Let me tell you a bit more about that harmonica seminar. Chritsophe and I met when he decided to organise a harmonica festival near where he lives. I played there the first year with my guitarist and double-bassist of that time, Patrice. In fact that was our one and only gig ever, but that's another story.
Anyway, ever since, Christophe and I have ran these seminars roughly every six months and they are organised around two sessions of work, a formal one in the morning and an informal one in the afternoon. In the evening, there's a harmonica concert, where I usually play alongside musicians I like and enjoy. It's my guilty pleasure, because these days I hardly ever get the chance to gig in between an intense job and two young kids that i don't wish to dump in my wife's arms too often.
Last Saturday was the fourth Harmonica Seminar we've run. Originally, we expected about 15 students of all levels, roughly in line with the previous editions. On the whole we tend to cater more for people who are still in a learning phase than for people who are in a perfection phase, so even the 'experienced' level we propose would seem relatively easy for those of you readers who have been playing a long time.
Christophe always does a great job of advertising these Harmonica Days in the local press and radio station. The response was overwhelming, and we ended with 36 students in the end. As the date grew closer, I had to reorganise the lessons and recruit two additional teachers, since there was no way I was going to manage 36 students on my own. I contacted Xavier Laune, a great diatonic player both with the Mojo Band, one of the most interesting blues outfits in France, and Distant Shores, an Irish music formation. I've known Xavier a long time and it was clear to me that he had both the expertise and the humility to make a good teacher.
Finding a second teacher was tougher, since my usual suspects (Xavier Lanusse-Cazalé and David Chalumeau) were both unavailable. Christophe and I called half a dozen harp players I knew from reputation but had never met and explained the situation. In the end, we recruited Emmanuel Frangeul, the harp player from the French blues band Malted Milk, who seemed to be both eager and articulate enough about his playing to make a good teacher.
Meanwhile, I recruited two musicians for the evening gig, Stéphane Barral, a most excellent double bass player who I'd already worked with and singer-guitarist Rolf Lott who I only knew by reputation (he plays in a blues band called New Chump Change). We built a blues repertoire through exchanges of CDs, e-mails and occasional mp3s (for the self-penned tunes), but rehearsal time was limited since we would only be able to play together a couple of hours on the Friday and a couple of hours on the Saturday.
I drove down to Tours, where Stéphane lives for the Friday afternoon rehearsal. I picked Xavier Laune up on the way and we had a pleasant trip, listening to a lot of music, both with harp (those old Storyville recordings from Sonny Boy Williamson 2) and without (the latest live from Derek Trucks) and getting reacquainted after not having spent any significant time together for the last couple of years.
In Tours, I found out that Rolf only had an hour or so to rehearse, since he had managed to find himself a gig for the Friday night, so we did it quick and dirty and eliminated a couple of potential covers that turned out to be too difficult to put together in such limited time. The reassuring thing was that the sound obviously worked even if the songs weren't all completely in place from the get-go. Stéphane is sort of a progressive player, influenced by jazz as well as blues and as willing to break down barriers as I am. Rolf is more respectful of tradition, but it turned out that everyone was happy to find a middle ground.
Then we hopped back in the car with Xavier and drove an hour up to St Aignan for a meal at Christophe's. It happens that Jean-Jacques Milteau was staying in the area for a couple of days (he has family in the vicinity) so he and Marie (his companion) were invited to the meal as well. It was very pleasant, both for the food and the company, and there was surprisingly little talk about harmonica for a meal despite at least four harp players around the table.
I managed to hit bed relatively early night, after a quick meeting with some of the participants back at the Sports Center where we all slept. Some had come from really far away : Hendaye (by the Spanish border), Nice (by the Italian border), Lyon or Nantes. I was amazed at that and thought it boded well for the next day's activities. "If they are that motivated, it cannot go wrong", I thought. Emmanuel also arrived late in the evening, so we had a quick chat on how to organise the morning course and what to focus on.
The next day, everybody got up early and we all met up for a breakfast and group assessment at the Chateauvieux Cultural Center. Chateauvieux is a small village just next to St Aignan, and the place we were in was previously a Church and looked darn cool ! We split the students into three groups, 15 beginners (including three kids) with me, about 10 intermediates with Emmanuel and the experienced bunch with Xavier. Emmanuel's class focused on positions and Xavier's on playing minor tunes and improvisation. Christophe had organised eveything, and we immediately started the morning classes. He's the guy in red talking in the photo, and I'm the guy in blue next to him (bleary eyed and looking sleepy).
I took my group of beginners to the castle above the village, who happens to be an old people's home in which Christophe works, so we had access to one of the conference rooms. One thing I should mention is that when we advertise lessons for beginners, we assume that the person has never played a harmonica before. In fact, quite often, we have retired participants who come over with their tremolo harps.
Now, 15 students is a lot for a single two-hour lesson, so I tried to be as informative as I could while letting them discover things about the instrument for themselves. As I like to say, the challenge with beginners is not so much the technical side of things as infusing them with a passion for the instrument. How do you do that ? Well, you need to first make them feel what can be done with it (playing a few short tunes in various styles helps), where the instrument comes from (a bit of history), how it works physically, and then get them playing. And you need to be passionate yourself.
Our melody for the day was Yankee Doodle, since it requires only one bend when played in second position, which allowed me to finish the morning lesson on bending and get them to try it. As I usually say, the first technical step to playing the diatonic harmonica is blowing and drawing in one hole only. They all practised the tune outside the castle in order to focus on this specific aim. Single notes aren't actually that easy to get out and two among the students didn't manage it that morning.
