jonsparrow
819 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:08 PM
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so some people may throw a little joke here or there which is fine but has any one realy pissed you off? this guy online realy pissed me off on this other forum an i flipped out on him. iv been playing harp for under a year but i have alot of passion for it an it means alot to me. an for this guy to be so rude out of know where an he doesnt even know me, plus he was new to the forum an iv been a moderator on there for years, it just realy pissed me off. this is what he wrote...
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The harmonic is a simple instrument; much like the ocarina, I disrespect it, as being illustrative of any musical proficience.
Play a real instrument.
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then i talked some shit to him an he continued with...
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The harmonica is a simple instrument, it teaches people who to suck dick; I should buy one for my female, now that I think of it.
Guitars, pianos, et cetera are real instruments, harmonicas are for clowns, hence the relative obscurity of the art.
Go sit some place, boy.
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if this guy said this to my face that serious id probobly knock his teeth out.
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congaron
63 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:16 PM
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You know the truth. He clearly doesn't. The guys at work used to laugh if they saw me playing at a distance. Nobody is laughing now. I get paid money for something I love to do outside work. I work hard for it and have been blessed with the results. You have too. I wouldn't give it a second thought. I am working on the William Tell Overature (think lone ranger theme if this sounded unfamiliar to you)since I heard Buddy Greene do it. He got a standing Ovation in Carnegie hall, or was it the Ford theater..i forget....anyway, Harmonica is no joke.
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2009 1:17 PM
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tookatooka
399 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:16 PM
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You could have just posted a video link to some of the top players on Youtube. Apart from the obvious blues players that comes to mind, James Conway's innovative style of playing should knock him dead.
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When I'm not blowing, I'm drawing.
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RyanMortos
260 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:19 PM
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Id back you up Jon!
I tend to be careful who I tell about my favorite hobby to. So many people are so blind to things that dont become them or the majority.
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~Ryan
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
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jonsparrow
820 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:23 PM
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i posted the "ultimate harp jam" from the spah 2009 footage. an every one else on the forum loved it. the jackass had no comment.
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XHarp
126 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:24 PM
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Don't waste any time on him. If he is blind he will not take the time to look.
jonsparrow, You know the truth and you have faith in the instrument, and it is an insturment and it can play real music loud and clear with emotion.
The music is the message, the instrument is the tool. Let the tool make your music in your way with confidence in it.
Don't let his ingnorance get you down, also, as moderator you could always ban him from the site for his inflamatory remarks to you and his condascending remarks about Women, both of which I am sure contradict the policies of the Forum.
At least get one of the other moderators to put him on notice.
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"Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
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jonsparrow
821 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:27 PM
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i could ban him, but the forum has this freedom of speech policy following the first amendment. so doing that just cause hes expressing his opinion would be going aganst that. as rude as he is...
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tookatooka
400 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:34 PM
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And another thing, the penny whistle is also a very simple instrument but in order to play it well takes an enormous amount of skill.
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When I'm not blowing, I'm drawing.
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Preston
474 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:34 PM
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The guy sounds like a tool.
On the other side of the coin...
Jon, I'm not trying to piss you off, so don't read into this that I'm not on your side. But I deal in Human relations everyday with employees and irate customers. Next time, instead of talking shit after his first ignorant comment, try to get where he's coming from. Ask him who he's heard play, or if he's ever heard (insert badass harp player name here) play before. Maybe when you started flipping shit he automatically started laying it on thicker because he knew he struck a nerve. These arguments are a lose/lose situations unless you try to subtely win him over to your way of thinking. Make him go where you want him to go, but he thinks it's his own idea.
Or just punch him in the teeth!
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XHarp
128 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:36 PM
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Well, then it is what it is.
Usually Freedom of Speech is not a sound excuse for degrading or insulting remarks. Might want to turn your interests away from that Forum if it allows that kind of blatant disrespect and derogatory remarks.
