Konstantin Reinfeld interview

Konstantin Reinfeld joins me on episode 103.

Konstantin is a German who comes from the overblow school of harmonica, studying music at a conservatory and taking lessons from Howard Levy as part of his early development. He released a jazz album at age 18, with two more albums to follow before releasing a classical album played on the diatonic harmonica, for which he won a German Grammy award for classical music.
On top of this Konstantin is a music producer, including producing his own recordings bringing the harmonica into a contemporary pop setting. He has a very active online presence and hosts harmonica interviews for the Hohner Live X series of YouTube videos.

Links:
Konstantin’s website:
https://www.konstantinreinfeld.com

Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/konstantinreinfeld

Compositions for harmonica and piano:
https://www.doerken-stiftung.de/foerderung/kompositionen-fuer-mundharmonika-als-gratisdownload/downloads-kompositionen-fuer-mundharmonika-und-klavier

Videos:
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@KonstantinReinfeld

Body Heat with Benjamin Nuss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KEJzFcZgqg&list=TLGGMrKWZLRF3CoyMjAxMjAyNA&t=2s

Cinema Paradiso - Love Theme:
https://youtu.be/ULj-GjL4nFA?si=D6G11zXwOCd32kvv

Interview on Hohner channel with the 14 year old Konstantin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIPCFRTIJDU

Hohner Live X interview with Howard Levy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_DDBgcEViw

Country Harmonica Challenge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvupq6gpf8

Don Toliver harmonica cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2BVsMa5QiM

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

or sign-up to a monthly subscription to the podcast:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/995536/support

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 www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS

