Seth Shumate interview

01:32 - Seth is originally from Arkansas, lived in Chicago and moved to Tennessee two years back, where there is a great Old Timey scene for Seth to join

02:08 - Seth mainly plays Old Timey music, and also some pre-war harmonica

02:25 - Similarities between old-timey and pre-war harmonica, which are both acoustic styles

03:20 - First song Seth learned on harmonica was the ‘Simple Gifts’ folk song

03:35 - Returned to harmonica when played in a folk/boogie/rock band, in which he played harmonica through a megaphone, and some keyboards

04:10 - Learnt some harmonica from Adam Gussow’s YouTube videos

04:25 - Friend introduced Seth to Bluegrass and Old Timey music

04:53 - How well suited the harmonica is to play traditional forms of music

05:22 - Doesn’t play the 3 hole draw bend, going up to the 6 draw using tongue switching

05:41 - Old Time music is generally played in 1st position on the diatonic with very little improvisation

06:26 - Neil plays some Old Time music due to availability of sessions near where he lives and the countries Seth has traveled to play Old Time music

07:19 - Origins of Old Time music

08:22 - Seth started learning Old Time music from the albums of people he heard playing the music

08:50 - Mark Graham and Dave Rice are two Old Timey players who influenced Seth

10:04 - Learns Old Time music by ear

10:19 - How to control breathe with fiddle tunes and pre-war blues songs

11:51 - Old Time music tunes are usually in 1st position with some songs in 2nd position

12:48 - Dr Humphrey Bate

13:54 - Great grandmother played the Quill, a reed instrument which is a precursor to the harmonica and the history of Quill playing

15:36 - Quill is a reed plant

16:59 - Seth’s pre-war harmonica playing was inspired by the Harmonica Masters album

18:11 - Freeman Stowers Medley of Blues song and barnyard imitations

19:13 - Seth has written the ‘Old Time Harmonica Booklet’

20:07 - How harmonica became an accepted instrument in Old Time music

20:44 - 1924 was a breakout year for harmonica, including Henry Whitter and the Crook brothers

21:19 - First harmonica recording by an African American is the unfortunately named ‘Dat Mouth Organ Coon’ by Pete Hampton

22:26 - First reference Seth found to a fox chase was from 1880

23:15 - Early recordings were mainly 1st position diatonic, with some chromatic and tremolo

24:01 - Techniques used for Old Time harmonica style, including rhythmical accompaniments

26:05 - Kyle Wooton was a great rhythmical harmonica player from the 1930s

26:30 - Example of Seth playing rhythm behind a fiddle player

27:15 - Example of machine gun rhythm by Bob Cranford of the Red Fox Chasers

27:42 - Playing a drone note on one harmonica with the nose and the melody on a harmonica in the mouth and some of the players who have done this (including Seth)

28:23 - Can use two draw / three blow in cross harp to also get a drone

28:47 - Seth has also written an article called ‘One In Every Pocket’, where Seth looked at newspaper archives to find the early history of the harmonica from around 1850

29:34 - First newspaper report of a harmonica concert in the US was in 1828

30:11 - First harmonica recordings are probably on home wax cylinders from the late 1800s

30:32 - Seth also writes how the first time African Americans appeared on screen, one of them was playing a harmonica

31:11 - Seth joined an Old Time duo after he saw them, learned their songs and then asked to join the band

31:51 - Also in a band called The Ozark Highballers, with a couple of albums released

32:43 - Song Gastonia Gallop is an example of an early rag song on harmonica

33:55 - Gwen Foster played ragtime with syncopated back-up, single note driven

34:59 - Approach to playing solo on harmonica in these early styles

36:03 - Seth works up his solo pieces so he plays them mostly the same each time, with some subtle differences

37:20 - Plays the harmonica on a rack with a uke banjo

37:35 - Also plays harmonica with the bones rhythm percussion instrument in one hand, piano in the other hand

38:32 - Plays the harmonica through an Edison cylinder phonograph horn replica for acoustic amplification

39:52 - DeFord Bailey also played with a metal megaphone device

40:28 - Seth may make some videos on using the Edison horn with harmonica and may sell some of them

40:56 - Changes tone of harmonica to make it sound ‘older’

42:08 - Ten minute question focused on people interested in playing Old Time music

43:18 - Good Facebook group: Bluegrass, Old Time and Country harmonica and books from Glenn Weiser

43:38 - Popularity of playing tunes on the harmonica is because it suits the instrument well, and Seth thinks it works well if you’re lazy!

44:03 - Seth uses standard tunings when he plays Old Time, moving up an octave to get the sixth note from the scale

44:42 - Hasn’t tried a Paddy Richter, although that is the tuning Neil uses for tunes

45:25 - Doesn’t play any chromatic harmonica

45:52 - Seth has taught Old Time sessions at SPAH and other harmonica festivals

46:10 - Seth Joe Filisko when he lived in Chicago

46:29 - Joe Filisko, James Conway and Andrew Larson are the three people Seth knows who can do the rapid Gwen Foster tongue trill

47:01 - Has just purchased the Masterharp USA tuning table company and is thinking of going into business using it

48:49 - Is considering making the tuning tables commercially available

49:24 - Cost of the tuning table could be around $400

50:00 - Tuning table currently only takes diatonic reed plates but considering adding chromatic

50:31 - Harmonica of choice is currently the Hohner Rocket Amp

51:14 - Positions: mainly 1st, some 2nd, sometimes 3rd

52:12 - Overblows: doesn’t use them

52:21 - Embouchre

52:46 - Amps: plays through a vocal mic, playing off it so can use hand vibrato

53:16 - Has owned a Green Bullet in the past and a Fender Blues Junior amp, but it was too loud for practising

53:40 - Doesn’t use any effects: can get reverb using hands and reverb would muddy sound when playing a lot of rhythm

54:09 - Recording

55:08 - Future plans

56:20 - Teaching plans at festivals and offers a free old time teaching lesson online