RE: [Harp-L] Reading Music

["Aongus Mac Cana" <amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for this further information John. It throws some light on the "great
man". He appeared on TV in Ireland a few times while his son was a student
in Trinity College.
I only once heard Larry Adler play live. He did a one man show in Dublin in
the late fifties in a small theatre in the Bus Arus. The show comprised
anecdotes about his career to that point and some tunes which he played
holding his harmonica in one hand while accompanying himself on the piano
with the other. I still regard him as the greatest harmonica player of all
time, although I have to admit there have been occasions when I found the
late Tommy Reilly slightly easier on the ear. 
I too have an old Larry  Adler tutor "How to play the Harmonica" which I
bought about sixty years ago. If I had applied myself sufficiently to work
my way through it I might be a better player now! As you say the "perceived
correct way" to play the harmonica in those days was exclusively tongue
blocking. I am relieved to learn from another current thread on the list
that my developed tendency to tongue blocking does not prohibit me from
learning to bend.
Beannachtai
Aongus

-----Original Message-----
From: MundHarp@xxxxxxx [mailto:MundHarp@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: 02 February 2011 15:23
To: amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Reading Music



Hello Angus,
I had a long telephone conversation with Larry Adler, on the telephone... I
was going to drive him from his home in London to the National Harmonica
League Festival, in Ely, UK... it was just a short time before he died... We
chatted about his book... Well it was more of a magazine style publication
than a book, that was published some time  before world war two. In it, he
explained embouchure... And there were some drawings showing tongue
blocking, it also represented music... In standard notation. 
Well, Larry Adler explained that he was not a great sight reader... And that
he himself was essentially a "pucker player". OF COURSE.. He tongue blocked
for octaves and such..... But in his instruction book he had simply
explained the percieved "correct way" to play harmonica...
He also told me he mostly simply "heard the music in his head and played
it." I guess that meant that he... Mostly... Played by ear... As do I.
 
Sincerely,
John "Whiteboy" Walden.
English.
But educated in Ireland,
and just now in the Philippines.
 
In a message dated 2/2/2011 8:28:54 P.M. Malay Peninsula Standard Ti,
amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx writes:


Thanks for this John and for explaining the "urban mlyth"
Beannachtai
Aongus Mac Cana