Chapters

• 1:20 Konstantin is from Germany, now living in Hamburg
• 1:29 Went to music Conservatory in Cologne
• 1:40 Hamburg has a great pop music scene
• 2:10 Konstantin is 28 years old (born in 1995), and started playing harmonica age 13
• 2:43 Played flute and piano from a young age, then some clarinet
• 4:07 Started getting seriously into music when he picked up the harmonica
• 4:26 First heard the harmonica on a German talent show in 2008, from the playing of Michael Hirte
• 4:56 First harmonica bought was a Hohner Blues Harp MS
• 5:20 Discovered overblows online, and was the direction he took
• 6:14 Initial interest was in playing melodies, and not blues
• 6:29 First concert was played at school in front of an audience of 600 to 700 people
• 7:04 Did devote some time to working up his blues chops on the diatonic
• 7:14 The internet played a big part in Konstantin's learning path, and uploaded his own recordings to YouTube and harmonica forums, and getting some feedback
• 7:32 Took his first lessons in harmonica blues basics from a German player
• 8:00 After these first lessons Konstantin started reaching out to lots of his favourite harmonica players online
• 8:36 Konstantin contacted bands and asked if he could rehearse with them
• 9:05 Went to the music fair in Frankfurt, where Konstantin started getting noticed as a harmonica player
• 9:24 Invited to the Hohner Harmonica Masters event by Steve Baker
• 9:47 Was fluent in overblows at this early stage
• 10:30 Doesn’t play much chromatic, although has started playing it more recently for songs which suit the sound of the chromatic
• 11:47 Was a 100% tongue block player for a time
• 11:52 Plays the diatonic rather than the chromatic because it’s the first instrument he fell in love with
• 12:06 Doesn’t play different tunings on the diatonic (although has experimented)
• 12:36 Plays along with a Toots Thielemans recording using a diatonic and the importance of transcribing
• 13:24 Transcribed lots of Jason Ricci, Alex Paclin and Howard Levy, and the form of Konstantin’s transcriptions
• 14:01 Attended the music Conservatory with the diatonic as his main instrument, and the challenges of being accepted at some music schools
• 15:00 Didn’t have a harmonica tutor at his Conservatory, learnt mainly from a pianist
• 15:40 Took lessons with Howard Levy for a couple of years as part of a Jazz Masters course in Hamburg, and played a concert with Howard at the school
• 16:25 Impact of taking tuition from a different instrument from harmonica
• 17:25 Had been playing for around five years before went to the Conservatory, and the amount of practise he did in those five years
• 18:13 Had singing lessons as his second instrument at the conservatory, although doesn’t sing now
• 18:52 Sang at a harmonica festival in the Netherlands, with Ben Bouman and Rachelle Plas
• 19:54 Transcribed lots of Carlos del Junco’s harmonica playing
• 20:56 Lessons with Howard Levy
• 21:43 Early studies in Cologne and Hamburg were in jazz, so first album Konstantin released was a jazz album
• 22:05 First album released in 2013, Mr Quilento, after Konstantin was selected to work with a record producer at the Harmonica Masters event
• 23:44 Some of the songs on first album were own compositions
• 24:41 Next album, Old Friend, is a Toots Thielemans inspired album
• 25:24 Recorded a second album with the quartet: Algiedi, all his own compositions and he is very proud of this work
• 25:43 Uses guitar whammy and delay effects on the Algiedi album, although doesn’t use effects now
• 26:33 Played in a Techno live band in Cologne
• 27:03 Algiedi song is subtitled ‘death of a star’
• 27:54 Interest Classical playing inspired by Howard Levy, so got together with a pianist called Benjamin Nuss
• 28:43 Released album ‘Debut’, which is mainly classical pieces, with some jazz
• 29:09 Repertoire is important when selecting Classical music to play on harmonica, with the flute pieces working well
• 29:25 Working with composers to write pieces for the duo with Benjamin Nuss, with the music available online
• 30:03 Classical music on harmonica is typically played on the chromatic, and the differences of playing it on diatonic
• 30:37 No bending permitted in Classical music is changing
• 31:52 Won German Grammy for Classical music for the Debut album
• 32:07 Winning the award changed how the diatonic harmonica was perceived in the Classical music scene in Germany
• 32:59 Will be releasing a new concerto for harmonica and piano later in 2024
• 33:12 How approached play the different genres of jazz and classical
• 33:55 Partly reads the scores for Classical pieces, partly from memory
• 34:52 Recording a Christmas album this year
• 35:10 Cinema Paradiso is a song Konstantin has recorded with an orchestra, and has also played the Howard Levy harmonica concerto
• 36:05 Will continue to work on Classical music, including a new album with Benjamin Nuss
• 37:07 Also works as a music Producer, initially working on mixing Hip Hop inspired songs
• 38:31 Started getting more seriously into music production when met a Dutch Afro-pop musican, and has produced some songs with him, including harmonica
• 40:01 Creates all the music on the self-produced tracks
• 40:50 Has a strong online presence, including Harmonica Challenges with prizes provided by Hohner
• 42:19 Puts out a lot of videos on his Patreon page
• 42:22 Hosts Hohner Live X harmonica video interviews on YouTube
• 43:19 Releasing his first harmonica instruction book later in 2024, with videos and audio recordings. Set for beginners and focus is on melodic playing (not blues)
• 44:50 Has made numerous TV appearances in Germany
• 45:19 10 minute question
• 46:28 Been an ambassador for Hohner since age 15 and appearing at the Hohner Harmonica Masters event
• 47:16 Video interview of Konstantin by Hohner when he was 14 years old
• 48:02 Initially played Golden Melody harmonicas, as many overblow players did, mainly due to temperate tuning
• 48:41 Started playing custom Marine Bands, built by Thomas Hanke, with Special 20 cover plates (as does Howard Levy)
• 49:23 Special 20 cover plates don’t have the gap in them, which the Marine Band ones do, so Special 20 plates project sound more directly to mic
• 50:40 Plays the lower range of diatonics (doesn’t just play C chromatically)
• 51:19 What harmonica position Konstantin chooses is largely driven by the melody of the piece of music
• 52:04 How many positions Konstantin uses with his overblow playing: 1 to 6 and 10,11,12 are most frequently used
• 52:47 Embouchre: puckers now, did play tongue block for a while in the past
• 53:21 Tongue blocking is possible with overblows
• 53:46 Amplification: uses a PA
• 54:08 Uses Sennheiser 441 mic (as does Howard Levy)
• 54:16 Uses a little reverb, but no other effects now
• 54:32 Plays off the mic (not holding it), as provides more control over the tone, and making each note sound as close to each other tonally as possible
• 55:23 Holds mic to be heard in a louder setting
• 55:33 Moves around a lot when playing
• 55:57 Future plans: releasing orchestral works and recording a Christmas album
• 56:52 No current plans to play with a band again
• 57:09 Has another contemporary song coming out soon, playing a chromatic harmonica
• 57:39 Touring Europe in 2024
• 58:00 Likely to be playing in Asia again this summer

