It can be a lonely and fustrating journey making musical progress with the harmonica. This page is to offer some inspiration by sharing some harmonica successes. Of particular interest to me is progress made in terms of harmonica education, and being taken seriously by musicians in general.
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For many years people have been working hard to get the harmonica to be recognised as a serious musical instrument. People like Larry Adler (Standards & Classical), Jerry Murad's Harmoni-Cats (Ensemble Band), John Sebastian (1914-1980 Classical), Toots Thielemans (Jazz), Alan "Blackie" Schackner (Standards & Classical), Captain James Reilly (Classical) & son Tommy Reilly (1919-2000 Various styles) to more recently Richard Hunter (Ecelectic Classical, Jazz, Blues, Pop & Rock), Howard Levy (Jazz), Brendan Power (ecelectic Blues & Irish), Mike Turk (Jazz), Franz Chmel (Classical), Robert Bonfiglio (Classical), and many others.
To this end its well worth reading the essay on the Classical Free Reed website:
Why Aren't Harmonica Players As Respected As They Should BE?
by Alan "Blackie" Schackner.
It would appear that although there is still some stigma attached to it, the instrument is now formally recognised.
On BBC News website,
there is an inspiring article on Steve Lockwood who has recently got a musical degree using the harmonica as his choice of instrument.
You can read the
full article here
Tuesday, 17 October, 2000, 18:50 GMT 19:50 UK
Mouth organ degree awarded
Steve Lockwood, is 33, he started playing the harmonica when he was 18 and practises for five hours a day.
After three years of study at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge - where he specialised in the harmonica and he has gained a 2:1 in music at degree level.
Mr Lockwood said he decided to study for a degree so he could pursue the instrument "to its limits".
"I wanted to see how much I could do musically with the degree and to see how far the instrument itself could go." said Steve.
You can read the full article here
In addition to this article Harp-L received an email from Douglas Tate regarding Mr Lockwood's achievements:
To: Harp-L@garply.com
Subject: Re: A degree in harmonica
From: Douglas Tate
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 22:36:03 -0500
At 05:40 PM 10/17/00 GMT, M. Nessmith wrote:
>Check out this story on BBC News about a guy who got a music degree at
>Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge where he specialised in the
>harmonica:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/newsid_976000/976548.stm
>
>Anyone here know him? If so, please pass on my congratulations.
>MN
This is Steve Lockwood. Three years ago he came to me to be his tutor in classical harmonica at Cambridge. He was a very good (chromatic) diatonic player of the normal genres played by diatonic players (no flames please, I mean that he played a wide range of styles on diatonic) His stage presence is great, you get sucked in by what he does.
He knew what a chromatic was and wanted to learn to play it as his main instrument on the degree course... playing classical music, which he knew NOTHING about. His ambition was to play a simple harmonica concerto with orchestra by the end of his course.
It says in the Net writeup that Steve worked hard... that is an understatement, he worked like no one I have ever taught before. He learned to play right from scratch with a completely new style, technique, instrument and outlook.
Starting on this course he was in amongst people who had been in the mainstream of classical music since toddlers, reading music and playing in orchestras as a matter of course. He couldn't read music. Boy, did we start from scratch.
Basic reading took him a couple of weeks.... it was all onwards and outwards from then on.
He was totally accepted on the course and enjoyed himself doing ensemblle work, singing and all the other things 'normal' instrumental students do. I was able to mark him very highly for all of the work he did with me.
At the end of two years I had to give up teaching him because I came over to America.
After me, for his final year he had to make do with Brendan Power!!!!! :))
Steve is full of music, ideas, enrgy and personality... I believe that he will be a force to be reckoned with.
Douglas Tate
By Ron Wynn, rwynn@nashvillecitypaper.com
November 15, 2004
From
NashvilleCityPaper.com
Though he's an exceptional multi-instrumentalist at home in numerous musical
situations, many Nashville music fans will immediately remember Howard Levy
for his stint with Bela Fleck & The Flecktones. A superb harmonica soloist,
Levy appeared on the first three Flecktones releases before departing for a
career that has seen him appear on hundreds of CDs, win both a Grammy and
Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Original Music for a Play, and also work with
jazz, rock, country, Latin and classical artists.
But when Levy returns to Nashville Friday and Saturday, he will appear in a
new role. His "Harmonica Concerto," a work that incorporates Celtic and jazz
influences as well as classical elements, is one of three works featured in
the Nashville Chamber Orchestra's (NCO) latest Music Without Boundaries
program. The Harmonica & Strings concert also includes Virgil Thomson's
"Concerto for Violincello and Orchestra" featuring Emmanuel Feldman and a
performance of Mozart's "Symphony No. 40."
