Attila Balas - L10

A big congratulations to Attila Balas in Liestal, Switzerland for completing Levels of Achievement Level 10 Testing at BluesHarmonica.com. You can see his performance of original instrumentals here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5oRTBBpAv4

Here is his story...

I grew up without any musical education and I categorised myself as musically hopeless. I always used to say: The only instrument I want to play is my CD player.

When I was about 29 years old, I worked in IT and we had a horrible project where just everything went wrong. Once I told the project manager that when the project was over, I would buy a harmonica and play the blues in the subway. One year later, I changed jobs to one that was much closer to my hometown. As I suddenly gained more spare time, I remembered my promise and I bought a harmonica instruction book with a harp included. Later on, I found an instructor close to my town. Unfortunately, I attended the courses, but I didn't have the time to practice. When my teacher moved away, I stopped taking lessons. I bought a lot of instruction books, but I realised that buying books without practicing was just lost money.

About five years ago, I had to make up my mind and make a decision: Stop making music and throw away all my harps or start making music more seriously. I chose the second way. Because of a lack of harp instructors in the vicinity, I started to play guitar and started playing in an amateur band. When my mates wanted me to do a solo, I remembered my harps and it worked somehow. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of my playing. I needed lessons desperately, but there was still no instructor.

I’d done some research on the internet, but I wasn’t keen on online courses. I’d tested different online courses for guitar, but they all had the same weakness: There is a huge number of videos, but the way how to reach the target was missing.

I was very tired and almost gave up looking for a teacher. At that time, I found BluesHarmonica.com. I’d already known David, because I had bought several books of his. The “Levels of Achievement” program seemed very interesting to me and I purchased the membership.

Then came the first shock: Tongue blocking. I used to be a lip purser. However, I thought to myself if it’s the only way, let’s try it. I had to relearn just about everything and fight for every lick. I reached a state where I still wasn’t able to play tongue blocking, but already had difficulties with lip pursing. It was very disappointing. But just that is the strength of Level of Achievement. I don’t see the huge rock, but the steps. I don’t have to watch an endless number of videos—I can concentrate on only the next step. The tests after the steps are great. They not only show whether the progress is there, but also motivated me for the next step. Every missing hole on the pin hurt and forced me to continue practicing. It was hard along aside my family and job, finding the time for it. Without the Levels of Achievements program, I’m sure I wouldn’t have found the resources for it.

In the meantime, I switched to tongue blocking and learned to love it. Currently, I'm only using lip pursing for bending in the upper octave and for overblowing hole 6.

And then the next challenge came: writing songs. My first thought was, "I can’t do it. It’s impossible for me." However, David shows the way in steps. I almost didn’t dare to deliver the first version. After the following LOA Tests, I always had to rewrite the song and add some new aspects to it. At the end, I was satisfied with it.

LOA 10: Writing songs for 1st and 3rd positions. "I can’t even play it in a proper way" was my first thought. It took me a long time to finish this task. Nevertheless, it helped me to overcome another barrier.

Yesterday, I had my gig. I hope the result will be accepted. When I look back and compare my playing with that of three years ago, there is a huge difference. But I compare passing the LOA to passing a driving test. It doesn’t mean I can drive the car well, it means not being an imminent danger to others.

The more I’ve learned, the more gaps have been discovered. Now, it's time for me to learn songs by heart and fill my lick bag. But the most important thing I still have to learn is knowing when not to play….