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"Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
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Aussiesucker
335 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:43 PM
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Unfortunately the way the harmonica has been portrayed ie used by clowns, played badly, played annoyingly,given as childrens gifts,played by elephants & monkeys, has not enhanced its reputation as a serious instrument. Also the claims that some instructional sites make ie "play blues harp in an hour' gives the impression that the harmonica is easy to play.
I guess we have to live with it ie we know better.
Recently I went in a contest where I was the only harp player. The 3 judges new nothing about the harmonica & it was reflected in their comments ie they kept calling it a 'mouth organ' but were otherwise very complimentary. I played a medley of 7 classical pieces which I suspect had I played them on a piano or a violin to the same standard the comments might have been different.
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jonsparrow
823 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:45 PM
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@ preston ya i should have done that. but when people disrespect me (especially for no reason) it turns on the angry switch an i flip. lol.
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walterharp
24 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:51 PM
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a guy asked me the other night, and this is true, "so does the harmonica actually have real notes"? I said, well, not the way I play it :-)
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jonsparrow
824 posts
Aug 20, 2009
1:55 PM
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lol. no they have fake notes. thats what i would have said.
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congaron
68 posts
Aug 20, 2009
2:05 PM
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My wife was playing her a harp the other night while i was working on an overblow lick in E. She just went ahead and recognised the A harp and started in. SUddenly she went...What? What note is that? It was the 5 or 6 overblow..forget which lick it was. I said.."you don't have that note"...lol. It was hilarious. Now she wants to learn them too.
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Oliver
96 posts
Aug 20, 2009
2:09 PM
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Jon, the guy sounds like an absolute cretin, forget about him (or ban his arse!).
congaron,
Forgive me if this sounds a bit harsh, I certainly don't mean it this way. But I kind of cringed at that Buddy Greene medley. I would certainly NEVER refer someone to that type of playing in an attempt to 'legitimise' the harmonica. It sounded like a gimmick, a 'look what I can do on this little old thing!'. But I appreciate that could just be me!
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Patrick Barker
389 posts
Aug 20, 2009
2:12 PM
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I get pissed when my friends say "oh yeah, I play harmonica too" when all they have is a harmonica and the ability to breathe. I then proceed to take out my harmonica and blow them away (pun intended).
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It's all in the tongue
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Mgimino
67 posts
Aug 20, 2009
2:16 PM
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The harmonica is naturally seen as a simple instrument that's only job is to accompany wanker guitarists and played at campfires.
Only thing you can do is whip out and prove them wrong.
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Michael
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Randy G. Blues
68 posts
Aug 20, 2009
2:33 PM
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People like that lead sad lives. Ignorant and self-righteous makes for a pitiful human being. Could you imagine him saying that to any of the old-time Chicago blues players? Afterwards someone would be playing St. James Infirmary for him. He would definitely would be staring down a gun or a knife blade. Eventually he will open his mouth to the wrong person and get the beat down he is looking for.
And agree that the rude, sexual comment should have gotten him banned, and any forum that allows that sort of comment directed in that way is not worth participating in.
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jonsparrow
826 posts
Aug 20, 2009
2:58 PM
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"Could you imagine him saying that to any of the old-time Chicago blues players? Afterwards someone would be playing St. James Infirmary for him. He would definitely would be staring down a gun or a knife blade."
for real. i wish times were still like that.
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nacoran
160 posts
Aug 20, 2009
3:52 PM
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I read that wrong. I had a picture in my head before you finished saying what you were saying. 'Has anyone ever disrespected the harmonica?' This one time, at band camp...
Anyway, online all you can do is post links. In person you can hand them an extra harp. Start playing tell them to keep up. (I think Hohner has a set of really, really cheap toy harmonicas in C that come in a jar. You can get Kay harmonicas for under 3 bucks.) When they can't keep up tell them they can get a better harp for $30 bucks at most music stores, or even expensive custom harps. Explain the difference between tremolo, chromatic and diatonic harps. Hey, a chord harmonica can go for over a grand. There is even a Tremolo Chromatic out there. There are art deco harmonicas. There are Bass Double Harmonicas. Tell them about how some great harmonica companies nearly disappeared when they were stuck on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. Tell them how soldiers used to carry them as a portable instrument during the world wars.
