I just saw a post on Harp L by Tony Ayers who runs www.HarmonicaAcademy.com. He states that he has just signed up his 50,000th member on the Chinese branch of his site (www.kouqin.com.cn/).
Now that is really impressive and gives a virtual slap in the face to those people who downplay the harmonica as a mere toy and not a valid musical instrument.
I only hope that we soon begin to see some of this Far Eastern talent begin to make it's mark in the Western harmonica world.
The Chinese have some remarkable music programs involving harmonica. They start the kids off early. In other words, they take the instrument seriously!
I do notice though that there don't seem to be any instruments not related to the harmonica, which suggests they are segregated from the other orchestras.
The main musical focus in China for harmonica is NOT blues or any popular musics, but actually classical music. They also do the old time all harmonica band thing using chromatic as lead, plus bass harp and chord harps. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Ref: The above video. They are extremely disciplined people. Did you notice that not a single one of them was tapping their feet. There just didn't seem to be any movement below the waist at all. If it don't get your foot tapping it isn't worth playing as far as I'm concerned. ----------
Tookatooka, that's kinda what you see when taught in the classical music vein regardless of the instrument. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