"I have long admired Howard Levy's playing in both live performance and on
various recordings," NCO conductor Paul Gambill said. "When we were putting
together plans for this program and thought about including the Thomson
piece, then we immediately thought about also adding Howard's concerto. Both
those pieces have vernacular music origins. The Thomson [piece] uses
variations on a Southern hymn and the Levy has Celtic and jazz parts, so we
felt they both really fit into the program concept."
Levy's versatility also embodies the NCO program's theme. In addition to
being one of the nation's finest harmonica players, Levy plays piano, flute,
mandolin, saxophone, ocarina and percussion. He's been a member of Trio Globo
with Eugene Friesen and Glen Velez and also served for several years as music
director the Chicago Latin jazz band Chevere, whose debut CD will be released
early next year. He also heads the quartet Howard Levy's Acoustic Express,
and his harmonica solos have been featured on the soundtracks for such films
as A Family Thing, A Time To Kill, Straight Talk, and Vietnam, A Long Time
Coming.
"I always visualize playing the keyboard when I'm doing harmonica solos,"
Levy said. "People tell me sometimes that it seems like they're hearing a
saxophone or a violin rather than a harmonica, and part of that comes from
the fact that I can play those other instruments. With the harmonica, it's
really driven by your imagination in terms of what you can play. You can't
really see anything else, and what you play is all up to what you can do with
your mouth."
Levy's first instrument was the piano, when he began playing as an
8-year-old. He started playing classical music, but he added, "I started to
improvise as soon as I put my hands on the piano."
He turned to harmonica as a teenager after hearing some Chicago blues albums
courtesy of another musician friend.
"This guy played me some blues records and it was incredible," Levy said. "I
later met a violinist that also taught himself how to play the harmonica. I
asked him to teach me and he said he couldn't, because it was all in your
mouth and learning your way around the harmonica. So I taught myself. The
first six months I was terrible, then one day I just started bending notes
and playing all those licks I'd heard, and I went from there into doing jazz
and that's when it really took off."
Yet, despite all the sessions and dates he played, including his appearances
on the Flecktones' releases, it wasn't until the late '90s that Levy wrote
"Harmonica Concerto."
"I had composed a chamber suite back in 1995 which was a work for a
five-piece chamber group plus harmonica," Levy said. "I kept getting calls
from symphonies that wanted me to write a harmonica concerto, but I felt
because I played the diatonic [the standard 10-hole harmonica] rather than
the chromatic [the more advanced version that combines two harmonicas and
allows the soloist to alternate between the keys of C and D flat through the
use of a control button] that I couldn't do it. But finally when the Chicago
Symphony called, I sat down and wrote the concerto. It took me six months,
but it's been gotten a lot of interest from various orchestras."
"We've been thrilled with the reception that this series is getting and the
type of diverse audiences we're attracting, and I think Howard's inclusion is
another bonus for the series," Gambill said. "These programs have attracted
some people who normally come to our concerts as well as a lot of young
people, many of whom seldom if ever attend any classical concerts. We're very
happy with the series and I think the Harmonica & Strings will be another
great concert."
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 16:25:58 +0200
From: "Tinus"
Subject: The entrance exam [long]
I haven't sent many messages to the group this year because I have been busy with school. I am enrolled in a private school for jazz in Amsterdam. All through the year I have been studying hard at my solfege, music theory and improvisational skills. Although I like the school very much I have had a yearning to go to a "real" conservatory. Partly because I feel that that is a very good place to get to know people who are seriously playing jazz, partly because of the lessons and partly because I felt that getting admitted to the conservatory as a diatonic harmonica player would be an acknowledgement of the validity my views on how the instrument can be played.
After years of thinking about doing the entrance exam I finally decided to go ahead and do it, so I sent in my application forms for 2 different conservatories.
The first was the conservatory of The Hague. No luck there, I didn't get past the first round. The head of the jazz department felt that I wasn't a good enough improviser to do the entrance exam. Fair enough.
The other conservatory, the conservatory of Rotterdam was a different story altogether. After sending in my application form I was called by someone from the administration. She was having trouble processing my application because "harmonica" was not something she could enter in the computer as an instrument. She asked if it was okay if she put me in the trumpet group for the entrance exam. I didn't mind as long as she told the people of the exam committee that I didn't actually play trumpet.
So the day of the exam arrived, I was more nervous than I had ever been. The day started with the theory exam, I did okay. Good enough to be admitted, now all I had to do was play well. After that the long wait for the practical part of the exam started. I sat in the hallway and talked to the other people that were there to do the exam. A trumpet player from Ghana, a bass player from Thailand and a Dutch trumpet player who was enrolled in the classical department and who wanted to switch to jazz.
