Announcements

Announcements 

Merry Christmas from the Harp Surgery

The Captain 0 Comments ,

Arthur TolcherNot Now, Arthur!

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a little bit of Morecambe and Wise, so here’s a tribute to classic comedy.. and a forgotten harmonica hero.

Arthur Tolcher was born in Staffordshire in 1922, and his family theatrical history meant he was destined to tread the boards of music hall. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular tunes and and played a variety of harmonicas, interspersing that with sight gags and jokes. It would do Arthur a disservice to call him a ‘novelty act’ since he was tremendously accomplished and was called upon for sessions whenever a harmonica was required.

Eric and Ernie often toured with Arthur, but as their star rose, his career seemed to stall. However, the two comedians found a little place in the TV spotlight for Arthur. Dressed in full concert garb, harmonica in hand, he would rush on at odd moments (or after the credits rolled), and would just manage a brief burst of the Spanish Gypsy Dance before Eric cut him off with a classic catchphrase.

Here are Eric and Ernie happily explaining Eric’s classic paper bag trick to David Frost (you’ll all be trying this at home) when Arthur dashes on for a quick tootle.

Arthur passed away in 1987 and was the subject of a retrospective on BBC Radio 4 in 2007, his story told by Roy Hudd. Thanks for the memory, Arthur.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Announcements Beef Up Your Bends 

Beefing Up Those Bends – 2 Draw

The Good Doctor 1 Comment

Batman & Robin XmasHoly Diatonic Batman!

Elwood The Apprentice had just finished wrapping his last set of replacement reed plates for Christmas when from somewhere downstairs… Zap! Wh@ck, Whåp, B#ff,  Biƒf, P*w, Zôwie, Spl@tt, Tºot.. He ran to the Good Doctor’s study.. Holy Diatonic Batman! What in the world is this? Revolving walls, hidden rooms, disguises? What is the Good Doctor’s wild secret? Has he ventured into the night to engage in mortal combat with modal meddlers, chromatic criminals, or some overblown oddballs intent on jamming his reeds for good? Is that him caterwauling in the Harp Surgery’s outhouse with Cat Woman? Or has he stepped out incognito to practice his two draw bends? Quick Otis, to the Harp Mobile.

Relax dear reader, the Doc is simply preparing a seasonal stocking filler for you to rehearse between your Christmas pudding and the Queen’s speech. You remember the old Batman & Robin TV series? All handbag fights and satin knickers. Well bizarrely enough the theme tune is actually a great resource for honing those two draw bends. Grab a C major harp from your bat utility belt and join us for some caped crusading.
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Announcements 

Win a Voucher for Seydel Söhne Harmonicas

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Seydel Söhne 1847 Classic[Note: competition now closed.]

Harps down, heads up! Our lovely friends at Seydel Söhne are offering you the chance to win an e-voucher to the tune of €30.00 (US residents $40.00). If you submit three correct answers to our quiz before midnight (GMT) Jan.10 2010 and are one of three lucky names drawn at random from the Harp Surgery’s ugly hat, an e-voucher will be winging its way to your inbox.

All you have to do is study our competition questions, find the correct answers on the Seydel Söhne website and drop us an e-mail, stating your country of residence and your three competition answers (you can also access the Seydel Söhne site by clicking the yellow logo in our Partners menu to the right). (more…)

Announcements Apprenticeship Series 

Happy Birthday Junior Wells

Elwood 4 Comments , , , , ,

Happy Birthday Junior WellsThe Hoodoo Man would be 75 today.

Harmonica great Junior Wells was born December 9th 1934. It’s remarkable to think that someone who played with Muddy Waters in the early days would have been so young today (he was 19 in 1952 when he joined Muddy’s band, and died in 1998, aged 63).

I like Junior a great deal, so I’m celebrating him today. His harmonica style strikes me as being deceptively simple: he knew when not to play. And when he decided to play, he could make that thing wail like a cat being set on fire.

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Announcements 

Harmonica Warm-Ups and Workout

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Simple practice routines to improve your tone, tempo and breathing.

Welcome to the Harp Surgery’s Physiotherapy Department. The Good Doctor is often asked about ways to warm up, develop breathing and keep all those important harping muscles in trim. Well ultimately everyone has their own regime. The Doc himself oscillates between a good glass of New World Merlot and Marathon runs. And we all suffer from poverty of time when it comes to practising, but no pump, no jump. On which note, we are proud to announce the addition of our Warm-ups and Workout page to the Harp Skills menu. We like to think of it as our harmonica gym.

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Announcements Apprenticeship Series 

Gussow Calls It Quits?

Elwood 2 Comments , , ,

Adam GussowSo long and thanks for all the chops. Elwood the Apprentice pays tribute to the end of an era.

All good things come to an end. That’s what Adam Gussow said when he finally, officially called it quits on his YouTube tutelage last week (Jason Ricci retires with him, but in this case even JR’s teaching is dwarfed by the sheer volume of Gussow’s output since he decided, February 22 2007, to “give it all away“).

As a blues pup, having suckled at the digital teat of Gussow’s YouTube channel for a good 18 months, I couldn’t help but feel wistful to see Gussow move on — like I was losing a little piece of myself. (more…)