The Tao of the Harp - Zen Blues Harmonica
A beginner’s guide to playing blues harp effortlessly
© 2008, Brian Kelly
Act without doing. Work without effort.
- Tao Te Ching
When I was a teenager, I tried very hard to play blues harmonica. I tried to play music exactly as I heard it. I tried very hard, but I was unable to produce anything musical. I failed because my effort was misplaced. Like paddling upstream. More effort did not translate into better music. In fact, a closer analogy might be that my canoe was on dry land and thus my paddling was ineffective.
Then one night, after a bit of tequila, a friend in another band challenged me “if I find a harmonica, would you play it.” Thinking to myself, where would he “find” a harmonica, I thought it would be safe to answer yes and so I did. He then reached into his pocket, handed me a harmonica and we went up on stage.
While on stage, he put his guitar down and returned to the table to finish his beer. The drummer and bass player continued playing the Doors’ Roadhouse Blues. It was at this moment that I realized that I was supposed to solo.
But I didn’t know where the notes were on a harmonica! That’s when it happened. Zen. Music. Spontaneous, improvisational, full of energy. Instantaneous enlightenment. I literally learned how to play harmonica at that moment by discovering the Tao of the harp (way of the harp). Zen. As the guitar player returned to the stage surprised, he reached out his hand and said “No offense, but that is your best instrument.”
A couple of years later I joined forces with the rock and blues band Flipt Out and open for The Yardbirds and the Animals Reunion tour in Lapeer Michigan - playing blues harmonica.
So what changed? What enabled me to suddenly play an instrument that had baffled me for 20 years? Zen. Which I will do my best to describe (no words can describe Zen, as they are like the hand pointing to the moon. The words are not the moon.)
I had been playing bass guitar for a couple of years. We played a lot of blues. It was Zen, but I did not know it. Zen by practice. Zen by boredom (did I mention I was playing bass)? But then like Zen, it suddenly appeared. The 12 bar blues progression. I did not count measures anymore (counting is left brain). I simply knew when the chord changes were going to happen (very right brain).
I had become one with the problem - problem - resolution structure of the blues progression. I had learned it the Zen way. An instant realization. Books and teachers must describe this structure to bring the student near it. But the names of the chords, the names of the structure, the terms, notes, language are merely the hand pointing at the moon. They are not the moon. They are not the blues.
Like life, every verse of the blues tells a story. It is analogous to a story, movie, or book: Set the scene, elaborate on it, build to a climax, end (resolve). The elements of every great story.
So the first key to Zen was discovered by accident. Practice. Practice. Practice. Except, I hadn’t been trying to learn the blues progression, I was learning to play the bass.
Ah, more Zen. Wu-Wei. Acting without doing. Had I tried to find the Zen of the blues progression, I likely would not have found it so intuitively. I found it without effort.
Ah, more Zen. Practice practice practice, but without effort. That is but one paradox of Zen. A paradox that makes perfect sense in a moment of enlightenment.
I was also in the moment. More Zen. Not knowing where the notes were was actually an enabler. I could not think. I had to listen. I had to be aware. I had to be in the moment.
The last great piece of the puzzle was preparation. In this case, my friend had handed me a harmonica in the right key. Without the right tool, no amount of Zen or being in the moment would have done me much good. Or, I would have spontaneously created a sculpture instead (true Zen) and that would have been a different story. In essence, my friend had put my canoe in the water, which allowed me to paddle with the current.
This is a path I believe I can show others through my free online class (tequila optional). I can suggest ways to think less (use less left brain) by preparing it with just enough info to keep it occupied and of help. There are online exercises to let you explore your creative potential (right brain, or what I call the “Zen” brain). I can put your canoe in the water. Where you paddle is up to you.
Or, perhaps you will choose to create a sculpture.
- the Muse