Ben Bouman interview

Ben Bouman joins me on episode 81.

Ben is a Dutch blues player who always strives for originality in his playing, partly inspired by his admiration for the playing of Paul deLay. Ben’s current band is The Marble Tones, who took their name from the amplifier company, with Ben helping develop their range of harmonica amps.
Ben also helped Seydel prototype their steel reeds before they released them some fifteen years ago, and he tells us all about polishing and profiling steel reeds, his own business selling customised Seydel harmonicas, and how he helped persuade Seydel in moving over to Compromised Just Tuning.
The Harpgame Is On! is the name of Ben’s self-produced album and he regularly posts YouTube videos, including his recent tuition videos on different harmonica themes.

Links:

Ben’s website:
https://www.benboumanharmonicas.nl

Webshop to buy Ben Bouman custom harmonicas:
https://www.benboumanharmonicas.nl/rapidcartpro/index.php?catalog/all/-/date/1

Marble amplifiers:
https://www.marble-amps.com/

Viola Barends:
https://www.violaharmonica.com/

Seydel festival and harmonica competition:
https://mundharmonika-live.de
https://www.seydel1847.de/seydelopen-registration

Hohner CBH chromatic:
https://chromhistory.blog/2019/05/22/cbh-2012-2016/

Videos:

Paul deLay Harmonica Party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWepAFBqsN4

Marble Tones band videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@BluesMoose/search?query=marbletones

Ben's Tone in a cup:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063463839653

Viola Barends harmonica orchestra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ7sNeZUAAI

Ben playing Watermelon Man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnEbikuq7sI

Ben playing blues chromatic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNSa7VdKFXw

Ben gear demo recording, including Pignose amp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWFrUNKpMx8

The Monkey Speaks His Mind with The Marble Tones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d4HbjTn4EI

Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at

Chapters

• 1:28 Ben lives in Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands
• 1:52 Started playing harmonica when he picked up a chromatic which his father used to play in a harmonica ensemble
• 2:06 Played chromatic for a few years before moving over to diatonic, with first harmonica a Hohner Blues Harp and started buying blues records
• 2:33 Harmonica ensembles were popular in Netherlands in father’s time due to low cost of harmonicas versus other instruments
• 3:06 Blues artists who influenced Ben and sold all blues records 25 years ago
• 4:01 Ben was a big fan of Paul deLay, liking his originality
• 5:34 Favourite recordings of Paul deLay
• 6:49 Found some excellent live recordings of Paul deLay from YouTube, and the joy he shows when playing
• 7:53 Still working on the Paul deLay recordings
• 8:11 Paul deLay probably developed his original approach to playing the harmonica by listening to jazz horn players, or like a guitar player
• 8:54 Ben also strives to have an original sound, and not play standard harmonica licks
• 9:20 How Paul deLay influence Ben’s playing
• 9:55 Paul deLay died in 2007. He was also a great singer, writer, arranger and bandleader
• 10:46 Likes Paul deLay live recordings best
• 11:39 First diatonic Ben purchased was a Hohner Blues harp
• 12:10 Charlie Musselwhite was another big inspiration and discovering different harmonica positions
• 12:53 Played a little saxophone as an adult but the noise upset the neighbours
• 13:11 Played clarinet as a child for a few months but gave that up when teacher said not to play among with the radio
• 13:36 Joined first band age 16 or 17, more rock than blues, and then another band with brother
• 14:39 Current band is The Marble Tones
• 15:23 Marble Tone is the name of an amp, which is where the band got it’s name
• 16:26 Ben helped develop the prototype of the Marble Amp for harmonica
• 17:08 The range of Marble Amps available for harmonica
• 18:05 Ben uses the Marble Amps Harpwood mainly when gigging
• 18:25 Ben had an amp with a 15 inch speaker designed for James Harman
• 18:43 Likes to turn amp loud as possible before feedback so can play harmonica gently, to draw out the subtleties of the instrument
• 19:16 Uses the Marble Max, the smallest amp in their range, for smaller gigs
• 19:57 Other amps that Ben uses, including a Masco amp, and solid state Quilter Microblock 45
• 20:42 How you play the harmonica and build your tone is more important than the amp
• 21:14 Ben released a self-produced album called The Harpgame Is On!
• 22:51 Likes to regularly record licks and ideas at home
• 23:34 Uses Rode NT1A modified large condenser microphone for home recordings
• 23:51 Also plays in a blues duo called Blue Bridge and value of having a harmonica playing guitar accompanist
• 25:46 Puts a lot of videos out on YouTube of mostly improvised recordings
• 26:15 Recently released a series of YouTube tuition videos
• 26:50 Concept of ‘vocal playing’ is theme 24 from YouTube tuition videos
• 27:37 No longer sings in bands as doesn’t feel his singing is strong enough
• 28:03 Ben has a business selling customised Seydel Harmonicas
• 28:10 Ben helped Seydel’s engineer, Karl Pucholt, develop the companies steel reeds
• 29:31 Bertram Becher asked Ben to test some prototype harmonicas, which had steel reeds
• 30:55 What does Ben like about steel reeds
• 31:34 Ben visited the Seydel factory weekly to test how good the new steel reeds were for customisation work
• 32:16 Steel reeds are good to work with, and more elastic than brass
• 33:05 Need to work harder to remove material when tuning steel reeds
• 33:47 Polishing the steel reeds
• 34:49 Ben also changes the shape / profile of the reeds
• 35:21 Ben sells customised Seydel Harmonicas, with three levels of customisation applied
• 36:33 Cost of Ben’s customised Seydel’s isn’t much more than standard price
• 37:25 Sets harmonicas up for overblows, but only uses overblows a little himself, not really liking the sound of them
• 38:05 Offers free 30 minute lessons to anyone who buys one of his custom harmonicas
• 38:41 Ben’s partner is Viola Barends, who runs harmonica camps and is especially strong on harmonica ensemble work due to her musical background
• 40:27 Ben is involved in the Seydel Mundharmonika festival, which runs every year in Klingenthal, Germany
• 41:45 10 minute question
• 42:18 Teaching technique
• 42:58 Focuses on improvisation rather than melodies
• 43:52 Plays a little chromatic
• 44:04 CBH chromatic from Chamber Huang is favourite for tone
• 45:08 Tone and groove are the main things for Ben
• 45:19 Does some set-up of Seydel chromatics and would like to develop customisation of chromatics
• 46:25 Diatonic of choice is own custom Seydels
• 46:37 Loves the full range of diatonic harps, from low diatonics to making the F harp sound more mellow
• 48:06 Different tunings
• 48:59 Has the ability to remember licks he played years before
• 49:32 Persuaded Seydel to move from Just Intonation to Compromised Just Tuning
• 51:12 Initially lip pursued and then discovered tongue blocking when the internet first arrived in Holland
• 52:57 Likes to use a Pignose amp for home recordings, inspired by Frank Zappa
• 54:20 Microphone: likes a brush crystal
• 55:17 Likes to use effects sometimes, and what’s on pedal board
• 57:22 Plans to develop a harmonica with replaceable screwed on reeds