Pat is originally from Hull in England, but has lived in the US for 24 years now
Pat moved to the US to marry his American wife, who was one of his customers for his custom harmonicas
Pat is renowned for his knowledge of the harmonica
Pat lived near the Buckeye Harmonica festival when he first moved to the US, allowing him to make some good contacts
Buckeye Festival doesn’t happen now, although something similar does
Pat started playing various musical instruments to become a pop star, and the harmonica was the one that stuck
Pat was ill for an extended period during his twenties, when it was easier to play harmonica than other instruments
Learnt some blues guitar from listening to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and heard some harmonica from Dr Feelgood
Heard Little Walter’s Quarter To Twelve on the John Peel show, inspiring him to figure out how to play the harmonica
Pat’s website is a tremendous source of harmonica information, including the evolution of free reed instruments into the harmonica
Sheng is the predecessor of the harmonica, and the other free reed instruments that came before the Sheng
History or free reed instruments has focused on Chinese instruments as they are the best documented, but there were instruments from other countries
Standard history of the harmonica is that it derived from Chinese instruments, turned into the harmonica by Christian Buschmann and taken on by Hohner
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
How the reeds differ between the Eastern free reed instruments and the modern harmonica
Christian Buschmann is usually credited with inventing the modern form of the harmonica, although this is contentious
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
The evidence for Buschmann inventing the harmonica is from a book written by his family
Early history of the harmonica in Europe is from Austria, rather than Germany
Early history of European harmonica development in Germany is strongly associated with Hohner and Seydel factories from mid-1800s
Hohner did an excellent job of promoting the harmonica in the US, and probably skewing it’s history in the process
Other claims for nation which invented the modern harmonica come from Great Britain, the US and another German
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
Pat also has a section on early harmonica players recordings, including various firsts, such as first blues, second position, third position and chromatic
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
Henry Whitter is credited with recording the first song in second position: Rain Crow Bill Blues
First third position recording is credited to Little Walter, playing Lonesome Day with Muddy Waters in 1951
Little Walter may have stumbled across third position after taking up playing the chromatic and why third position wasn’t recorded earlier
First chromatic recording was Hayseed Rag by Borrah Minevitch
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
Put some audio samples up of the different tuning schemes, including Just Intonation and Equal Temperament
Pat’s website became a definitive early source for material on tuning schemes and the other information he created
Did lots of harmonica reviews on his website
Has written numerous harmonica articles, including for the NHL’s Harmonica World magazine, and The Blues Revue magazine
Never set out with aim of building such a great harmonica resource through his website, was motivated to gain customers for his customisation business
Was an important part of the UK’s NHL organisation when living in the UK, and probably the longest serving committee member
Last part of NHL activity was as US co-ordinator
Video of Pat playing at the 1999 NHL Ely concert
Has written two songbooks for Harmonic Minor tuning
Wrote another songbook: The Ultimate Miniature Harmonica Tunebook, for the one octave harmonica
The songbooks were partly written based on Pat’s ability to understand how music scores can be translated onto the harmonica
Ocarina players also bought this book as the songs fit well on that instrument, as well as other limited scale instruments
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
Decided to try self-publishing on a topic non-harmonica related first
Similarities between the Bawu and Hulusi and the harmonica
Next wrote a harmonica book with tunes for the harmonic minor tuning
Driving North is a blues recording from Pat
Likes to use drones as part of harmonica playing, inspired by interest in the sitar
Has made some recent recordings with someone he was in a band with forty four years ago, Andy Welsh
Is mainly retired from playing and recording now, but does a little
Bohm miniature bass harmonica
Walked around in youth playing harmonica
Play along with a song off the radio or YouTube
Harmonicas of choice is Lee Oskar’s, with many different tunings
Been playing some harmonetta recently
Different tunings: has recorded plenty using natural minor and others
Uses overblows, discovering them for himself
Embouchre: started using pucker, now uses tongue block as well
Amps and mics: not so many amps nowadays, with a Pignose and an old Japanese tube amp
Future plans include more updates to his invaluable website
