I don't get it. Is it about teaching harmonica? I didn't read anywhere that you actually need to be able to play the instrument. ---------- germanharpist on YT. =;-) - Resonance is KEY!
I watch this guys videos on YouTube. He had one the other day in front of a bunch of kids. He explained what the first free reed instrument in history was. A blade of grass! He played most of 'Happy Birthday' before the blade broke. This summer, as a matter of principle, I'm going to have to finally learn how to do that.
Last Edited by on Feb 03, 2010 12:04 PM
GH- I think they'll teach you. I'm not sure about that as a business model. I think a teacher the more a teacher knows a better job they do teaching the basics. (One of the classics had something about that, I want to say Isocrates, but I could be wrong. He had one price for students who had no experience, and another, higher price, for students who'd been taught by someone else, figuring he'd have to break some bad habits...)
harmonicanick, it just seems weird... they have all kind of requirements but not once does it say anything about qualification as a harmonica player... nilch.
When you're selling your frenchise you should pay attention that they're not only behind the money but also the subject at hand. He could start his website with something like:
"Do like the harmonica and working with kids? Get your own Harpscool franchise and own 77,000+ a year.." etc.
---------- germanharpist on YT. =;-) - Resonance is KEY!
I'll tell you: I hadn't ever heard of Ben Hewlitt before this thread, and I was skeptical, but the first video of his that I found on YouTube blew me away. On this particular Sonny Terry rhythm, he's as good as anybody I've heard--and I've heard Joe Filisko, Richard Sleigh, and Sonny Jr. up close.
Here's the video:
A guy who plays like that deserves to make a living off of music, if he's got the wits to figure out how.
Edited to add: of course, around 1:00-1:08, it's not clear to me that he's actually playing what we're hearing. Is he lip-syncing (so to speak) with a pre-recorded track? Very weird.
Last Edited by on Feb 03, 2010 1:31 PM
Adam- that could just be an audio/video sync issue. That can happen a lot on YouTube. I've seen a video of him doing a presentation in front of kids. He seems to have a lot of enthusiasm for teaching.
I don't think he seems like a fly by night sort of guy, but even people with the best intentions can be guilty of rosy predictions. Of course, I tend to be a skeptic. Looking through the site it does look like a franchise rather than a pyramid scheme, but if I was in England looking into a deal like this I'd want to check out the competition and see more background on where he's getting his numbers.
If I understood the website correctly, they are trying to sell a harmonica instruction franchise for 49,000 pounds. Adam, you should start something like this. Kudzu harp school!
That is a pretty steep franchise fee considering you if you know harp you could probably start something like this up for a couple grand. I guess it depends a lot on how established his business is.
I think in the U.S. you would need teaching certification and background checks before you'd be allowed to go into schools and teach something like this. If the kids parents pay for it it might be a way around all the cutbacks in school music departments.
I bought an E-book of Sonny Terry Styles from Hewlitt--the tab and sound files for about 150 or so of Sonny's best stuff. I think Joe Filisko is involved with it too--if I'm not mistaken (don't have the time right now to research this to give a link).
Anyway, I like the E-book a lot--I haven't worked on it enough yet, but it can really teach some intricate cool ST licks really fast. The cost of it was only a few dollars, don't remember how much. . .
@ Nacoran "I think in the U.S. you would need teaching certification and background checks before you'd be allowed to go into schools and teach something like this. If the kids parents pay for it it might be a way around all the cutbacks in school music departments."
Yes - on the background check but you would not need a teaching License unless you were employed by the school system. I'n my experience (which has always been in inner city schools) parents are very averse to paying for extra instruction in public schools. Then there is also the problem of time. In this day and age of high stakes testing, teachers want their kids out of the classroom as little as possible. Because of that and budget cuts, outside programs are the first to go. This kind of thing would probably work well as a non profit, like an art outreach program that functioned after school (transportation might be an issue) that was grant based or had a corporate underwriter. But, as any non profit goes there is .... well...very little profit. You would truly have to do it for the sole purpose of teaching children, and $ would have to secondary.
