the Rebuild Center, as the next opportunity to do so, wouldn't be until Monday.
I thought that if the harmonica and holder from Alex in California had arrived, then I would be squandering the chance to play it over the weekend by letting it sit in the mailroom.
I skimmed through the book, concerned about being able to bend notes in order to sound the ones that are not indiginous to the 10 holes on the thing, while using a holder. Would notes have to be bent by using two hands as kind of a carbeurator?
I got to the Decatur Street spot, after a fitful session in an alley, trying to install the harp into the holder. The "spring metal," which the manufacturer guaranteed would "bend back into place," was extremely hard to bend "out of place," with just my bare hands (and a steel resolve) and a Steel Reserve.
I finally worked the harp into the holder; but it was upside-down. D'-oh!!
I was glad to arrive on Decatur with the harp already installed and already around my neck.
How They Do It In Detroit
I told him that I had climbed far enough out of the primordial ooze to have evolved a harp around my neck.
He then informed me that the search for the neck brace holder which he thought was in his van, proved to be fruitless. "I must have left it in my storage box in Detroit."
Somehow that didn't surprise me. I wonder if he had started to feel like he was supplying "the competition" with ammunition, by giving me a neck brace holder type thing, and decided that it had better stay put in "Detroit." LOL!
A lady approched us, as we were chatting.
"Would you guys like some wine? I can't take it on the flight," she said as she extricated a bottle of Yellow Tail Cabernet from a large purse.
"Oh, sure!" said The One Man Band.
"Oh, Australian! That's very good, I've had it before," said I.
"This is the best gift, I've gotten all day!" said The One Man Band, before he unzipped one of his bags and put "you guys" bottle of wine in it and zipped it back up.
I guess Joe felt like it was "his" spot and that all gifts rightfully go to the bearer of any spot. Maybe that is how they do things in Detroit.
The One Man Band went something like 8 years without drinking, but, has started again "off and on," he said.
Harp Well Recieved
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I don't know if you are able to see YouTube videos, but there's a guy named Kudzurunner on there who gives some good tutorials. Basically, there's a neat little blues scales down at the bottom end of that harp, and your first bend, the easiest and most useful one, will be Draw 2 if I remember correctly. I hope that book is useful, I grabbed it without more than a quick flip through it. It looks more useful than the other two books Guitar Center had.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I'm working on my cornet. What amazes me is the smooth bends Satch and company can get, because a trumpet/cornet is kinda 'notchy' so it takes skills, Satch skills! I'm teaching myself to read the "bugs" (notes) because well, that's what real musicians do. But it's funny, someone listening to me practicing would tell, when I'm playing off the notes, it sounds like a 3rd-grader reading in front of class, then when I take a break from it and just do stuff by ear all the personality and expression comes right into it. I'd say harmonica is a lot quicker to learn than my horn, for each fingering there are a good 3-5 notes even a tyro like me can get.
Now, for a geetar player I think harmonica may be an excellent choice. Because harmonica *and* geetar are a winning combination. And harmonica is hugely popular right now. There are 3 count 'em 3, major harmonica schools in the greater SF Bay Area. There's House Of The Blues, right on the #68 bus line, one in UC Berkeley, and one run by a guy named Levitt? Levin? Up in Napa, I think I like him best.
Take it easy on that harp at first, they have to be "played in" before you go crazy-hard on it, or you'll blow a reed too soon so I hear. If you do fuck up a reed, you can order a new reed plate for that baby for about $20.