Music Night
Hohner Squared, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.
Senior year of high school I taught myself how to play harmonica by:
a. buying this book & tape combo (yes, really), then
b. reading the book & listening to the tape until it nearly wore out, and
c. carrying a harmonica in my pocket pretty much everyday for the next six years.
You go through a lot of harmonicas this way, but it’s totally worth it.
Sadly, two things have conspired against my harmonica playing. First thing is I got a real job where you can’t just play harmonica whenever you feel like it. No one seemed to mind when I would pull out the ol’ mouth harp while working at the Hemlock zip wire. But in cubicle computer land busting out a nice blues riff in the middle of the work day just isn’t kosher.
The second (and truly the saddest) thing that killed the harmonica playing is the mighty cellular telephone. My harmonica always went in the right front pocket of whatever pair of pants I was wearing, but now that’s where the cell phone goes and there’s really no more room another hunk of metal (plus, you have to leave room for the Big Red which predates the harmonicas by nearly six years).
Anyways, the roommate is out of town for the next couple nights and so without anyone to bother I decided to take advantage of the empty house. Out came the guitar, and harmonicas, and the song book. I belted out classic bluegrass and some Johnny & June Carter Cash songs for over an hour before calling it quits. There are really few things that relax me as much as picking at the guitar. It was great… I’m definitely having music night again real soon.