---------- The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland
Last Edited by on Feb 03, 2010 6:32 PM
I attended a Sonny Terry workshop with Ben in Oct 09. He's worked pretty hard to nail the sound. I'll refrain from commenting (for the moment) on the franchise-selling issue, except to say that in his teaching and in conversation he doesn't strike me as someone who's merely out to earn a quick buck (Or 49,000 of them, for that matter).
To Oldwailer's comment: to the best of my knowledge Filisko is not involved in the teaching material. He sent the material to Joe for comments, and reportedly Joe approved (except to say that Ben had his harmonica tuned incorrectly for playing Sonny Terry).
Last Edited by on Feb 04, 2010 8:10 AM
where in the prospectus does it talk about educating children, the value of music in a complete educational program, or what the student gets out of this? When I read it, I see a lot about business opportunities and profit margins. ---------- The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland
Last Edited by on Feb 04, 2010 1:00 PM
This is why Adam's teaching style and Adam as a teacher works the best! You see an accomplished player play, you hear him play it and have him break it down for you, and then you do, and repeat and repeat and repeat, ad infinitum. Along the way, you throw in some music theory, you keep it relevant, but you don't overhwhelm the student. If the student wants to read music on their own, great. Some have said to me listen to the music and hear what they're playing and you will figure it out. Maybe, that's the way they learned and that's fine. But that was in the past and there is an easier and more accessible way today then ever before with current technology and the computer. . Yes, you should still listen to lots of music to develop your ear but that is in conjunction with the modern way, and not to the exclusion of the modern way. Indeed, one can listen to the music or a particular riff a hundred times and still never understand it. The harmonica should not be a mystery. The guitar is not a mystery. I'm sure there are ten times as many teaching and learning resources for guitar than there are for harmonica. Yet some, chose to keep harmonica a mystery for economic reasons. That's fine..I don't begrudge them for that. Sharing the knowledge also can bring economic gain. In this modern age of computer, knowledge is made instantaneuously available and the user is learning ten times faster than in the past. ALso, time is of the essence...there's too little free time and people don't want to wait ten years after listening to hundreds of CD's a million times to learn by trial and error how to play a few licks. Adam's method has pioneered this field, without a doubt, and he will some day take his place as a legenday teacher, if he hasn't already. I hope I didn't overdo it but that's my soapbox speech.
Last Edited by on Feb 04, 2010 8:17 PM
Hello Adam, hello guys, Ben Hewlett checking in – I thought I better jump in and clear up a few points. Please excuse the length of this posting! The Franchise fee is £4995 (a little short of five thousand). We launched this a few months ago and decided to offer it to the harmonica community at half the proper price to a few pilot Franchisees so we can work with them and test the system before launching it properly. Our website guy simply made a typo (£49995) and I didn’t spot until you guys did – so thank you for making me aware of that, we have amended the website. You could think of it as a £45K discount! We haven’t advertised it yet except at the Bristol Harmonica Festival and the UK Harmonica Magazine. Franchisee Number one is up and running in Eastbourne and I’m working closely with him. Number two is almost there as well. We have six more people who seem quite interested. As HarmonicaNick rightly says, HarpsCool Ltd is an educational model. Since 1995 I have been teaching harmonica in schools and developed this Music Service specialising in diatonic harmonica. I don’t see it as a business, and although it has supported me for many years the income is modest and the hours are heavy. Some ex-students asked if they could help back in the 90s so I took on a 75 year old gentleman and a 55 year old gentleman and trained them to teach in my style. I started writing cd/books for children to help me teach – like a funk version of Frère Jaques and a jazz quartet swing version of Bach Menuet (demos at http://www.harmonicaworld.net). After a while teaching Twinkle Twinkle took it’s toll and I realised I had to do less teaching myself so either I should close HarpsCool or expand it. Franchising is hopefully the answer. My aim is to have 200 thousand children having fun learning the harmonica within ten years. If I’m out by 90% it’s still worth a shot! A Franchisee will almost certainly have a love of the harmonica but as they will not be a teacher they do not require specific harmonica skills. The teachers need to be qualified teachers