RE: [Harp-L] what else do you do?



I'm a retired biology teacher and have only been seriously playing the harmonica a year or so but have had a 'mouth organ' since childhood. I've played Eb bass and trombone in CCF band, endured piano lessons, played guitar and sung in teens Buddy Holly, Elvis etc. Later I earned a bit of money with country/old pop as resident group in a restaurant and in pubs,weddings and parties. I later played and enjoyed accordion and singing both in choral society and barbershop.
Meanwhile I took up windsurfing which eventually (30 years) lead to carpal tunnel problems - numb fingers unable to play guitar and accordion for any length of time so picked up my old tremolo mouth organ and my chromatic and was tempted into getting a Lee Oskar and learning to bend notes and learn some blues riffs. I went to a blues harp workshop at a local folk festival and heard Brendan Power perform at a pub he was brilliant but the music he played that really struck home was his traditional Irish tunes. I bought his tutor book and CD and now spend my time learning and playing irish tunes, I've started joining in at a local weekly session in a pub with D and G harps I've paddy richter tuned.
I've sorted out bending the easy (logical?) way with XB40s and love the F. Father Christmas is getting me a G and low D that I'll retune. My collection of Irish harmonica CDs is growing and has just been enhanced by "Blowing Through The Reeds" by Steve Shaw who contributes here.
Please join with me in singing the old song: -- "If only I'd started earlier and practised more ............."
Cheers, John.









This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.