The others all tried bending, and I was quite pleased that about five of them managed to consistently bend either the 4 draw or the 2 draw by the end of the lesson. I finished by letting them ask any question they wanted, from whether to learn how to read music to how to clean your harmonicas. On the whole, I think they were all pleased with that first contact with the instrument, although a couple of them were frustrated with their inability to bend. I kept telling them to be patient, that Rome wasn't built in a day, but really I know just how they feel, it was like that for me as well in the early days...
We had a huge canteen-like lunch prepared by some of the members' of Christophe's association, which was another opportunity for students to talk amongst themselves and ask questions to the teachers. A few of the experienced players also have very good advice for beginners, so all in all the meal is a great opportunity to exchange and consolidate what has already been seen.
After the meal, the groups resumed. Since it was bright and sunny, I took my group outside in the grass and again went for a very open format. Understandably, a lot of the questions revolved around bending, but they also asked me different tunes to practise different things. I tabbed out Beethoven's 9th for them, Sakura and the theme to the movie Godfather. This last one was way beyond their level since it's 3rd position with lots of successive bends, but I figured if they wanted to have that as an aim, why not ?
In the middle of the afternoon, Jean-Jacques arrived for an impromptu masterclasse. He had kindly agreed to pop 'round and spend a couple of hours with us. JJ is a star of the French harmonica world, so if you want to figure the students' reactions you have to imagine Kim Wilson or Carey Bell casually walking into a harmonica seminar in the US. Christophe and I were slightly worried about the potential for 'raving fanboy' behaviour but all the students remained very civil despite their enthusiasm, and it all went really well.
I took the opportunity to slip away and rehearse in the kitchen with Stéphane and Rolf for the evening concert. We finalised the setlist as well, and finished laying down the three songs I'd written for the occasion. The repertoire was mostly blues with a couple of forays into more jazzy stuff and a controversial Elvis cover. The first set was planned with 15 songs and the second set with 14, so a good three hours of playing.
After a not-so-quick set up in which Stéphane blew up his bass amp and we had to find an alternate solution real quick, we sat down for a nice meal before going on stage around nine o'clock. In addition to the twenty or so students who stayed for the evening gig, there were about 50 paying tickets for the evening, which made for a nicely packed room.
To be fair, our first set wasn't top notch. Even though we had an excuse for lack of rehearsal, we didn't manage to finid a groove and were always on edge from start to finish. The fact that there were many songs I didn't know the lyrics to and that I had trouble reading my cheat-sheets with the lightin didn't help. Thankfully, halfway through, a nice soul noticed my plight and discreetly set up a stand for my sheets.
I had decided to write some lyrics in French for that gig. Blues is a music that stirs emotion, and although that emotional charge comes from the music itself, it also comes from the lyrics that are often simple yet touching or darkly humorous. Playing blues in English to a French crowd, you can't help but feel that they are only experiencing half of the thing, which was why I wrote three tunes (well, four actually, but we only played three) for the occasion. During the first set, I sang the third of these, a song called 'C'est le Diable' (It's the Devil), the story of a man who takes the devil as an excuse for his criminal actions. I thought it was funny in a cynical way, but the audience didn't laugh...
During the intermission, we discussed things with Rolf and Stéphane and slashed a couple of slightly 'unstable' pieces including two of my self-penned (an instrumental and a song), but it also built confidence for the second set. From the get-go, things worked better, the collective sound was more coherent, and we finally fell into that elusive groove. From then on, it was nothing but fun.
My second composition (in French) was supposed to be one of those tragic minor slow blues, desperate and all, but I knew from rehearsal that there was an unexpected (by me at least) comic effect. Indeed, they did laugh, so although it wasn't the impact I had originally envisaged, at least there was some response to the lyrics. A couple of people complimented me on that one later on, so I guess I'll continue in that direction and try to write better stuff for the future.
We also invited guests on that set, Julien a very good local harp player, Xavier, and Emmanuel. It was the first time I heard Emmanuel live (I knew what to expect from the other two) and he played an interesting solo with a deliberate emphasis on the breathy sound of the diatonic. It was a very nice and impressive effect and although I suspect it would get tedious if used too often, it was a great concept for a one off contribution.
At the end of the second set, the audience called us back for an encore (always nice) and Stéphane suggested we unplug everything and just play full acoustic in the audience. So we walked down the stage and played a couple of songs there. The audience loved it, Emmanuel and Xavier joined me for three part rythmic harps, and it was a blast.
I finished the day exhausted, but very very happy. A lot of the beginners were hooked and the more experienced players all seemed to have received what they wanted out of the Seminar. Also, I had a blast playing with Rolf and Stéphane, and I hope we can find some way to make it a more regular thing. Rolf's singing is real nice and soulful, and his guitar playing is very very impressive as far as blues guitarists go. he's both able to stay true to tradition and yet think out of the box on occasion. On some of the slow blues we played, he really shined and sent a couple of shivers down my spine. Okay, so I'm a sucker for slow blues, but still... As for Stéphane, I already knew his worth, and I simply adore his playing. That phat bass sound, the sliding notes, the little ornementations, it's all good. I like to think that the semi-acoustic formula (without a drummer) actually allows him to stretch out more than he does with the other bands I've heard him play with. Apparently, there was a guy who Christophe knows who videoed the whole concert, so we may be able to extract a four or five song demo out of the sound track...
As for the rest, we'll be running a couple of teaching sessions during the next St Aignan festival in early May, but the next full fledged Seminar will be next September. I'm looking forward to it. It feels like Christophe's hard work at promoting these harmonica events and the success of the events themselves have created a real dynamic and it's really exciting being part of that...
This review should have been written a long time ago : 
