Craig Smoot writes(in response to other messages): >[Honking patrons] >Wow. I have never heard of people actually playing their harps in the >crowd >along with the band,
Unfortunately, it's not that uncommon. It's due to a complete lack of etiquette. I've been playing harmonica professionally for 16 years in a wide variety of situations and have seen it often. I believe this is closely related to blues jam etiquette as well. I don't know how many times I've seen harp players(good ones and wannabe's) playing all through songs at blues jams. They play through the guitar player's solo, the keyboardist's, the sax player's, etc. They leave no holes. In a full band situation, a guitarist can back up a harp very nicely(as we all know). But when it's the guitarist's time to take a ride, harmonica has to be added very selectively, if at all. Often, you can tell more about a musician by what he doesn't play than what he does play. Silence is an extremely worthwhile concept in music. The ideas presented in this paragraph are not limited to harmonica players.