George is getting his doctorate, he is on a mission to put harmonicas into schools, but he doesn't have a teaching position at this time, AFAIK.
Last Edited by Gnarly on Jul 14, 2020 11:54 AM
Where are you in the world? In Sweden there are openings -- e g The Royal Academy of Music-- but I can´t give you the details. Check ut their website, if you´re prepared to move up here (where it pretty much seems like we´re once again going to miss out on another summer).
This reminded me of something I read a few years back about a person who was trying to use diatonic harmonica as his instrument in whatever formal music education course he was applying for. Definitely was in Europe
I don’t know if it is related to what I am vaguely recalling but I found this:
Temple University Boyer College of Music. I did it on Chromatic Harmonica in the Jazz Program. You will have to be able to read music and pass an audition.I worked my butt off there playing classical music as well. ----------
Welcome to the forum, Troni. Seems we have been getting quite a few new members with so many people being stuck at home. Where do you hail from? And, BTW, check out the University of North Dakota for their harp program.
Thanks to everyone for the tips! @Raven: I'm a harp player from Germany. The home of the harmonica ;) Playing folk and world music, but starting out with blues, too.
@Diggs: I don't have a link...they showed up when I searched for a University that featured studies for harmonica, but I only find various music studies on their website, nothing specifically mentioning harp. Since Troni is from Germany, he probably has a better chance of finding programs right there. As you know, our instrument is relegated to a second or third rate position. Classical training has always seemed to center on piano and violin followed by the brass and woodwinds. With the advent of rock's popularity, focus has shifted to guitar. If you remember, early rock featured a lot of sax and even organ. Just yesterday I downloaded a number of Dave "Baby" Cortez songs from 1959 on. I'm willing to bet that accordion players have more trouble than we do with the concept that they are only for polkas or zydeco.
@Raven: It may be hard to believe, but they don't offer any studies for diatonic harmonica here to become bachelor or master. You can study chromatic harmonica at a music university in Vienna, but diatonic - no way. :/
Even if a US university did offer a harmonica curriculum, It’d now have to be home based e-learning due to the CV. Which means it’d be like all Private University based education in the USA - usuriously overpriced. When we returned to the US in 2012 after living 15 yers abroad (Sydney & London) the biggest surprise we got, no - not red states & blue states, was how bloody expensive university education had become. $50K a year? After tax money?!? IMO this business model has been exposed in the pandemic and is about to break.
Sign up for David Barrett’s classes instead. Great value for money.
Last Edited by Sundancer on Aug 05, 2020 4:00 PM
There was also a guy in the Netherlands - he used to have a blog about playing all 12 positions with a single harp. I don't remember his name. But it seems that he challenged the university to let him be a music major on diatonic harp, and succeeded.
I teach a class at the university where I teach, Rochester Institute of Technology, called "the harmonica and the blues." It is a combination of the the history of the blues, the history of the harmonica and learning how to play - so learning by doing. This coming semester, I have a new class called the "harmonica seminar" which will be about learning about how the harmonica is used in a variety of genres - hence my question here in MBH today about folk harmonica players. I also give one-credit harmonica lessons.
All of this has come about in the last five years.
We don't have a music major and the playing is largely introductory. It is fun to teach and students enjoy the break from their STEM classes!
My academic disciple is communication but this coming semester it is supposed to be all harmonica-related! In light of the virus, who knows how it's going to go. I'm already moving everything online. Wish me luck!
