I'm good, really good, on trombone....but switched to harmonica years ago as instrument of choice. Bone is more of a side instrument ( with exceptions ); while harp is filling, backing, and solos.
The nice thing is that when other harp players show up for the jams I am at, I simply transition to bone ( most of the time ).
[ I'm kind of basking in compliment, as a fellow harp player that I respect commented that my trombone solo was the best he had ever heard, and I know he was not being funny or BS'ing. ]
Anyhoo, I also play cornet and am experimenting/learning alto sax. As a totally off-the-wall comment, I started playing at 8 YO on a bass sax! ( wish I had that monster now! ).
I've often thought I should learn other instruments. Currently I can play harmonica, piano and oboe, but I don't own a piano or an oboe. I've often thought about a flute because they're cheaper than oboes and even more portable. And I'd like to learn Spanish guitar (with blues guitar on the side). And I'm curious about the trumpet, believe it or not (I'd want to play like Miles Davis)! Saxophone is an obvious choice, but I've no idea whether I prefer soprano, alto or tenor. I guess soprano would come third.
In the past I have had three lessons on the trombone, three or four lessons on the French horn and I've even played a bassoon (at school they make you learn what they are most in need of. I was about 4 feet tall, and they gave me a bassoon, goddam!) ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2009 2:10 AM
Yea I'm a Jazz Saxophonist by trade. I also play flute, clarrinet Guitar, some piano, Blues harp, use voice and have been known to dabble with percussion. I am quicker on guitar than piano so must composing and working stuff out I will pick up guitar first. My guitar work is split,into various styles from
classical to jazz however I only play out on guitar these days if it's blues gig.So blues and slide. As a jazz sax man I play with some great guitar guys from time to time,ha ha so I leave that that to them and i'll speak through the SAX.
I believe it can only be an advantage to know your way round other instruments, to facilitate your main one. If your just a harp player and nothing else that's great but you'l have to make sure your b..... great.
Also it depends on you the individual. Are you comfortable wearing one hat or several hats.
A big factor is your motivation for playing your chosen instrument. Look at a band and put yourself in their shoes.
Would you want you in that band? Is the band just carrying a passenger that colours the tunes? Can the band do with out, money etc etc
What attributes does the harp player bring to the table?
Iv'e been hired many many times as a sax player in a blues band because I have the ability to cover more than one angle. .....................................................
Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2009 3:00 AM
I play guitar but have barely touched it since picking up the harp 3 and a half yrs ago(although i do like to pick it up now and again to play a little slide). I have a guitar buddy who takes care of that side of things now. The harp is my weapon of choice. ----------
Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2009 3:51 AM
vocals primarily since I was about 5(been performing live ever since), then harp kinda stole the thunder a bit, and over the years I've gotten into all kinds of hand and auxiliary percussion:bongos, congas, djembe, cajons, shekeres, vibraslap, all manners of wood blocks and shakers. ---------- GO SAINTS! crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
I've dabbled in acoustic guitar recently. I can pick the blues scale in "E" and play the "Smoke on the Water" riff, the "Hoochie Coochie Man" riff. Thats about it.
But where I really shine is Air Guitar. Man, I'm just badass at that.
My main instrument is bass in my band. Harp is secondary but quickly becoming more of an obsession as far as practicing but I do get the chance to play harp and then one of my guitarists takes on the bass duty.
Started many years ago with harmonica and Jews harp, but also play ukulele and various derivations of ukes. (tiple, pickin' stick, etc.) Recently working on chord and bass harmonicas, seem like new instruments to me.
I have played guitar forever. Played out a lot in the early to mid 60's. Got burnt out and put it away to concentrate on career and family. Retired 3 years ago and picked it up again and started jammin' with some other geezers. Seems like everybody plays guitar now and we couldn't find a bass player so I picked up the bass. Love it. All the other guys in the band sing but me. I played harmonica a bit years ago so I tried it at a couple of jams and the other guys liked it. Makes me feel like I'm contributing more. So now one of the other gits takes the bass and I play guitar and harmonica and even sing on some simple stuff like Jimmy Reed tunes and My Babe, Little, Walter Style. Sometimes have some fun with Folsom Prison. Just drop out on bass and chug and train whistle with the harp. Another really cool thing is I now listen to all my old favorite tunes in a whole new way. Working out the bass lines and how to work the harp in. Bought some of Adam's suggested cd's to listen to and was just amazed at some of the bass work being done at the time. The Harp Attack CD is just great. Cotton, Wells,Bell, Branch and Johnny B. Gayden on bass. Kind of fits in with my general life style, jack of all trades and master of none. Sure is fun though. Just edited this, sorry to make it longer. I will probably be concentrating on harmonica more as arthritis takes over my hands. That and lugging around that bass gear is a downright bummer. Don't see any roadies in my future.
Last Edited by on Nov 06, 2009 7:00 AM
Trumpet, guitar, mandolin, bass, hand percussion (conga, bongo, afuche/cabasa, darbuka...ad infinitum...)drums, vocals, harmonica most recently.