When their head starts to hurt over how much more complicated harps are than they thought the may give you some respect. Heck, they may even go buy a better harp.
If they still give you a problem I'm sure Buddha would be willing to send some of his attack dogs after them.
edit: ok, the harmonicas in the jar are more expensive than I remember. Must be fluctuations in the exchange rate. Still, for $300 you get 60 harmonics. When I saw them before it was only $100.
http://www.musicways.co.nz/customer/search.php?substring=&in_category=209&page=3
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2009 3:57 PM
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jonsparrow
827 posts
Aug 20, 2009
3:57 PM
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i have this old hohner pocket pal in "C" that i let people who dont play harp try. surprising enough it does over blow easy.
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kudzurunner
657 posts
Aug 20, 2009
4:25 PM
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jon:
The guy is an idiot, and he's being one intentionally, rather than inadvertently. I'm speaking about his comment that the harmonica "teaches people who to suck dick." I presume he meant "how," which makes him a bad proofreader into the bargain--or just plain illiterate. And that's putting it charitably.
I wouldn't let it get to you, though. The harmonica needs no defenders. Anybody who actually knows the music--a fair sprinkling of the Top 20 and Honorable Mention players I reference on this website--knows what a singular and remarkable instrument it is. So the sort of comment made by this clown is usually based on sheer ignorance. He's heard some Dylan, some Huey Lewis, some Mick Jagger, and maybe he once saw some late-night footage of the Harmonicats, so he thinks the instrument is basically a joke. (He hasn't the faintest idea how hard it actually is to play like the Harmonicats. He's just responding to their comic affect.) Plus he once had a lost weekend on the Jersey Shore and ended up making a fool out of himself on a $1.50 plastic harmonica. He adds that up, sees you as a young passionate player and advocate, and decides to push your buttons. Some people get drunk and head-butt people for no good reason, to get back at Mummy.
The question, though, is how to deal with such idiots. It's easy to grant them way too much power to affect your mood. Try laughing at them, the way you'd chuckle at a harmless, self-important idiot. I don't mean laughing AT them, as in sneering at them online and keeping the aggression going. I mean letting go of the whole ridiculous issue and moving on, rather than letting them get your goat. Hard to do, surely. We blues players prefer to cast stones at those who engage us in their perversity--and this guy IS totally trying to pull you in to his perversity, for the sheer deranged pleasure of it. I'd just let go and move on. What would the Dalai Lama do? He'd squint at the guy, say "Thank you very much for your contribution," and glide away towards more useful and productive work.
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2009 4:29 PM
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congaron
71 posts
Aug 20, 2009
4:28 PM
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If playing classical music doesn't legitimize harmonica, I can't think of anything that will. Of course, I see no need to legitimize harmonica anyway...lol.
If legitimizing it is a goal at all, you will have to play what they want to hear and they have to think it wasn't possible until they heard you do it.
My point was, harmonica is as capable as the musician behind it, just like a guitar or piano..I guess that's really the bottom line for me. I guess i could have just said that.
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mickil
475 posts
Aug 20, 2009
4:41 PM
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I don't want to sound like yo' mama, but I think the answer is simple: just try to ignore people who seem to be trying to provoke you.
I know it's easier said than done, 'cos pride creeps in. But, you have to ask yourself the question: How much do I value this person's opinion on the subject?
Anyway, if they've got you riled enough to post this thread then they've wielded some power over you.
That kind of shit happens to me, and it pisses me off that I can't always drum up the maturity / equanimity to rise above it. But, I know it's the best way.
