Re: Standardizing Skill Levels



I've heard high school kids playing for pennies on street corners in many
cities around the world  performing classical and jazz on conventional
instruments and one thing that has always stood out to me is how almost
without exception these kids can effortlessly run musical circles around all
but a very small handful of the best chromatic players I've heard. Now this
could be just a coincidence, but these kids who've been alive for far less
time than many of the harmonica 'greats' have been playing have been given a
solid musical foundation both in theory and technique right from the get-go,
and by God it shows! Instead of having to re-invent the musical wheel, which
is what up till now most self-taught harmonica players have had to do, the
high school student is fast tracked to virtuosity with the benefit of being
exposed to hundreds of years of technical knowledge and learning methods for
their particular instrument right from the beginning!

After playing the chromatic for 25 years I've recently taken up the flute
and am immersing myself in the recordings of the better flute players from
all genres of music (classical, jazz, Irish, etc.). As a result I afraid to
say that I'm starting to loose respect for some of the harmonica players and
recordings that I have admired for so long. Don't get me wrong, there is
absolutely no question in my mind that in the hands of a well educated, well
trained player the harmonica can truly stand shoulder to shoulder with ANY
other instrument. But there is a big difference between hearing a serious
but poorly musically educated mouth organ player performing a few of his
handful of favorite party tunes, and being in the presence of an educated
musician sight reading a technically difficult piece of music for the first
time that they've never heard before and playing it at flawlessly at full
speed with full expression.

In my mind there is no doubt at all that even if you couldn't give a toss
about being 'graded' as a harmonica player, a formalised grading system will
expose the serious student in a methodical manner to the majority of
techniques that can be performed on a given instrument, in this case the
harmonica, in such a way that the learning process will be methodical and
streamlined as opposed to haphazard and unnecessarily prolonged. I can't
speak for anyone else but I'd prefer a learning process that can get me to a
given level of proficiency in a few years rather than another (ie 'the
school of hard knocks') that would still leave me with huge holes in my
technical and theoretical knowledge base many years down the track.

Having said all that, many classically trained musicians have said that they
have learned as much of their trade actually being with other musicians and
putting their knowledge in to practice as they ever did in a classroom.
Still, it was a huge benefit to already have that knowledge in the first
place.

Cheers,

Paul





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