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Konstantin Reinfeld joins me on episode 103. Konstantin is a German who comes from the Overblow School of Harmonica, studying music at a conservatory and taking lessons from Howard Levy as part of his early development. He released a jazz album at age 18, with two more albums to follow before releasing a classical music album played on the diatonic harmonica, for which he won a German Grammy Award for classical music. On top of this, he is a music producer, including producing his own recordings, bringing the harmonica into a contemporary pop setting. He has a very active online presence and hosts harmonica interviews for the Whole New Life X series of YouTube videos. This podcast is sponsored by Zeidel Harmonicas. Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.zeidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zeidel Harmonicas. Hello, Konstantin Reinfeldt, and welcome to the podcast. Hey, thank you, Neil. Thank you for having me. So you're German. You're originally

SPEAKER_02: 1:23

from Kempen, and now you live in Hamburg, yeah? That's true, yeah. Kempen's a small town very close to the border of the Netherlands. Right after school, I went to Music Conservatory in Cologne, did my bachelor there, and then I moved to Hamburg, I

SPEAKER_00: 1:37

think like four or five years ago. Great. And is Hamburg... Well, famously, it's got a great music scene. You hear about the Beatles going to Hamburg, and then sort of that where they kind of cut the teeth. Has it still got that great scene?

SPEAKER_02: 1:49

A lot of the pop music scene is located here. It has like the official kind of vibe. I feel like there's a lot of stuff happening in Berlin too. But people got their own home studios in their basements and stuff. So you don't really know where stuff is happening. But in Hamburg, it's like there are still a few of these bigger official studios for bigger productions, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 2:10

So you're quite a young guy still. Are you 28 now or slightly younger than that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:15

Just turned 28 in December last

SPEAKER_00: 2:18

year. I think you started playing when you were 13, so you've been playing for 15 years now, yeah?

SPEAKER_02: 2:23

That's a crazy anniversary, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:26

Yeah. So, yeah, so you've got to a great level already. I'm excited to hear what else you're going to come out with, but, you know, you've done some great stuff already.

UNKNOWN: 2:42

MUSIC

SPEAKER_00: 2:43

When you were young, you did some piano and clarinet. Before you started, you picked up the harmonica. So you had that grounding at a young age. Age eight, did I say, Reid, you started playing piano?

SPEAKER_02: 2:52

Maybe even earlier, yeah. My parents don't have anything to do with music, like professionally, but of course, like music fans. And I started out playing the flute very young and started getting piano lessons from my mother around the age of five or six already, I think. Yeah, there were some concerts with the piano class and I heard somebody play the clarinet there. I liked the sound and started to play the clarinet. I had weekly lessons, but I never really practiced, you know. It was just like playing 10-15 minutes right before the lesson and that was enough. The teacher wouldn't notice, you know, that I didn't actually practice. And in the end I feel like we definitely went into a jazzier direction. But I wasn't really conscious about it. It was always just like playing music from the sheet. No improvisation. I was never even told how to do like a nice vibrato on a note, you know. Like all the expression that makes things exciting, I feel like. Especially on the harmonica and stuff. I didn't really know about that.

SPEAKER_00: 3:55

So what do you think about these early lessons? Were you taking grades then? Was it quite formal? It sounds like it was maybe quite lightweight at that stage. Obviously, you were very young. Yeah, that was

SPEAKER_02: 4:04

just lightweight. That was just a hobby, definitely. Things only started to get serious with the harmonica, which is kind of crazy. During the last few lessons, we actually started to improvise on the clarinet, but then I was like, oh, let me grab the harmonica and play the solo on there. So the clarinet teacher basically knew at that point, yeah, it's over.

SPEAKER_00: 4:26

I read that you first heard the harmonica on a talent show in Germany, a guy called Michael Hurt.

