Pat Missin interview

01:29 - Pat is originally from Hull in England, but has lived in the US for 24 years now

01:55 - Pat moved to the US to marry his American wife, who was one of his customers for his custom harmonicas

02:13 - Pat is renowned for his knowledge of the harmonica

02:22 - Pat lived near the Buckeye Harmonica festival when he first moved to the US, allowing him to make some good contacts

03:43 - Buckeye Festival doesn’t happen now, although something similar does

04:04 - Pat started playing various musical instruments to become a pop star, and the harmonica was the one that stuck

05:39 - Pat was ill for an extended period during his twenties, when it was easier to play harmonica than other instruments

06:24 - Learnt some blues guitar from listening to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and heard some harmonica from Dr Feelgood

07:42 - Heard Little Walter’s Quarter To Twelve on the John Peel show, inspiring him to figure out how to play the harmonica

09:09 - Pat’s website is a tremendous source of harmonica information, including the evolution of free reed instruments into the harmonica

10:23 - Sheng is the predecessor of the harmonica, and the other free reed instruments that came before the Sheng

11:18 - History or free reed instruments has focused on Chinese instruments as they are the best documented, but there were instruments from other countries

11:56 - Standard history of the harmonica is that it derived from Chinese instruments, turned into the harmonica by Christian Buschmann and taken on by Hohner

12:40 - The first free reed instrument to be made in the Western world was developed by Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein: a speaking machine to reproduce sound of voice

13:23 - How the reeds differ between the Eastern free reed instruments and the modern harmonica

16:02 - Christian Buschmann is usually credited with inventing the modern form of the harmonica, although this is contentious

16:40 - There is no documentary evidence, or any diagrams or instruments, for the patent Christian Buschmann is supposed to have been granted for ‘inventing’ the harmonica

17:14 - The evidence for Buschmann inventing the harmonica is from a book written by his family

17:38 - Early history of the harmonica in Europe is from Austria, rather than Germany

18:14 - Early history of European harmonica development in Germany is strongly associated with Hohner and Seydel factories from mid-1800s

18:38 - Hohner did an excellent job of promoting the harmonica in the US, and probably skewing it’s history in the process

20:14 - Other claims for nation which invented the modern harmonica come from Great Britain, the US and another German

20:24 - Gallery section of Pat’s website has various interesting harmonicas showing the many number of patents raised for harmonica designs, many of which were never made

22:34 - Pat also has a section on early harmonica players recordings, including various firsts, such as first blues, second position, third position and chromatic

23:10 - First blues harmonica recording is credited to Herbert Leonard, playing on My Doggone Lazy Man by Clara Smith in 1924, just over 100 years ago

24:21 - Henry Whitter is credited with recording the first song in second position: Rain Crow Bill Blues

25:38 - First third position recording is credited to Little Walter, playing Lonesome Day with Muddy Waters in 1951

26:18 - Little Walter may have stumbled across third position after taking up playing the chromatic and why third position wasn’t recorded earlier

28:18 - First chromatic recording was Hayseed Rag by Borrah Minevitch

29:20 - Another section on the website is about harmonica tunings, with Pat being one of the first people to share this knowledge and how his website first started

31:39 - Put some audio samples up of the different tuning schemes, including Just Intonation and Equal Temperament

32:09 - Pat’s website became a definitive early source for material on tuning schemes and the other information he created

33:16 - Did lots of harmonica reviews on his website

33:42 - Has written numerous harmonica articles, including for the NHL’s Harmonica World magazine, and The Blues Revue magazine

34:13 - Never set out with aim of building such a great harmonica resource through his website, was motivated to gain customers for his customisation business

34:57 - Was an important part of the UK’s NHL organisation when living in the UK, and probably the longest serving committee member

35:21 - Last part of NHL activity was as US co-ordinator

35:42 - Video of Pat playing at the 1999 NHL Ely concert

37:09 - Has written two songbooks for Harmonic Minor tuning

38:17 - Wrote another songbook: The Ultimate Miniature Harmonica Tunebook, for the one octave harmonica

38:49 - The songbooks were partly written based on Pat’s ability to understand how music scores can be translated onto the harmonica

39:24 - Ocarina players also bought this book as the songs fit well on that instrument, as well as other limited scale instruments

40:36 - Has written two books on how to play Chinese free reed instruments, the Bawu and Hulusi, which he self-published and have been surprisingly successful

42:58 - Decided to try self-publishing on a topic non-harmonica related first

43:33 - Similarities between the Bawu and Hulusi and the harmonica

45:38 - Next wrote a harmonica book with tunes for the harmonic minor tuning

46:08 - Driving North is a blues recording from Pat

46:35 - Likes to use drones as part of harmonica playing, inspired by interest in the sitar

47:17 - Has made some recent recordings with someone he was in a band with forty four years ago, Andy Welsh

47:40 - Is mainly retired from playing and recording now, but does a little

48:36 - Ten minute question

49:20 - Bohm miniature bass harmonica

50:00 - Walked around in youth playing harmonica

51:32 - Play along with a song off the radio or YouTube

53:00 - Harmonicas of choice is Lee Oskar’s, with many different tunings

53:16 - Been playing some harmonetta recently

53:35 - Different tunings: has recorded plenty using natural minor and others

54:31 - Uses overblows, discovering them for himself

55:55 - Embouchre: started using pucker, now uses tongue block as well

56:27 - Amps and mics: not so many amps nowadays, with a Pignose and an old Japanese tube amp

57:01 - Future plans include more updates to his invaluable website