Like Jim, I found it easier to get work if I knew Bass guitar....so I bought one and learned. I also think if you play guitar, you owe it to yourself to give mandolin a go. I want to learn banjo, but apparently not enough to actually do it. I dabble in keyboard..not much though.
I tell the kids and teens in my church to learn everything they are even remotely interested in now, while they are young. Frankly, most musicians will not become professionals, but will drop it for awhile and come back to it after life gets out of the way. Knowing lots of instruments makes that all the more satisfying. The youth I have taught various instruments and musicianship to have fewer of the "I can't do that" mental blocks than the adults i have taught. They are more likely to say "I don't know how to do that yet." Kids are amazing when you are teaching them something they want to learn.
I played only harmonica for years but it got to where the song list of my band became more versatale and i was left out either just standing on stage or shaking a damn tamborine. So i picked up an alto sax. It was long in the making but now i have become decent. The harp still gets played in about a third of the songs. I also feel as if because of the sax playing my harp abilities have grown. This was all 35 years in the making.
Although I don't usually play one on the bandstand, I also play guitar as well. Most harp players who also play other instruments often have a better sense of time and have a working knowledge of music theory, both of which the vast majority of harp players absolutely need to learn ASAP.
---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Started with formal training on the violin when I was very young, and transitioned to the trumpet when a school change took me to a school without an orchestra.
Later, I picked up the guitar and played a little in a half-assed band in college, but they really asked me to play with them to play harp.....
I play trumpet, harp and dabble with slide guitar and some bass. I know just enough about things that I can get into trouble. ---------- If it ain't got harp - it ain't really blues!!!!
Chinn, Ive heard violin is one of the most difficult instruments to play. My back ground growing up with country and blue grass music has always led me to want to fiddle. any advice on getting a decent starter violin and getting started playing? I am also a left handed guitar player (im sure a left handed instrument is going to cost extra as anything else)
I started out at about ten years old on the guitar--but my mom's old guitar had a very high action, so I changed over to steel guitar and played that for a few years. My dad gave me a harp for xmas the same year, and I started to pick out a tune or two on that, but it wasn't a real popular instrument in those days (as far as I knew in Utah) so I didn't get far with it. In High School I played trombone in the band, then later in the Army band I played trombone until I got kicked out.
I took to playing guitar a bit while I was in the Army--had a roommate who played and he taught me a little.
When I got back from Germany (in the army) in '64 I found that the world had gone folk--and I got right into it with guitar--then some harp later on. By the late 60's I was playing the little coffee house circuit and Hootenanny's wherever I could. The folk music led me right into country blues and especially the finger-style guitar.
I also did a stint with an electric hippie rock band, but it didn't get far because nobody would really pay to see five guys getting loaded and jamming.
Took up Flute a couple of times along the way--and studied piano in Los Angeles for a time. The guitar was always my main thing though--harp was just a little accessory now and then. Learned a little banjo along the way--tried mandolin for a little while, but you have to be good to make it sound even tolerable--sucks to practice it.
I still play mainly guitar and sing--but the harp has become a very important part of what I do, and I have played a few gigs where I didn't even take a guitar--just the harps and my green bullet.
These days it seems to me that there are too many guitar players and harp players at the jams--I might have to take up sax or flute or something--just to have a voice that doesn't get buried in the mix. . .
Clarinet. here is a improv from a little while ago. I peaked at about age 19 (2007) and then quit during all of 2008, picked it up around january 2009, then quit again in march when I started playing harp.
oldwailer, You got kicked out of the Army for playing Trombone? "..later in the Army band I played trombone until I got kicked out."
Good thing you took up guitar.
I play guitar and bass although I prefer to play the Harp. And if it counts, I recently bought a jaw's harp after being so influenced by another thread on this forum.
I'm just as much into the guitar as I am the harp but when I jam with friends, there's usually ten guitar players there and just one harp player (me) so I don't get too much of a chance to play guitar. Therein lies the advantage to being a harp player. There aren't as many of us around so you get to play more sometimes.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a guitar and a marine band in A to a campfire party. Sure enough, there was a better guitar player there without his guitar. Perfect! Another guy had brought his 12 string, so we ended up with those two guys on guitars and me playing harp. It was a cool campfire jam session.
Maybe next time I'll bring a trumpet too...and a mandolin...and a bass...and some hand drums..shakers...here come the guys in the white coats again....
LOL! No, Xharp--what I meant was I played the trombone in the army band until I got kicked out of the army band--they just made me into a clerk and sent me to Germany. Seems that Louis Prima's band got drafted about then--they had more great players than they could use--so they weeded me and a few other high school players out. . .
I should have said a bit more about the trumpet. Kids who learn it like to play it as loud as they can, and they never listen to the tone, but I'd like to learn to play it real quiet and smooth and mellow! ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
I wish I had more time to put into another instrument. Perhaps in a few years when I don't need more then an hour a day on harmonica I'll pick up something else or if I become independently wealthy or find a way to make enough money from music.
Every time I think of picking up another instrument I ask myself, okay you spend 15 hours(ish) a week practicing harmonica (more or less). Do I have 15 hours a week to put into something else as well? Unfortunately not.
