TONE (was 2000 hours)

["DL Terry" <so_blue@xxxxxxx>]

OK, I know I'm not an authority on any of this, "I am only an egg"...

BUT, When Mike Due asked about the "2000 hours to proficiency" estimate, I
said what defines mastery of the harmonica is TONE.

Ben Felten disagrees - says lots of masters of the harp don't have good
tone.

No offense Ben, but: "B.S."

It takes a while to get tongue-blocking, bends, overblows, etc. - I'm
beginning to think it can take (me) a LIFETIME to have GREAT tone.

I can't think of ANY "master" who doesn't have it. I can't imagine a
harmonica player that is considered "accomplished" in THIS community who
doesn't have TONE. I'll go a step further: good ACCOUSTIC tone. It's the
toughest part of the instrument to master, and the nicest arppegio, the
trickiest tongue-switch, the meanest trill, even great rhythm, - all of it
can be overshadowed by poor tone. On the otherhand, a simple 1st position
melody sounds beautiful, if the player has good tone.

>From LW to Cham-ber Huang, Kim Wilson to the Harmonicats, tone is KING.

I can't think of a _single_ "master" of the instrument that doesn't have
good (or GREAT) tone. Can you?