who are musical and prepared to learn to harmonica to a certain level – enough to be able to teach a 4-11 year old beginner once a week. The potential income is highly considered. This is version five. I’m really strong on being straight with people and would hate it if someone thought I was misleading them – it’s all transparent and open. The figures reflect what I believe will happen when a new Franchisee starts. Enough already. Feel free to contact me on ben@benhewlett.com if you want to talk more on the subject. Adam – we met briefly in Klingenthal, at their festival, a couple of years ago, I attended your workshop there. We chatted about your videos but you were exhausted so there wasn’t time to really talk! The video you kindly posted on your site is all me, all recorded live, no tricks. The only thing that is odd – and I should probably redo – is the opening track. Paul Lennon (my writing partner) likes to do a good production and loves composing music so he wrote some music and superimposed it onto my live pre-recorded playing. Unfortunately I didn’t record with a click track or any tempo reference so that’s why it goes in and out of time! I think the YouTube syncing glitch makes it worse. Thanks for your kind comments about my Sonny Terry skills, I’ve a long way to go but I’m getting closer and I love playing that style. I have studied with Joe Filisko, and I get my harps from Richard Sleigh but my first teachers were Paul Lamb and Brendan Power – so I had top quality help. ‘A fly by night sort of guy’? nah, not me. Everything I do with the harmonica is positive, committed and benign. If I make a living as well it’s something to be proud of, but it’s never commercial, I just love playing harp and sharing it. How about this, a new child started lessons with us on Tuesday; I asked how he got on and here’s his Mum’s reply: ‘Hi, S loved his lesson yesterday he played twinkle twinkle little star all evening. I was very impressed with how much he had learned in his first lesson and the fact he took it seriously and was playing in tune (from a 5yr old who loves noise i was expecting lots of noise with no actual melody to it lol). He was quite dissapointed this morning when he found out his lessons were only once a week and not everyday but is happy he can practice when he gets home! He's even taught me how to play, so it has opened up a whole new world for both of us. Many Thanks, Sheron’
Well that is why I do it, it’s all about self esteem for children – it just happens to use the harmonica.
Sonny Terry Book. Joe Filisko is not involved but he has taught me and given guidance, encouragement and lots of support when we meet and when we talk by phone. I’ve also had lots of help from these guys who gave me quotes for the book: “Sonny Terry was without question, one of the most well known of all blues harmonica players. Sonny's stinging and popping sound, acrobatic use of hands, rhythmic groove and pyrotechnic display of whooping, made him in my opinion, the most unforgettable of ALL harmonica players! Knowing the effect it had on a live audience leaves little doubt as to why he was in demand his whole life and why almost everyone will remember his name before Brownie's.
If understanding and experiencing some of this magic is of interest to you, then there is great news! Ben has taken numerous essential Sonny Terry licks and broken them down at three different speeds for you to access and learn as simply and painlessly as possible.
If you follow him, Ben will put you on the fast track to the summit of the musical mountain of Sonny Terry. This is indeed a journey that all harmonica players should experience.” Joe Filisko “A selection of riffs from the repertoire of one of the most influential harp players ever, brought to you in standard notation, tablature and audio examples by Britain's top harmonica teacher. A must have for anyone studying the playing styles of Sonny Terry, as well as a very welcome addition to any harp player's library.” Pat Missin
“Yes great stuff! Ben has dug deep into Terry's sound. I myself, a huge Sonny Terry Fan and played with the guy. Sonny had a style that was truly his own, Ben has done something here that Sonny would be proud of.” Paul Lamb. "A fine addition to the great Sonny Terry's oeuvre." -Tom Ball Joe also pointed out that some of my low chords are not tuned very well in the recording and dammit he’s right, but his ears are better atuned than mine and it’s so subtle that a lot of people might not even notice. Pat Missin reviewed it for Harmonica World and you can read it in the Dec/Jan issue. You Missed Mondays reviewed it thus: http://www.youmissedmonday.com/2009/11/what-did-you-miss-this-week-week-149.html I think I’ll shut up now. You can find me at www.benhewlett.com if you need to. Thanks for listening! Ben Hewlett
@Nacoran – the harp is a Hohner Little Lady customised by Richard Sleigh. It plays really well, bends and overblows. I can even play a squeaky chromatic scale on it.
