Interesting (as well as boring).

I found this fantasic picture in an old harmonica magazine that was with a pile of old music someone gave us.

It was published at a time when Hohner were really pushing the harmonica as a classroom instrument and a book was written showing how it could be taught alongside the recorder ( harmonica for the boys, and recorder for the girls!).

There were a lot of teachers workshops and summer schools to teach the rudiments of the instrument. actually it looked a lot of fun (above), wouldn't you have liked to be there?.

What I also found very interesting in this magazine, was a page of quotes from respected musicians of the time extolling the virtues of the instrument. One in particular caught my eye.

"Thanks to the brilliant work of a handful of virtuosi, the harmonica is firmly established today as a genuine musical instrument with a character of its own and a growing repertoire of music specially composed for it. The harmonica now shares with the recorder an important place in musical education.

The publication of this manual is to be welcomed not only for its excellent method of teaching these instruments but also for its wider application to the field of general musical appreciation"

GORDON JACOB.

I have been at the "National Festival of Music for Youth" this week, and there wasn't a harmonica in sight, but I think its a lovely sounding instrument with definite educational possibilities...... Discuss!.