To master, or mangle, the Harmonica?
by Mary Lancaster • Independent Writer
Bob Dylan, you have nothing to fear. I had a lot of fun last Saturday when I embarked on my first harmonica lesson with Tom Stoddart, a heck of a nice guy with lots of enthusiasm and patience. But despite having a good ear for pitch and loving the sound of a harmonica, being able to play one takes practice, practice, practice, and I know I am too lazy to master the art.

Saturday was a first for Stoddart, too, who also plays the flute and saxophone and was requested to offer the class for the Nantucket School of Music. He may have wanted more students than showed up - myself, a gentleman whose name I did not hear and attorney Keith Yankow and his son Eddie, 13, who were both pretty darn good right off the bat.

Still, it may have been best to start with a small group because that allowed Stoddart to give us individual attention and tell us things about the harmonica - that it is also called a tin sandwich, a pocket piano and a tenholed tin-can tongue twister, for instance. He also told us that Abe Lincoln, Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp played the harmonica, which was invented in Germany around 1820.

We began by learning the ideal way to hold the tiny instrument, and that is to place the left index and middle finger across the top with the thumb pointing left to sort of brace those fingers, then cup the right end of the mouth organ with the entire right hand so that those fingers close the gap at the back. It was rather awkward for me and the gentleman to achieve this quickly, both of us remarking about slightly arthritic joints, but after a while it became more comfortable. Part of the reason for the position is so the right fingers can be kind of flapped to create a sound vibration.

Then we got down to trying to play our Kay Chicago Blues model in the key of C that we were given as part of the nominal lesson fee. Fortunately for most of us, it is not necessary to read music to play a harmonica. Stoddart had prepared hand-outs for us that provided information and simple songs, with numbers over each lyric syllable that coincided with one of the 10 note holes, but his printer was down so he wrote our practice pieces on a chalk board. First we did the four notes of "Frere Jacque," then moved on to a couple of lines from "When the Saints Go Marching In," with Stoddart explaining that for beginners it is easiest to learn songs in parts and then put the parts together. Although there are just 10 notes, they are varied by either blowing into the harmonica or by drawing a breath instead.

PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent You would think I was holding worms by the look on my face, but my expression was of perplexity as I tried for the proper hold on my harmonica. Patiently assisting is teacher Tom Stoddart who led a beginner's harmonica class last Saturday.

As I said, it was a fun experience and our hour in the high school chorus room went quickly. After shaking the stiffness out of my left hand a couple of times I joined the others in attempting (key word here) to get a little tricky and alter the sound by blocking holes with my tongue. I quickly understood the nickname tin-can tongue twister. Stoddart also taught us how to "bend" notes by saying "E U" while blowing into the holes of the top three, or highest notes and while drawing in for the rest. For some peculiar reason which even Stoddart did not know, the number five note will not bend.

Before the class wrapped up, Stoddart gave us the name of a very cool Website called harptabs.com that has thousands of songs on it for harmonica and all of them are available in the simple number configuration he showed us. As we got up to leave, the gentleman confessed that he thought he would need a lot of practice before he would exhibit any skill with his pocket piano. Yankow surprised his son by telling him he had already registered them for Stoddart's intermediate class this coming Saturday.

"Sweet," said Eddie.

Me, well I just slipped out the door smiling about the pleasant morning I had trying something new and different, and knowing full well my tin sandwich would soon

be in a drawer. I