Or did you mean the one we use with the kids? That is a Hohner ‘Speedy’.
@Honkin Thank you for your $0.02, I think it’s worth more and I appreciate that you and the other members have given my project such time and thought. I’m very serious about it.
I’d love to answer some of your insightful questions if I may – it’s made me think more clearly about what we’re offering and that is part of the process. We want it to be such a great ‘no-brainer’ offer people are queuing up to join! The aim is for this to benefit the children primarily, but also the parents, the teachers, the schools, the community and the Franchisees. And if we get that right I’ll benefit as well.
Honkin’s Queries I'm not saying it's not possible to earn a nice living teaching music, just that you have to understand what you are and what you are not getting for your capital.
Ben’s Answers You are right, it’s smart to investigate fully; a Franchise is not for you if you are a true entrepreneur. You will just do it yourself regardless– many people have and that’s what I did. But it’s a risk and there have been times when it nearly went very wrong for me. The beauty of a Franchise is that the Franchisor has to support the Franchisee totally. If the Franchisee fails the Franchisor fails. A Franchise is not guaranteed but the Franchisor will provide such a level of support it will be very hard for a Franchisee to be unsuccessful. We have one guy who will probably set up something independent but similar to HarpsCool. We will happily collaborate in certain areas where he wants to use any of our resources and leave him alone in other areas.
Q Is this the kind of inattention to detail you want from your franchisor?
A Good point, but we’ve dealt with that now. We should have everything hunky dory when the pilot stage within the harmonica community is complete and we launch it to the public. I’m sure we’ll come across other issues as we test the process.
Q …at it's best it taught about 500 kids in 40 schools with ten teachers. Is that the profile of a rapidly growing business with huge demand for it's product, or a franchisor with tremedous marketing clout?
A We reached over 600 children at one point and were heading for the VAT threshold that would have screwed up all our pricing at that time, so we decided to cap it at around 400 to make it more manageable and control the tax implications. The current business (HarpsCool Bristol) is not the business plan we are offering to Franchisees – if we knew what we know now we wouldn’t have set it up like that but we’re kind of stuck with it now. The Franchisees will benefit from out mistakes. HarpsCool Bristol is more or less a ‘show home’ for prospective Franchisees to view in action. It also pays for the Management Team which is the beginnings of a Head Office designed to support the Franchisees.
Q How does a harpscool franchise really help you in any of those areas. With the marketing?
A We are actively helping Franchisee Number 1 with deciding which schools to approach and how to do that. Then we do it with them, do the demonstration in school for them – here I am doing it last Monday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t31z4VvtU7g - and then help with the follow up. Then we teach the first lessons for them at the new schools, set up the teaching schedule, help them find interview and train their new teachers.
Q Is it worth it to fork over an upfront fee and 10% of your revenue so that you'll be handing a harpscool business card to the principal instead of one you had printed up?
A You could do it independently of course. We’ve found that having a good and long track record is a very strong selling point. It gives new schools the confidence to say yes to us. We ask the Head Teacher of a new school to speak to the Head Teachers of our current schools to check us out and see if we are any good. They usually say yes.
Q …obtaining this kind of loan from a commercial bank is EXTREMELY difficult.
A The system we use in the UK is as follows. We ask the Nat West Business Bank Manager of HarpsCool Bristol (who knows our business for 10 years) and the Franchise department in London to speak to prospective Franchisee about a loan if they need one. They already have our written business plan, a three-year income and expenditure forecast (which is as considered and accurate a prediction as I can make) and a three-year cash flow forecast. They all then speak to the local branch of that bank and a loan doesn’t seem to be much problem so far.
Q Lastly, I'm not saying don't do this. Just be very careful to understand what your getting for your investment (upfront fee + % of sales), and go into it with your eyes open.
A I agree completely, investigate it fully – it may not be for you. Caveat emptor – let the buyer beware or perhaps be aware. We should probably drop this thread and get on with blowing the back off our harps now but I’m happy to carry on off-list if anyone wants to.
