The Process - Riccardo "Rico" Migliarini

Part of the Level 10 testing process is to share with the other students their personal journey. Here is Rico's. Congratulations again Rico!

“The Process”
My journey through the Levels of Achievement Program
by Riccardo “Rico” Migliarini

I started playing harmonica around the end of the 70's, in a period far before the internet and all the resources, methods, and tutorials that today literally flood the net. The only important references were the vinyl records and the liner notes where I tried to find among the credits someone who played the harmonica.

In the mid 70's I had an almost maniacal passion for the devilish bluesy ballads of the Italian singer-songwriter Edoardo Bennato. The typical "One Man Band" that did everything by himself, I strummed the guitar and wanted to emulate the famous singer by learning to play harmonica too. I tried several times to learn how to play the harmonica, but you can imagine the difficulties in finding information and method material.

Finding records was also practically impossible at that time in my hometown. One day I was fortunate enough to attended a sale at a local radio station and purchased "The History of Rock.” For the first time I heard legendary blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Sonny Terry, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters with Otis Spann, and Junior Parker. I began to understand that the harmonica could be played in different contexts—there began my story. Another important turning point occurred in 1978—exactly 20 years ago. On July 20th, 1978 in my hometown of Gubbio (Pg - Italy) was the Umbria Jazz Festival. Beside the Big Band of Buddy Rich and an Italian jazz quintet, were Buddy Guy & Junior Wells with the Chicago Blues Band.

I took a couple of courses on solfeggio and harmony at the music school in my town where I played the guitar, but I'm definitely a self-taught harmonica player. I played harmonica with a band that was very active in the Italian blues scene, doing various tours in Holland, Germany, and Belgium. I had recorded records and played live in hundreds of situations before my friend and talented harmonica player, Flavio Cipriano, proposed me to take a look at bluesharmonica.com, where he had started his journey. I agreed more out of friendship than out of conviction, but he sent me a gift (I'll never be able to thank him enough)... a subscription to the site for an entire year... I could no longer back out.

It was a turning point for me, and a return to the beginning, starting from scratch, reworking what I had learned and focused on integrating my playing with an infinite number of new elements of which I was unaware. I thought I knew a lot about the blues harmonica—it was a surprising and wonderful journey that definitely changed my approach towards the harmonica, making me question all my certainties.

The LOA is an expertly-built path to increase, step by step, both technical and theoretical knowledge—it’s impressive the skill of David in explaining clearly, complex concepts and techniques. I found really interesting the part dedicated to Chorus Forms, because it pushes you to listen to the music in a more conscious way and develops your ear. Chorus Forms help to build an improvisation and give colors to the song. It also helps you to think about your technique as well, like the V-IV-I transition, a fundamental junction of a blues where, as David says, you "hear" the true talent of a harmonica player—not to mention the endless possibilities that textures offer in presenting a musical line or a solo. I should certainly work more on these aspects, but once the mechanism is triggered, there is no backing out and the road continues. Being regular and methodical is a very important aspect of approaching the LOA. In my experience, haste doesn’t help, and to make your "playing” consistent, there are no shortcuts—daily work will give you great satisfaction. I have always tried to have a couple of hours every day to follow the lessons and practice, but I have also found it effective to work in blocks of 20/30 minutes at different times of the day.

It took me longer than it may have taken for some students to complete LOA, because I chose to also focus on other studies on the site outside of the course—the blues chromatic studies and other pieces by David, at the same time as some aspects of theory that I knew very superficially. David's lessons are very well organized and with the right attitude and concentration, the results will not be long in coming. I got to know David personally at the Harmonica Masterclass Workshops in Trossingen, Germany, in 2018 and appreciate him as an amazing musician and great performer as well as, of course, fantastic teacher and educator—for all this, I will thank him for the rest of my life.

To watch Rico's performance go to https://youtu.be/DlCdTYa6sMY