Want to learn the Harmonica? Who better to teach you than one of the world’s great blues harmonica players, blues pianist, singer and writer Mark Paul “Corky” Siegel, a Chamber Blues progenitor and sole pioneer/composer of award-winning revolutionary works that weave blues and classical forms together.

In association with Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa), Siegel as he is better known, brings to you ‘Learn to Play the Harmonica’ an online self- paced course.

Siegel has visited India in the past and hosted workshops and concerts and has also been a part of SaPa's TV Show. Taking forward this long time association, SaPa along with Corky Siegel have now co-created a course for beginners 'Learn to Play the Harmonica' which is self- paced in nature.

Siegel celebrates 55 years of performance, a co-founder of the popular Siegel-Schwall Band, a Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee and Lifetime Achievement awardee.  Corky Siegel has a catalogue of recordings on RCA, Vanguard, Alligator, and million selling blues/classical recordings on the iconic classical label Deutsche Grammophon.  

At a young age, he learned his craft - personally - at the feet of such legendary first generation bluesmen as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and Otis Spann. In the earlier days of Chicago blues, he was an essential part in the blues rock revolution, and his surprising and continuing success in bringing together blues and classical audiences (with his symphonic and Chamber Blues recordings and performances) make him a pivotally unique figure in popular music history.

In an email interview, Verus Ferreira speaks to the US based Corky Siegel on his association with SaPa, the course that he intends to impart to students, his experience with India and teaching Harmonica to Indian students and much more. 

Can you tell us your association with SaPa? 

I was 1999 when my wife and I met Dr. L. Subramaniam who invited me to perform with him at Symphony Center (Orchestra Hall) in Chicago.  After that I was honored again and asked to tour with him. This included many experiences in India.  Holly and I have been such friends with he and the family that all lines of separation have disappeared. If you do the math you can see that we knew the children since they were little tots.  We haven’t decided yet if we are an extra set of parents or sisters and brothers. 

Is this the first time you are working on a curriculum for India? 

Yes, this took at least 6 months to put together and it was based on 40 years of tweaking the general concept.  I wanted to find a way of offering a harmonica course that was more simple than possible yet gave the participant what I felt were the most important tools including offering the healthiest and happiest perspective on how to approach music performance from my own learning experience.

You have visited India in the past. What are your memories of it?

Right now I sit in my 2nd home.  India is my first home.

What has been your journey into music, the blues? 

I fell in love with the blues maybe in 1963 I’m guessing. A neighbour gave me three blues records and I danced around the house to these recordings (Jimmy Reed, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters) in ecstasy.  I learned some blues songs and wrote a few. I met a guitar player, Jim Schwall, and together we found ourselves playing as house band at a renowned Chicago blues club where we hosted all the blues greats as they came on stage with us and took us under their wing.  Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy ….  The rest is history.

What are your thoughts on Indian Music?

For me all music is healing, unifying, and uplifting, even if that wasn’t the artist’s intention.  My understanding is that Indian music and Indian instruments were developed very specifically to be healing, unifying and uplifting.  Always a step ahead you guys.

Have you heard of any harmonica players in India and have interacted with them?

I remember some connections on social media.

How can the harmonica be used as a medicinal tool for patients? 

Just play it.  Since it’s connected directly to breathing both in and out it is exercise for the lungs.  That couldn’t hurt.

What is the 'Learn to Play the Harmonic' course and what level can one learn from it? 

The course has two levels at the same time. It is a ultra-beginner’s course that was designed with friends in mind that wrongly say; “I can’t play music.”  Everyone can experience the joys of playing music. Period. There are different approaches to teaching music that can serve a broad range of what some might consider is musical incompetence.  So I begin with an ability I know everyone has; the ability to breathe.  As I say in the course; “If you can breathe you can play the harmonica.”  The whole course keeps that idea in mind.  

The second level is the most important and advanced level for music performance.  While the participant is learning the very very basics of “how to play the harmonica” and how to play written harmonica music, so they can explore on their own with thousands of songs and other approaches to learning, they are also learning the most important and most advanced techniques of musical expression. Learning the physical secrets of how to be expressive in music is as easy as pie.  But it is extremely difficult to remember to apply those techniques because of so many psychological blocks that are placed before us. And it’s understandable for one thing, with so much going on in the music and so much you have to know, the applications necessary for expression mostly get left behind.   So I try to crash through those blocks for the participant so they can experience that joy and musical excellence, right from the start while reinforcing it throughout the course and making the experience of expression (for the player as well as the listener) the point of learning to play an instrument. 

Who has the course been designed for?

As I said; The course is designed for those that say; “I can’t play music.”  But it also designed for those that say; “I can play music.”  It also designed for the most advanced players of other instruments and it’s also it’s designed for teachers of music because it offers a fresh perspective.  But the teachers should also obtain my book; “Let Your Music Soar - the emotional connection” for more detailed content.  

How will an online course help in learning the harmonica? Offline classes are a must to learn any musical instrument. Your comments.

I’ve designed to course to help assure that anyone who enters the course “will” learn to play the harmonica and “will” learn to express themselves through it.  If they can play the extremely simple "seven chord melodic expression” which is in the first few minutes of the hands-on section, they will have already succeeded. 

Did you teach the harmonica on your earlier visits to India?

I did a spontaneous lesson on a TV show for Dr. L.S.

What has been your experience with India and teaching Harmonica to Indian students?

Other than above, none.  I did a bunch of workshops around India that the Subramaniam family set up for me.  Though I played harmonica for everyone I did not actually teach the harmonica.

What have you heard of the Indian blues scene here in India?

I didn’t know that India had a blues scene as such.  

Do you plan to visit the country soon for concerts or workshops?

I’m waiting to see if covid is going to disappear on its own despite our efforts to keep spreading it.  And with that I pray that everyone stays safe and healthy. We have a lot of work, all of us, on this beautiful planet. It calls on us to spread the healing, unifying, uplifting, power of music (that is the form of compassion itself) to bring joy and calm over the turmoil that is also part of life on this earth.  

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira