My Jazz Harmonica dream came true! – visit www.jazzharmonica.org
My jazz harmonica initiative got reality today!
The site www.jazzharmonica.org is live now.
When I started studying jazz on the harmonica 22 years ago, I was all on my own. I had lessons with some classical and popular chromatic harmonica players but their ideas about style and technique didn’t fit the jazz sound I had in my mind. Every year, the Dutch organisation for accordeon and harmonica organized a nice festival but the audiences there were mainly interested in classical approaches and typical popular styles that the Hotcha Trio had introduced more then half a century before.
22 Years ago, the internet already was a great learning tool and although the connection was slow, Harp-L already was a great device and resource as it still is today. So, I know how it is if you have the passion for an instrument and a playing style but there is no teacher nearby to really help you further.
Probably, that’s the reason why I managed to get all the energy together to get a professional membership site up and running, dedicated to harmonica players that have the same passion to play jazz. This idea started 2 years ago with a blog called “Effortless Harmonica”; inspired by the material of Kenny Werner who has been an important influence on my personal and musical development.
But gradually, people around the word started asking for material that was more related to their learning process and way to approach music. After a year or so, Effortless Harmonica was more about how to apply musical principles to the specifics of the harmonica. So the name Effortless Harmonica became to feel a bit uncomfortable to me and many readers.
Then the idea started to create a platform for other jazz harmonica teachers around the world. Being able to publish personal articles about the ideas of every individual professional and having a shared platform of readers, fans, students, people a-like. In addition, a discussion platform could facilitate the interchange of experiences, ideas and progression among the members. So, a discussion platform was added a month ago. Then, people started asking for high quality download services in order to download the pay-per-view training videos on their local machines. That’s where the Amazon S3 integration was added … you see. What started as a simple HTML website, transformed into a blog and is now a mature membership site with payment facilities for specific lessons.
Would be great to have Gabriel Grossi there, for instance!
Technically my dream came true today. Now I will start the process of getting professional harmonica players and teachers from around the world connected to the site and create amazing content. If you think you can help, please let me know! Let’s see where the future will bring us.
Please take a look at www.jazzharmonica.org and (if you are not already) register as a member. It’s totally free and you’ll be amazed by the quality and level of inspiration amongst the members.
Warm regards,
Wim Dijkgraaf