Finally it was my turn, I dragged my amplifier into the room.
The first thing they asked me is what I was going to do with that amplifier.
I told them I was going to play harmonica through it.
"Aha", they said, "so you play trumpet and harmonica?"
"No, I just play harmonica".
"And no trumpet?"
"no".
I explained what had happened with the form and the administration and everything was sorted out. I passed around the lead sheets to the band and counted off. The band was fantastic and I knew that that was really the best reason the study there, the large number of very good musicians I would get the chance to study and play with.
I did okay, no mistakes. My soloing was a little tense but I was satisfied with my performance considering the amount of pressure I was feeling. After playing three songs I was asked to wait outside while the committee discussed my performance. 5 minutes passed and in those 5 minutes I think I came up with some 7024 reasons why they wouldn't think me good enough to study with them.
I was called back and was happy to see big smiles on the committee's faces.They liked the way I played and told me I could be admitted. We talked a little about some practical things like who would teach me and how that would work because they obviously didn't have anyone that played harmonica. I explained the difference between the diatonic and chromatic harmonica and why I choose to play diatonic. All in all they were a lot more open to the whole idea of a harmonica than I had expected. I had expected Skepticism and rolling eyes, but it turned out that that was just my harmonica player inferiority complex.
I left the building floating on air, still having trouble believing what had happened. I had been accepted to the jazz department of one of the leading conservatories of the land. I, a diatonic harmonica player. Was I the first diatonic harmonica player to be accepted? In my country certainly,I don't know about others. As I walked to meet my girlfriend who was waiting outside my eyes filled with tears.
I went back home and we celebrated, I called my mother, my sisters my friends the people I play with and was still having trouble believing what had happened.
And then the phone rang...
It was the head of the jazz department...
He had heard that I had been accepted by the committee and he had
immediately discussed it with the director of the conservatory and he told
me that he wouldn't have it.
There was no place for a harmonica player and it would probably have been
better if I had played the exam on trumpet as I was supposed to.
I tried to explain that I in fact had never picked up a trumpet in my life,
but it was too late for discussion. It was over.
I send a message to the person who was to teach me, to thank him and tell him I was sorry I wouldn't be studying with him. He mailed back to tell me he had spoken with the head but that the head in fact wouldn't allow any instruments other than the ones that were already taught there and was even trying to get rid of some of the instruments that were already there. He felt that that was a shame, but was sorry to say that nothing could be done.
So that was it. For four hours I had realised something I had long hoped
to accomplish. I had been admitted to a "proper" conservatory.
I must say I bounced back quickly, I feel a sense of injustice but I know
that I wasn't rejected because of the way I play but because of what I play
and somehow that is not as bad as the other way around.
My ego is still intact :-)
I am now more dedicated than ever to playing and studying, so next year I am going back to school in Amsterdam without that lingering wish to go to a "proper" school and finally convinced that the only person that thinks that you shouldn't play jazz on a diatonic harmonica is me.
Tinus
http://www.tenhole.com
http://www.overblow.com
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:12:01 +0200
From: "Tinus"
Subject: Another Entrance Exam
A year has come and gone since the last time I wrote to this list, a year in which I have studied hard. One year since I did the entrance exam, got accepted to and thrown out of the conservatory all in one afternoon. (Read the full story on my site http://www.tenhole.com)
Last year I wrote that I was going to go to school and be free from that lingering wish to go to a conservatory and for the main part of the year this was true. I was learning loads of new stuff. Things like writing and arranging polyphonic pieces. Arranging for the piano. I had lots of fun and was so swamped with homework that the idea of any other school being a "real school" was sort of ridiculous.
However as the end of the year drew closer and the entrance exams for the conservatories were getting nearer I started to feel that itch again. Friends in school had already signed up for the exams and my teacher kept pushing me to do the same. When the piano player of my school combo told me he was going to try I couldn't think of any excuses why I wouldn't too.
The conservatory I was going to apply for asked that you send in a CD of recent work so that a first selection could be made from the applicants. I got together with a pianist with whom I regularly play to record a few standards. We did "All of Me", "Softly" and "You Don't Know What Love Is". I also added a demo I did for EHQ and the EHQ track "Tja Tja Plus" (available on the site for download http://www.overblow.com/ehq).
The online application form gave me a bit of a problem because the list box in which I had to select the instrument I was going to play obviously didn't include harmonica. Like last year I decided to pick trumpet and hope for the best, luckily this time there was room to put notes on the form and seeing that this time the form would be accompanied by a CD any mistakes like last year were unlikely.
