Skip's Harp Site
I love playing the harp -- and teaching it! My stomping ground for teaching is Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. A bunch of fine harp players now out there started out in my classes at the Old Town School. These include Rick Sherry (Devil in the Woodpile) and Mario Rabozo, both of whom now teach harp at the school, and bluesplayer Lamont Harris, who plays with some of Chicago's legendary bluesmen.
My performing tastes range from blues, country, jazz, gospel, and standards to jug band music. This range (and more!) is reflected in the two bands with which I play. Patent Medicine is in the blues-jazz-country mode; The Hump-Night Thumpers is a jug band. In fact, the HNTers is an advanced class at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Led by Arlo Leach. we do jug band favorites from the '20's right up to They Might Be Giants.
In teaching, I also love to include Irish and Scottish tunes, Morris dance tunes, barndance music, and chug-style playing, depending on the class. I encourage students to bring in music close to their hearts, and try to work such songs into the class. I give handouts, but also encourage ear playing -- and at the end of the term, give a free C harmonica to Harp I students who figure out a song by ear. We use diatonic harps in D and G for Harp I, adding the C and A to Harp Forever. I welcome chromatic players to the Forever classes, where on Tuesdays we play with a band -- Andy David on guitar and Erik Sennet on bass. .
I also do workshops at various locations, including several each year at the Old Town School and Oakton Community College in Skokie and DesPlaines. Especially fun are parties and team-building workshops in which people who have never played harp have fun together learning a song or two.
For those inclined to strings, I also teach the other kind of harp -- or one other kind, anyway. The autoharp was my first instrument, and is even easier to start on than harmonica. For autoharp, I teach private lessons, scheduled around my class teaching times.