Re: Don't cry over spilt milk. Mop it up! WAS Stigma of the Harmonica

["Rupert Oysler" <orupert@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think this is accurate Larry. I'm not crying or whining about the
"stigma", but the distortion is there, as evidenced by something that has
happened to me in various ways MANY times: After a particularly moving solo,
or a particularly succesful phat amplified sound, someone will invariably
come up to me and ask something like "what in the world is that instrument
you are playing?"

The innocent response often evolves into an admission that this just wasn't
considered possible on a harmonica, so it couldn't be a harmonica that is
being played...
the whole experience is quite interesting when the citizen is also a harp
player...as he was last night, still shaking his head and mumbling while his
wife dragged him off into the parking lot...

Rupert Oysler
http://harprepair.com/


- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: IcemanLE@xxxxxxx
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: Don't cry over spilt milk. Mop it up! WAS Stigma of the
Harmonica





I'm not so sure that this "stigma" isn't propagated in part by insecure
>harmonica players who wail about the lack of respect for the instrument."


There is a bigger "stigma" in the perception of the public at large and this
is sometimes unfortunately propogated by the media.

When I was involved heavily with SPAH, contacting the media was one of my
responsibilities. A camera crew would show up at the convention to film a
human interest spot for that evenings' news, usually a 1 - 2 minute bite.
Even though there would be a "Kim Wilson", "Blackie Shackner", "William
Galison" talent available, the interviewer and producer would look for an
old man playing a "Little Lady" 4 hole diatonic and do an extreme close-up
of him making silly faces while playing.

Radio interviews would steer away from actual playing of beautiful music to
questions like "What is the difference between a harp, mouth harp and
harpoon?".

As a result of this focusing on vaudeville, there is still a perception
amongst the masses of the "Little midget playing the BIG harmonica".

What to do on this front?

When interviewed, try to steer the topic away from the interviewer. This is
not easy to do, but has resulted in some producers saying "Why, I never knew
the harmonica could sound like that!" and they actually pick up on the
legitimacy of the instrument and don't focus on the novelty aspect.

The "I never knew the harmonica could sound like that" utterance by a
citizen should be our goal.

The Iceman