Yesterday I tweeted out how I have decided that I want to learn the Harmonica. I tweeted this and asked for feedback on where or how to learn. Some friends replied with people to talk to, others sent me links, others sent me book suggestions and to all of you I say thank you for your help.
As I read over the web of Harmonica sites, the common thing I saw was people saying ‘Just play it.’ The harmonica is a gloriously simple instrument, usually 10 holes to blow through, keyed to C. So you just play, learn, refine and play more. It’s not going to serve me very well to just read about how to play the Harmonica.
Something the Internet breeds a lot of are ‘keyboard jockeys.’ People who write, post, and blog about a topic but who forgo the actual experience instead choosing to work in the realm of theory based on readings and other material they’ve seen. Rather than doing it, they talk about it. Usually a lot.
What does that say? This is something they’re interested in. And that theory is safer. So long as it is just theory, there’s almost no chance of failure unless your theory is patently wrong.
The term ‘keyboard jockey’ does not refer to people who do have real life experience and who are skilled in the area, it refers to the anonymous masses who gain a following for their writing or discussions.
Can people learn purely in this way? Sure. Magic the Gathering has a huge online keyboard jockey audience. People get paid to discuss decks, game theory, players, the game itself, card individually, all sorts of stuff. Can a player learn the game and get better by reading these articles? Sure. But the rate of growth is miniscule as compared to actual true 100% competitive and varied game play. What you can learn playing in one tough tournament amounts to more knowledge and skill than you’ll gain in weeks of reading online.
Could I learn the Harmonica just by watching instructional videos and reading about it? Possibly. But nothing can train me for the feel of the Harmonica, how to hold my mouth and cup my hands. Learning is a lot of successive failures before I can even play ‘Mary had a little lamb.’
But when I do play it, you can be sure I’ll tweet about it.
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