I suppose Mr Spock comes to mind here. That dude, if he were real, wouldn't get rattled by some div.
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'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
http://www.youtube.com/user/SlimHarpMick
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Randy G. Blues
70 posts
Aug 20, 2009
6:38 PM
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Patrick Barker said: "I get pissed when my friends say 'oh yeah, I play harmonica too'."
Just like everyone with a digital pocket camera is a photographer and everyone with a computer, inkjet printer, and MS Word is a graphic artist. I have plenty of stories as I work as both of those besides playing harp.. There's more to photography than finding the shutter release, there's more to graphic arts than seeing how many fonts you can get in a brochure, and there's more to playing ANY instrument well than owning the device and the orifice to play it. A cardboard box can make great music in the right hands.
Best advice again- get off that board- life's too short.
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jonsparrow
831 posts
Aug 20, 2009
7:01 PM
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its hard to get off the board. iv been on it for so many years an there are some good people on there that iv been talkin to for those years.
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Elwood
136 posts
Aug 20, 2009
11:20 PM
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Junior Wells woulda pistol-whipped this fella. But we're, by and large, more modest-tempered folk. As the good people have said: let it go. Guy's a fool.
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www.murrayhunter.net
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Bluzdude46
123 posts
Aug 21, 2009
5:51 AM
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Send him on an all expense paid weekend somewhere really cool, divert him to Baltimore, I'll take over and drop him off in West Baltimore.....no more problem
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ness
50 posts
Aug 21, 2009
7:38 AM
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Not every remark requires a response. Not every taunt requires come-back. He's wrong, you know it, move on.
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XHarp
129 posts
Aug 21, 2009
8:05 AM
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"its hard to get off the board. iv been on it for so many years an there are some good people on there that iv been talkin to for those years. "
jonsparrow,
That makes it tougher for sure but if they are good people they will eventually find this other person diffcult and insulting too. Time will erase him from the board.
move on.
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"Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
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Philosofy
255 posts
Aug 21, 2009
8:16 AM
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The thing is, that jerk had a ring of truth to it. The Harmonica IS a simple instrument. It was designed so someone could learn to play tunes on it quickly. The way it was designed, you can't play an off key note on it. BUT, people, mainly blues players, have taken what was a simple instrument and done so much, discovered so much about it, and play so nuanced that it has become quite complicated.
Now, if it were me, I would have asked that jerk if he says the same thing to drummers. After all, its a simple instrumet: you just bang it, and you don't even need to know what key the band is in!
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jonsparrow
836 posts
Aug 21, 2009
8:38 AM
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thats a good point about the drums. i wish i thought of that.
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congaron
74 posts
Aug 21, 2009
9:32 AM
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You know, I learned enough mandolin to jam in about 5 minutes..since I already play guitar. That's another instrument that's easy to play some music on but difficult to master. Actually, I can teach a child to play power chords on a guitar in 5 minutes and he will make what he calls music to the chagrin of his parents all week until the next lesson..(just kidding, i don't do that). Keyboard has some easy chops to learn too. This guy has a distorted view of instruments in general and the mastery of them versus the playing of them. This means he also has a differeing opinion on music itself from what i believe to be general consensus on this forum.
I have said it before, and guitar players please don't be offended... pretty good guitar players are a dime a dozen. Guitar playing master musicians are far more rare. Isn't this true of any instrument you can learn in high school on your parent's dime?
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Philosofy
256 posts
Aug 21, 2009
3:07 PM
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Here's another comeback:
"I feel sorry for you. Its rough when your girlfriend dumps you to suck a harmonica player's dick. But don't expect her back. She knows know that a harp player's tongue can go all night."
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Patrick Barker
392 posts
Aug 21, 2009
3:22 PM
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^ that's awesome
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It's all in the tongue
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gene
244 posts
Aug 21, 2009
5:13 PM
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I've handled people like that by politely filling them with a wealth of information backed by links for reference. If they continue with their idiocy, I ignore them and feel quite content that everybody else sees that person as a fool.