---------- ~Ryan Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
I play bass in a rock cover band. I'm working on getting one of the guitarists to play bass while I do some harp songs. But it has not been easy. We did a few blues jams but they don't want to rehearse anything. ---------- Jimmy Famous
I am the lead singer for my band. I play harp, and tenor and baritone saxophones. If you listen to "A Good Fool Is Hard To Find" on http://bluestateband.net/music.cfm you can hear me sing, and play both the tenor and the bari at the same time - a feat I have not been able to duplicate on stage!
e56505, on the violin, I'm not really sure. Lot of things have changed since I played. I played a rental during those years as well. As for how hard to play, I did not think that it was that difficult. If I remember right, the tuning is the same as a mandolin..... I learned to read music while playing the violin as well, so that definitely added to the experience.
I do remember thinking when I initially started playing guitar how much easier fingerings were to hit right and to hold with frets!
As for left handers, that would be something interesting to deal with. How interesting, I'm not sure.
Last Edited by on Nov 07, 2009 8:44 PM
I'm a former piano player. I still play for work and a little for fun, but I mostly play harp these days. To quote a friend: "Man, I don't know why you are wasting your time on harp. You can do anything you want on a piano." While not actually true, I am much better at piano than any other instrument. I've played for about 24 years (I think), it was my major instrument in college. I also played alto and tenor sax since I was 12. I can play all the other school band and orchestra instruments at a very basic level, just for demonstration purposes. Violin, viola, and oboe, and bassoon are my weakest instruments.
I picked up guitar a few years ago, but nothing beyond some basic chords and picking a few bluegrass songs. I used it for songwriting for a while.
I started focusing on harp because I developed some weird nerve problems in my hands, and I can't play piano more than a few hours a day without lots of pain. So, harp is great: I love the sound, it is a real challenge, and it does not make me hurt.
One of these days I'm going to up my saxophone work, but honestly I'm enjoying the harp more than I've ever enjoyed any instrument.
I played the baritone tuba in school years ago. I've tried trumpet but I have a hard to fix chipped front tooth that bothers me when I play. I tried keyboard but I got carpal tunnel, so I picked the harmonica and haven't hurt myself yet (aside from some rough lips). I also was in choir for years, but I can never remember the words (even when I wrote them). I have a recorder around here somewhere, but the villagers come with pitchforks every time I play that. I had an ocarina but I didn't see it on the floor and I stepped on it. I used to have a kids xylophone set, not one of the cheap ones, a nice one where you laid out a base and put all the tubes in place. It's in my storage shed somewhere but damned if I know where. My band took away my maracas. I could never get passed the fact that you have to shake them before the beat since they take a second to sound. I tried guitar, same problem as the keyboard. The harp is the only instrument that, when I'm done practicing and set it down, I find popping back into my hands to 'play just a little longer'.
Having said what I said, I used to forget to breathe in when I was playing the oboe, and I occasionally nearly blacked out. And my grandfather died of heart failure at 55, so I thank god for an instrument where you spend most of your time sucking in air, in spite of what Chris says about 2nd position!
That means all those wind instruments like the trumpet and the flute and the sax should probably come after the Spanish guitar, unless I can actually unlearn my bad habits! (I have really weak finger nails, so unless I use a plectrum I need a guitar with all-nylon strings.)
A friend of mine bought a harmonium cheap in Woolworths in the Seventies - they never stocked them again after that one foray. Man I was envious of that friend (we were all Nico fans)! ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Last Edited by on Nov 08, 2009 4:10 PM
I play guitar, but I'm just a chord strummer and that's all I'll ever be but hey rhythm is ok. I have a neck holder and play harp while I play the guitar. I can plink around on a piano and played trombone back in the school band but that was long ago. Mike
Last Edited by on Nov 09, 2009 6:56 AM
I mainly play lead guitar, bass, and harp in most of my bands, but guitar is the one I started on 18 years ago and is still my first love. I don't play as much guitar and bass since I picked the harp back up a year ago after 10yrs. off! Now I play all 3 all the time. I'm trying to break out of that "lead guitar guy" reputation because I don't like being expected to do it, so I've been offering up my services on the harp and dobro lately.
Style-wise I play blues, rock, jazz, bluegrass, outlaw country, as well as some klezmer and some African beat type stuff. I never get tired of learning new things!
I will try to post vids of some of my guitar, bass, harp, and dobro stuff sometime soon.
I play some djembe (learned it during several years but sort of let it down a few years ago), some mouth harp, and currently learning to play guitar. And I sing too.
Shredder, you've got nothing to be ashamed of. I hate with a vengeance all those "lead guitarists" who have always been too lazy to practise rhythm and can't keep a beat! ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
I was at a summer camp a few years ago and someone told me one of the counselors brought a full size harp to play for her campers (and presumably to practice, she was a music major). When I met her I asked about her harp and told her that I brought a few of my own too. She looked puzzled and I told her that I played both kinds, French and Jews harps. She still looked puzzled. I reckon' some people got no culture!
