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Music Appreciation 101:8 - It's Not the Horn. The Harmonica

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Subtitle: How Much Did You Spend on Your Instrument?


The purpose of this chapter is to show that music must come from within you. Many players get so focused on the difficulties of playing their horn that they don't manage to get their musical feeling out the bell.


This chapter examines the harmonica. Here I am not pointing to examples of folk harmonica (no Bob Dylan here), but rather classical or jazz.


Harmonicas are capable of a wide range of expression. Vibrato is flexible, they can bend notes, and the player can use hand position to affect the color of the tone. A famous virtuoso is Larry Adler, who ventured in classical, pop, and jazz (and commissioned classical pieces). Toots Thielemans is also widely known as a jazz artist and composer.


This chapter is supported on the Amazon aStore:


Harmonica Artists


And there are several examples below from YouTube that you can enjoy for free.











Nice Classical Example:




Nice Strauss Arrangement by Larry Adler:







Wow! Larry Adler and Itzhak Perlman Play Gershwin:




Well, OK... Maybe ONE Folk Example:

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