Konstantin Reinfeld interview

01:20 - Konstantin is from Germany, now living in Hamburg

01:29 - Went to music Conservatory in Cologne

01:40 - Hamburg has a great pop music scene

02:10 - Konstantin is 28 years old (born in 1995), and started playing harmonica age 13

02:43 - Played flute and piano from a young age, then some clarinet

04:07 - Started getting seriously into music when he picked up the harmonica

04:26 - First heard the harmonica on a German talent show in 2008, from the playing of Michael Hirte

04:56 - First harmonica bought was a Hohner Blues Harp MS

05:20 - Discovered overblows online, and was the direction he took

06:14 - Initial interest was in playing melodies, and not blues

06:29 - First concert was played at school in front of an audience of 600 to 700 people

07:04 - Did devote some time to working up his blues chops on the diatonic

07:14 - The internet played a big part in Konstantin's learning path, and uploaded his own recordings to YouTube and harmonica forums, and getting some feedback

07:32 - Took his first lessons in harmonica blues basics from a German player

08:00 - After these first lessons Konstantin started reaching out to lots of his favourite harmonica players online

08:36 - Konstantin contacted bands and asked if he could rehearse with them

09:05 - Went to the music fair in Frankfurt, where Konstantin started getting noticed as a harmonica player

09:24 - Invited to the Hohner Harmonica Masters event by Steve Baker

09:47 - Was fluent in overblows at this early stage

10:30 - Doesn’t play much chromatic, although has started playing it more recently for songs which suit the sound of the chromatic

11:47 - Was a 100% tongue block player for a time

11:52 - Plays the diatonic rather than the chromatic because it’s the first instrument he fell in love with

12:06 - Doesn’t play different tunings on the diatonic (although has experimented)

12:36 - Plays along with a Toots Thielemans recording using a diatonic and the importance of transcribing

13:24 - Transcribed lots of Jason Ricci, Alex Paclin and Howard Levy, and the form of Konstantin’s transcriptions

14:01 - Attended the music Conservatory with the diatonic as his main instrument, and the challenges of being accepted at some music schools

15:00 - Didn’t have a harmonica tutor at his Conservatory, learnt mainly from a pianist

15:40 - Took lessons with Howard Levy for a couple of years as part of a Jazz Masters course in Hamburg, and played a concert with Howard at the school

16:25 - Impact of taking tuition from a different instrument from harmonica

17:25 - Had been playing for around five years before went to the Conservatory, and the amount of practise he did in those five years

18:13 - Had singing lessons as his second instrument at the conservatory, although doesn’t sing now

18:52 - Sang at a harmonica festival in the Netherlands, with Ben Bouman and Rachelle Plas

19:54 - Transcribed lots of Carlos del Junco’s harmonica playing

20:56 - Lessons with Howard Levy

21:43 - Early studies in Cologne and Hamburg were in jazz, so first album Konstantin released was a jazz album

22:05 - First album released in 2013, Mr Quilento, after Konstantin was selected to work with a record producer at the Harmonica Masters event

23:44 - Some of the songs on first album were own compositions

24:41 - Next album, Old Friend, is a Toots Thielemans inspired album

25:24 - Recorded a second album with the quartet: Algiedi, all his own compositions and he is very proud of this work

25:43 - Uses guitar whammy and delay effects on the Algiedi album, although doesn’t use effects now

26:33 - Played in a Techno live band in Cologne

27:03 - Algiedi song is subtitled ‘death of a star’

27:54 - Interest Classical playing inspired by Howard Levy, so got together with a pianist called Benjamin Nuss

28:43 - Released album ‘Debut’, which is mainly classical pieces, with some jazz

29:09 - Repertoire is important when selecting Classical music to play on harmonica, with the flute pieces working well

29:25 - Working with composers to write pieces for the duo with Benjamin Nuss, with the music available online

30:03 - Classical music on harmonica is typically played on the chromatic, and the differences of playing it on diatonic

30:37 - No bending permitted in Classical music is changing

31:52 - Won German Grammy for Classical music for the Debut album

32:07 - Winning the award changed how the diatonic harmonica was perceived in the Classical music scene in Germany

32:59 - Will be releasing a new concerto for harmonica and piano later in 2024

33:12 - How approached play the different genres of jazz and classical

33:55 - Partly reads the scores for Classical pieces, partly from memory

34:52 - Recording a Christmas album this year

35:10 - Cinema Paradiso is a song Konstantin has recorded with an orchestra, and has also played the Howard Levy harmonica concerto

36:05 - Will continue to work on Classical music, including a new album with Benjamin Nuss

37:07 - Also works as a music Producer, initially working on mixing Hip Hop inspired songs

38:31 - Started getting more seriously into music production when met a Dutch Afro-pop musican, and has produced some songs with him, including harmonica

40:01 - Creates all the music on the self-produced tracks

40:50 - Has a strong online presence, including Harmonica Challenges with prizes provided by Hohner

42:19 - Puts out a lot of videos on his Patreon page

42:22 - Hosts Hohner Live X harmonica video interviews on YouTube

43:19 - Releasing his first harmonica instruction book later in 2024, with videos and audio recordings. Set for beginners and focus is on melodic playing (not blues)

44:50 - Has made numerous TV appearances in Germany

45:19 - 10 minute question

46:28 - Been an ambassador for Hohner since age 15 and appearing at the Hohner Harmonica Masters event

47:16 - Video interview of Konstantin by Hohner when he was 14 years old

48:02 - Initially played Golden Melody harmonicas, as many overblow players did, mainly due to temperate tuning

48:41 - Started playing custom Marine Bands, built by Thomas Hanke, with Special 20 cover plates (as does Howard Levy)

49:23 - Special 20 cover plates don’t have the gap in them, which the Marine Band ones do, so Special 20 plates project sound more directly to mic

50:40 - Plays the lower range of diatonics (doesn’t just play C chromatically)

51:19 - What harmonica position Konstantin chooses is largely driven by the melody of the piece of music

52:04 - How many positions Konstantin uses with his overblow playing: 1 to 6 and 10,11,12 are most frequently used

52:47 - Embouchre: puckers now, did play tongue block for a while in the past

53:21 - Tongue blocking is possible with overblows

53:46 - Amplification: uses a PA

54:08 - Uses Sennheiser 441 mic (as does Howard Levy)

54:16 - Uses a little reverb, but no other effects now

54:32 - Plays off the mic (not holding it), as provides more control over the tone, and making each note sound as close to each other tonally as possible

55:23 - Holds mic to be heard in a louder setting

55:33 - Moves around a lot when playing

55:57 - Future plans: releasing orchestral works and recording a Christmas album

56:52 - No current plans to play with a band again

57:09 - Has another contemporary song coming out soon, playing a chromatic harmonica

57:39 - Touring Europe in 2024

58:00 - Likely to be playing in Asia again this summer