Harmonica and Everything Else Made Easier

I’ve written a few articles on the importance of theory since I have come to BareFoot MusicNews, some really tongue-in-cheek, and I have learned a lot.  And I hope I have improved as a player through the writing.  If you are a musician, whether you play harmonica, guitar, trumpet, piano, or any other instrument, there are just some things you have to know. And understanding this stuff may not help you as a musician, but it will give you such a rush. Believe me. You’ve just got to know this stuff!

Ok, I lied again. It won’t get any easier, but it probably will help you as a musician. I remember playing trumpet in junior high school and running scales and arpeggios over and over and over again. I saw the flats and sharps of the staff notation as the key changed. I didn’t get why. White notes? Black notes? Intervals? I didn’t care. I was only second trumpet going “blaaaaat, bloooooot!” on One Tin Soldier. If that’s what you want, fine. Because if you try to understand what’s going on it’s going to get a whole lot harder to play. But there will be that moment of epiphany when you do come to understand, maybe. Maybe you will become more than just “second trumpet” in the band.

I’ve been playing harmonica for years. It’s a lot of fun. I just practiced, got the riffs into my body and didn’t really have to understand or think about what I was doing. I just did it. A lot of music’s like that, and it has to be. If you had to think about what you were doing, if the notes didn’t come directly from your body, you wouldn’t be able to do it at all. But I saw a documentary on Oscar Peterson once and he was asked what he thought about when he played, if he saw notes in his head when he played those incredible waterfalls of music.

He said, “No. I see shapes.”

Well, a few weeks ago I just got a keyboard for the family. I have to learn to play so I can teach my daughter. I copied out the Key Signatures, the staff notation and started doing the major scales. I have creaky fingers. Slow. Stiff. No spread. No speed. Hen peckers. But there they were. The white notes. The black notes. The intervals. And I saw the intervals shift on the entire keyboard as I moved up a key. Systematically. And all the scales, keys and modes that I had been playing on the harmonica, and the trumpet, everything that was hardwired into the harmonica so I didn’t have to understand it when I played, suddenly fell into place for me.

And I saw the shapes.

And the angels came down from Heaven, wheels spinning in wheels, Circles of Fifths, and they sang to me. And my joy lifted me. And I understood.

And now everything is harder. And the road looks a lot longer now. And now the whole idea of actually playing as well as I want to play seems so much farther away. Reality seems to laugh at me and there is this chasm that I know I will never cross. But, maybe, over time, I will become a better musician for it.