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Oisin
298 posts
Aug 22, 2009
11:51 PM
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Jon...tell us where we can find the forum, we'll all register on it and give him a little feedback.
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jonsparrow
838 posts
Aug 23, 2009
7:20 AM
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lol nah i dont want every one spaming the forum just cause of that.
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Randy G. Blues
73 posts
Aug 23, 2009
10:10 AM
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Philosofy: That was excellent.
I once said to a small group of ladies, "If you want to be rich, marry the guitar player. If you want to be TOTALLY 'satisfied' [with a raise of the eyebrows] marry the harmonica player," then I blew a few fast tongued licks.. as it were. ;-)
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Philosofy
257 posts
Aug 23, 2009
10:32 AM
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Randy, I'm gonna steal that one. :)
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jonsparrow
839 posts
Aug 23, 2009
4:00 PM
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imma have to steal that too! thats a good one.
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
148 posts
Aug 27, 2009
9:21 AM
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Jon,
So your guy on the forum thinks it "teaches people to suck dick?" Wow. Tell him the harmonica is but a poor substitute for the one-on-one, hands-on, instruction he provides.
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Buddha
947 posts
Aug 27, 2009
9:30 AM
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do you know who the most disrespectful people are? ALL of YOU who do not know what notes you are playing. All of you who do not have a basic understanding of music theory. All of you people who go out to jam sessions and wank away.
Respect start with you. I've done my part, how about youins?
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Preston
480 posts
Aug 27, 2009
10:08 AM
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"ALL of YOU" is a bit of pigeon hole-ing stretch.
Wouldn't a raw beginner be excempt from this statement?
I sure as heck don't want to be the guy who scares someone away with an attitude like this, just because he's new to the harp and/or music.
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Buddha
948 posts
Aug 27, 2009
10:17 AM
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way to read into what you want.
Its embarrassing to read about how people who can't play music in general, feels disrespected when they are told so.
OK Preston, arpeggiate the CSus chord. Do you have to look it up? How about you arpeggiate the C7b5 chord. Can you do that? How about arpeggiating the C major chord to the 13th. Can you do that? Without looking it up?
Name one scale that fits over the C aug
The G minor scale is the relative to what major scale?
What is the relative minor to Fmaj?
This is basic stuff that is taught in grade school music. If you don't know what I am talking about then you have no reason to feel disrespected. If your tone, bending and overall technique isn't together then you have no business feeling disrespected.
It up you all of you to be better musicians and command respect with your instrument when you step on stage.
Last Edited by on Aug 27, 2009 10:26 AM
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tookatooka
418 posts
Aug 27, 2009
10:25 AM
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Why you, you, you.... Hey Buddah, that Manji you've got, is it Compromise tuning like we've been led to believe from Brendan?
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When I'm not blowing, I'm drawing.
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Buddha
949 posts
Aug 27, 2009
10:28 AM
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I can't say. I totally hotrodded it and retuned it. I plan to give it to an old friend in MN.
Zhin has one, maybe he can say. I wouldn't doubt what Brendan says.
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Preston
481 posts
Aug 27, 2009
11:08 AM
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I can only arpegiate the cmaj to the 13th without looking it up. You got me on the others.
Without looking it up, I think a C, G, or E scale will fit over a C aug scale because it is comprised of those 3 notes without having a strong clear root, but I'm not really sure about that.
G min is relative to Emaj
Ab min is relative to Fmaj
I'm pretty proud of myself for being self taught. The last time I remember music class was in 1st grade and I GUARANTEE they never taught this crap. We were playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on a plastic recorder.
I don't feel disrespected by your comments, nor take it personal. Merely an observation. Never mind.
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Buddha
950 posts
Aug 27, 2009
11:11 AM
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my comments weren't directed towards you anyway.
I seriously have some 7th and 9th grade students that know a lot of stuff from their music courses.
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