So the long wait began. Would I be invited to play, would my piano player friend get invited to play? We kept mailing back and forth to hear if the other had heard anything yet and a month passed before the piano player got the message that he was invited. The next day I got an email too.
"We would hereby like to invite you for your entrance exam Harmonica"
A fear gripped my heart, I was going to play in front of a committee again. The four weeks I had to prepare flew by and before I knew it the exams were there. My friend the piano player had his exam a couple of days before me. He was accepted. This made me even more nervous, because if he had been rejected it would not be a disgrace for me to be rejected too.
The last day before the exam I didn't play harmonica anymore I just did breathing exercise in the hope that I could remain fairly calm when it was time to play.
The morning of the exam, a beautiful sunny day. The first test was taken in a computer room, I listening test. Intervals, Chords and things like that. I had trained on things like that the whole year but there and then I didn't do too well. Next the written test: music theory. No problem what so ever. The third test was a difficult one; solfege, singing scales, melodies and rhythms as they are written. I did very bad on that.
The man who was testing looked at my results and said "well, the playing is the most important part".
After 2 hours hanging around in the hallways of the conservatory, it was my turn. I was introduced to the band I was going to play with and we talked about the form of the pieces and how I would like to play them. When I got out my harmonica the drummer said "you're not going to play that are you?".
I said "yes I am" and I was glad to see that they seemed impressed rather than skeptical as I had feared.
I set up my amplifier (and forgot to check the tone settings) and counted off. We played "A Felicidade" and all went well, except that halfway through the piece I suddenly got the idea that I had never played this number before and didn't actually knew what the chords were. Apparently all the hours of practicing paid of because even though I could have sworn I didn't know the song I appeared to be playing it without any problem. The only thing that went wrong was that instead of playing through the whole theme after the solo, I somehow stopped right in the middle of the theme instead of going to the C part I had mistaken the end of the B part for end of the tune. The next song was my favorite ballad; "You Don't Know What Love Is". I have played it a thousand times and will play it many more times especially after playing it at the exam. It went well.
The last tune was a fast one; "Blues For Alice", a terribly difficult song to play on the c harp and I didn't feel that I did a very good job of playing it. No great mistakes though and I managed to get some good bebop lines in.
That was it, I had played fairly well and all I could do now was hope that it was enough. I looked up to the table where the committee was sitting and was relieved to see, as last year, only smiling faces.
I was asked to wait in the hallway while they discussed. When I was called back the first thing the director said was; "You're accepted". It didn't really register, we discussed who would teach me and talked about the diatonic harmonica and how tones are produced on it, what I could work on during the summer and when I left they told me "see you in September". It still didn't register. The band members met me in the hallway and congratulated me, the people that were to play after me congratulated me and it still didn't register.
Dazed I found my way out into the street. Outside I started calling people to tell them I was in. Slowly it started to sink in and when I got my teacher on the phone I was on the verge of crying and while I told him all the things that had gone wrong it dawned on me that it didn't matter anymore what had gone wrong, I had been accepted to one of the leading jazz schools of my country. And this time the director was right there and he would not be calling to tell me that he really didn't want a harmonica player in his school.
I am so thrilled that I keep on breaking out in short yelps of joy and do little dances whenever I think nobody is watching. I keep on walking about town trying to find people I haven't told about it yet so I can once more tell the story.
I haven't worked out how I am going to pay for the whole thing and that should keep me busy these summer months and I do need to have something to do, because I just can't wait to start school :-)
Tinus
http://www.tenhole.com
http://www.overblow.com
Larry Adler's youngest daughter Marmoset:
I have spent some time thinking of an appropriate way to honour the memory of my father in a way which reflects his life. I have decided I would like to establish a music scholarship in his name. I hope that the many people who knew him will feel that this is a fitting way of remembering him and ensuring that his name lives on, helping young musicians of the future to reach the top of their profession.
My father ran away from home to play the mouth organ at the age of fourteen. He did not have any academic or musical education after that point and always regretted it. I think this is a project he would have been proud of.
If you would like to pay tribute to my father in this way, please send a cheque to start up the scholarship fund, making it payable to Royal Academy of Music and send it to
c/o Fiona Newton,
Development Director,
The Larry Adler Scholarship Appeal,
Royal Academy of Music,
Marylebone Road,
London NW1 5HT.
The Royal Academy of Music is a registered charity, number 310007.
If you have any questions or would like further information, you can
contact Fiona Newton at the Royal Academy of Music on 020 7873 7333.
I would like to say a huge thank you in advance for any support you are
able to give.
Marmoset Katelyn Adler
30th October 2001
Post-mortem Bio. of Tommy Reilly by Robert White on the Classical Free Reed website.
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