SPEAKER_02: 4:39

Yeah, so that was late 2008. Yeah, basically Americans got talent, but just in Germany. I was just fascinated. It was super emotional. Kind of felt like secretive, holding that harmonica invisibly in your hands and just getting these sounds out of it. Yeah, basically right before Christmas, I went to the local music store, got my first instrument. Of course, it had to be exactly the instrument he played, which was a Hohner Blues Harp MS. Also purchased an instructional book. Started to learn autodidactically, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:12

Yeah, so I think your learning journey at that early stage was probably quite different, yeah, because I think you, again, I read that, I think you discovered overblows yourself at this stage, so did you discover those quite early on, and was that the approach you were taking, and maybe, again, coming from playing piano, and, you know, it's obviously chromatic notes are all there, is that something you picked up? you know, straight from the beginning?

SPEAKER_02: 5:34

I feel like that was something I picked up online. I mean, when I first got back home with the instrument, actually, I think my grandparents were home for some reason, and my grandpa was sitting down on the piano, and he was like, oh yeah, now you got the harmonica, now you got the instrument, why not play the C major scale? And I started out playing whole one blow, one draw, two whole blow, kind of trying to get a single note, and then I ran into big problems on whole So yeah, at that point I knew there was some work involved to get where I wanted to be playing Ave Maria under the Christmas tree, you know. But

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

initially your interest was in playing kind of melodies, not blues, was it? Definitely. It was just

SPEAKER_02: 6:21

about doing the stuff I heard watching TV, you know, and playing evergreens and melodies. And that's how I started out. I think at that point, I even had like a friend at school who started out playing with me. And we had our first gig on stage. There was like a 350 year anniversary of our school. And we played in front of 600, 700 people. Like that's a pretty big gig for being on stage for the very first time in your life basically. And we played You Raise Me Up and I remember we were doing that on the C harmonica and then I pitched up the last part of the backing track a half step and then we switched over to the D flat. My little key change there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:04

Have you ever spent time working on the real blues chops, the classic blues harmonica? Is that something you haven't done?

SPEAKER_02: 7:10

Oh, I definitely did that, but only later. The internet played a huge role then. I was super early in uploading my own recordings to YouTube. just hanging out on these online harmonica forums. There was also like a German one. I started to post my recordings there, getting some feedback. And these forums were basically my first teacher. At some point, somebody from Germany, Ralf Fuckart from Düsseldorf, also called B.B. Harpy. He also builds some very good blues microphones for harmonica. He sent me a message on that harmonica forum and he was like, how do you feel about getting some lessons from me? Like six online lessons to teach you blues basics. That's how it all started, basically, the online thing. I noticed, wow, that's crazy, I can get online harmonica lessons via Skype. And after getting these first lessons, I just started to reach out to so many of my favorite harmonica players that I saw online on YouTube, you know, and most of them were super nice. And they were just like, oh, yeah, of course, I'm going to give you a free lesson.

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

You started playing at 13. You're an exceptionally good player now. So in the early days, how much were you practicing? What were you doing? It sounds like the internet was a big part of that. So what do you think? Did you get very good very quickly? I think you were invited to the Harmonica Masters, weren't you, in Germany quite early on as well. So what happened in the early days to get you a level up?

SPEAKER_02: 8:36

Yeah, that was basically starting out in my hometown and just sending emails out to people bands and big bands and being like yeah well can i just come over for a rehearsal and play with you so that's how some of that stuff started out and there's a musician in my town his son is kind of a famous blues guitarist and i played together with their all-star band for a few gigs in my hometown he was like We got to go to the music fair in Frankfurt together and go to the harmonica manufacturers and have me play at all of those booths, you know? So that's what we did in 2010, I think. And that's how things kind of started. And I feel like one year later, I was invited to the Harmonica Masters in Trostingen by Steve Baker. And even before, like in Frankfurt, like right after the music fair, there's like a nice little blues hangout, harmonica hangout session in Frankfurt downtown, where I played at the session. And that was the first time Hohner helped me play it,

SPEAKER_00: 9:46

you know. And were you playing overlords at this stage? You know, that's the direction you took. I was, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 9:52

I mean, it was still very bluesy and I really liked funk and stuff. But yeah, very fluent in overblows already back then.

