Re: [Harp-L] a bluegrass experience

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you for sharing this with us all, Bill.  (I am sharing it with the
bluegrass harmonica list, too, with this message.)

I am sincerely elated that you have stuck it out and that you are finally
seeing the bluegrass world more as I have learned it can be.  It takes a
lot of hard work on any instrument to play bluegrass well enough to get
that acceptance, and once you have put in the hours and work necessary,
as they have, they know you as one of them.  They can see where you have
been and know that you can hold up your end of the job.  You may even
surprise them once in a while, which is fun.

Bluegrassers can be some of the most giving and helpful people when they
understand where you are in your learning and will accept you as a beginner
when they can see you are; but harmonica is an odd fellow to the most
common stringed instruments, and few players, in their experience, ever
play it well enough to blend in and help out with the music.  Since
bluegrassers often don't know how to help a harmonica player, or even if
they can be helped, the instrument and its players get a reputation and,
eventually, as you said, snubbed.  If you think about it, it is a very
simple problem.  Learn the tunes -- especially note for note, playing the
melody, with tasteful embellishments -- and be a part of the team making
the music, rather than stand out (unless it is your break), and you can be
accepted by really good bluegrassers who will relish opportunities to see
what else you can do over time, just as they do with each other.  They
cooperatively compete to challenge each other to improve while making
beautiful, cohesive music, all for the love of the music they are playing.

It's funny:  They used to say that you cannot play the blues until you
experience the blues, and no other music is like that.  Bluegrass does have
a trial by fire -- and you are tried every time you play, which is the
point.  Welcome to a wonderful, musical world.

Now get back to your woodshedding....  You are on the uphill swing.

Cara Cooke

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 12:36 PM, JWilliam Thompson <landcommentary@xxxxxxxxx
> wrote:

> Last year there was a bluegrass harmonica thread on harp-l that included
> the complaint that harmonicas are often unwelcome at bluegrass jams. I have
> been playing bluegrass harmonica in the  DC region for years with varying
> degrees of acceptance. As I learn more and more tunes note for note-- as a
> fiddler would play them--I find I’m more consistently accepted.
>
> On Saturday I had an experience that gave me a glimpse of how it might  be
> one day when harmonica is accepted as a  bluegrass instrument. I wandered
> into a jam of some of the finest pickers in the area. Even though I have
> learned and practiced bluegrass tunes and licks for years and have waded
> into plenty of jams before, each new situation is unique and, as a harp
> player, you always run the risk of being snubbed.
>
> What happened was just the opposite. I seemed to be embedded in the band.
> At the end of the session, someone who was going to sing “Life’s Railway to
> Heaven” turned to me and said, “Got your  harmonica ready?”—a very rare
> question, in my experience, in bluegrass jams. I gave it all I had, and
> afterward, the banjo player across from me gave me a nod and a smile.
>
> I don’t pretend that harmonica doesn’t have a long way to go toward full
> acceptance in bluegrass, but my experience Saturday encourages me that we
> are making progress. I look forward to the day when “Got your harmonica
> ready?” will be commonly heard in bluegrass.
>
> Bill in DC
>