DATE: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 11:24:09 CST From: Rob Frantz Subject: Reading music and harmonica
I'd like to pick up the baton on this relay race on Reading and Harmonica. Reading music arrangements, whether for stage shows or for studio recordings, is important for a harmonica player, but for most the opportunities are very limited. Still, a reading harmonicist, whether on diatonic or chromatic, can learn new music/songs from a song book/sheetmusic. This is so much part of my harmonica-playing life, I couldn't dream being unable to do it. All music can be learned by ear, but reading sure does make things easier. Some of the songs which are a regular part of my street-busking repertoire, which I learned by reading (and embellished later) are "Misty," "Georgia on My Mind," "The Way You Look Tonight," & "The Christmas Song (Chesnuts Roasting...)." I'm always buying or borrowing (from libraries) new song books. I performed an show of Yiddish/Ladino/Hebrew songs that would have been virtually unthinkable without reading. And 90% of all my harmonica playing is on diatonics, of all the different available tunings. No, I wouldn't dream of reading sheet music while jamming blues. It wouldn't make any sense. But, blues too can be read and this reading helps improvisation.
Lastly, music is more than an aural phenomena. It is visual. I was a lead singer in doo-wop groups and R&B bands for approximately 7-8 years and I could SEE the movement of my voice in my head. The same is true with a musical instrument. No, I didn't and do not SEE standard music notation in my head, but reading that notation only enhances that visual element of music making. Reading music will not make one a musician. A computer can read and perform music, but I wouldn't call that computer hardware a musician. Still, I firmly believe that while a musician can do without it and sometimse quite well, they're missing something very exciting and rewarding, something definitely worth gaining, worth all the effort involved. Yours, ROB
