials.
Anyway, at one point in the 90s I did build a little bit of a following, and kept receiving invites to speak to high school journalism students. I generally started the same way as your vid. I would tell them "Don't do it. It's a road to poverty and sadness and anger and heartbreak. Go be a doctor or a plumber. UNLESS . . . you have no choice. UNLESS something inside you makes you write. UNLESS it's the thing that gives you a rush that makes everything else seem pale and lifeless."
Those journalism teachers hated me. I was never invited back to speak at the same place twice. Students loved it though. I like to think most went on to do something respectable. I also like to think that maybe one or two went for it anyway . . . because their gut and heart allowed for no other option.
Thanks, Rontana. I'm glad to know that the "Don't do it!" advisory makes sense. It's a hard road--journalism, any literary trade, blues harmonica player-ing. They're all hard. Now that my new channel gives me a second chance at all this, I'm determined not to be quite so nice and inviting in every video as I was the first time around. Blues harmonica is not warm and cuddly.
Is this new ministry aimed at people who want to become professional musicians? If so then this is good advice I think. I definitely don't want to make a living out of music.
Some of the videos are aimed at potential future professionals. Some are aimed at raw beginners. Some are aimed at people in between. All are intended, collectively, to give student players a more realistic total view of blues harmonica playing than my (extended) previous series.
I really like that you made the recent videos that talk about what is really involved in playing as a musical pro, beyond technique information. It is important for beginners not to idealize the musical life, despite the high points we experience at times while playing.
I think that there is a range of commitment to making music that varies by individuals and also over time. Not all good players put it all on the line, all of the time, for their music. Many music makers have parallel careers that allow for more stability of income and establishing a home. Some play music for a while and then do other things for a while, alternating music with other work. Some even become professors!
Some players commit totally and live the music life with all other endeavors being secondary. I am not one of those people. I have the utmost respect for those who have committed their lives and livelihood to playing blues harp (or any instrument) at an early age, foregoing other ways of earning a living aside from music. The life of a full time musician is not an easy road. I have known (and played with) pros who had great success at times during their lives, and great struggles at other times. It is very hard to live the life of a full time musician and maintain a family and reasonably comfortable life. It is really difficult as lifelong pro musicians encounter health problems and age.
I have lived the obsessive madness of making harmonica music all my adult life, but I maintained it first as a hobby and later as an avocation, primarily earning my living in social services. I had no choice but to continue making music via harmonica, though the intensity of the obsession waxed and waned over time.
The last 20 years I have played more, improved more, and gigged more than the all the preceding years. At times it has created strains in family relationships. At times it has been challenging to travel to gigs and deal with the issues and time involved in making music for crowds in bars and at festivals, and dealing with all the crap that goes with that. And this is just local area playing...
Hi, my name is Doug. I am a harmonica player, and, yes, I am a little crazy. I love it and could not stop playing harp as long as I can breathe. However, I acknowledge that I have not set aside all else to serve the muse. I choose to be a community member who makes music fairly well in order to celebrate life and entertain others. The part-time community musician is a different tradition from that of the full time pro. The full time pro needs a big city and/or touring to survive.
I am not a "blues man" who totally relies on playing and touring to make a living. The "blues man" is in the "troubadour" tradition, the player who goes from town to town, as opposed to the local musician who plays at local events, but often has other occupations to earn a living. Still, even as a "part-timer" or "semi-pro" making music professionally offers many challenges as well as joy.
I think your recent videos are right on target in presenting what you have about the seldom discussed issues of playing music for money. People just beginning to play need a "heads up" about it.
Thank you for keeping it real, as well as for all the other information you have shared about harmonica and about Blues. Thank you for providing this forum and for Hill Country Harmonica. ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Sep 29, 2015 9:19 AM
I like that your videos have addressed playing some country and how to play "Sweet Harp." We need ways to engage an audience that has members who are not hard core blues fans. We also can benefit from new musical ideas that come from playing different styles. ----------
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