
That is why I qualified my
remark with the attending term "grade", meant only to say that I am
good enough to be paid for playing the harmonica if I wanted to go that route. Alas,
I do not have a recording contract, but the world is full of working harmonica
players as good as or better than I who are similarly unattached to a record
label. That fact does not diminish their professionalism, nor diminishes their
skills as harp players. I would say a professional grade blues harmonica player
is knows the changes, knows the key differentials, gets the tone and emphasis
right, and is able to fall back, accompany, or lay out altogether when he or
she is not taking a solo; this is to say the professional grade blues harmonica
player listens to what the others in the band are doing and adds to a quality
musical experience, not dominate it.
Mostly, though, the professional is paid,
and the amateur is not, strictly speaking.
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