SPEAKER_00: 9:59

No, absolutely. You get amazing soulful sound out as well. There's a great clip as well. I know lots of people say that harmonica is the closest to the human voice of any instrument. There's a great clip of you playing on the debut album where you make the sound like the human voice. It's really beautiful. No,

SPEAKER_03: 10:23

no, no, no. i

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

mean just touching um obviously on the question of overblows and chromatic so i've seen you playing some chromatic you do this there's this video short of you playing a drake song so I don't see you playing much chromatic. Is it something you use much? But I mean, on that clip, you're sounding pretty good. So is it something you practice a lot? You know, the chromatic?

SPEAKER_02: 11:02

I never practiced chromatic. I got this CX-12 as soon as I became a honer in Dorsey, but I never used it. only at some point where I had my first like kind of like recording gigs or studio sessions where people were like oh yeah we kind of want the Stevie Wonder sound on this so that's when I did it it's only recently that I kind of like to use it sometimes a lot more just because I feel like the sound fits a little better into some pop styles and stuff but I never really practiced it there was a little period where I was just into the third position blues thing too yeah There was the time where I was really into everything Dennis Groening did. There was also a time where I was a tonk block player, like 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 11:52

But what is it about the diatonic? You like the soulfulness, the expression you get out of the diatonic over the chromatic, is it?

SPEAKER_02: 11:58

Yeah, I mean, it's the instrument I fell in love with in the first place, you know? Yeah. And I also can't imagine... using another tuning now or something like that I mean I like to play around with that stuff and get some interesting sounds out of whatever if it's a minor tuned or like that one was called true chromatic tuning or I used to do the Irish stuff very early on with the Petty Richter tuning, and I experimented a little with the pentaharp recently, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 12:30

But you like the standard tuned Richter, that's what you're playing your overblows on, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So again, just finishing off on this topic of chromatic harmonica, so again, there's some clips of you, and there's various ones of these, but you're playing the diatonic chromatically over chromatic solos. For example, there's one when you're along with a Toots Tillman's recording. Yeah, that ability to play chromatically obviously is key for you, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 13:08

Yeah, that was just something very usual at music school, you know, it's like also needed, like you have to do some transcriptions and play some transcriptions and have like a kind of a repertoire. Transcribing always played a very huge role for me. Also, during that YouTube stage, I feel like at some point I really transcribed everything I could find that Jason Richie played, everything Alex Paklin played at that time. and everything howard played

SPEAKER_00: 13:38

the transcriptions and obviously a really critical part for learning and really getting under the under the hood of the of the instrument so did you write down these transcriptions or were you playing them by ear or i mean both sometimes

SPEAKER_02: 13:48

i wrote them down in early stages it was just me writing down harmonica taps later on of course at music school you gotta write down like actual sheet music of that stuff now sometimes it's just by year

SPEAKER_00: 14:01

so you say you went to the conservatory after you finished high school yeah in Germany there so was that with the diatonic harmonica as your main instrument

SPEAKER_02: 14:10

exactly yeah that's kind of interesting because like you can't really do that officially so right before applying to all of these music conservatories I actually had to ask them if I can come and play for them and if I would actually be accepted if they liked how I played you know so some of the conservatories were also like yeah you don't have to apply even if you are amazing we wouldn't know what to do with you yeah I even did like some online applications for like the music schools in the US and maybe got like a 50% scholarship in New York and stuff like that but Netherlands, there was also an option, but I feel like most of them were also like, yeah, we don't know what to do with a harmonica. But some of the conservatories were very open.

SPEAKER_00: 15:00

Often they'd bring in a sort of guest tutor, wouldn't there, to be a harmonica player. Is that something that happened with you?

SPEAKER_02: 15:05

I'm not sure if they could have done that, but in Cologne I actually never had an actual harmonica lesson. I was just learning together with pianists. That was also something I wished for. In the auditions I was actually competing against the jazz pianist because I wanted to get lessons from a jazz pianist just for the visual representation. But then it's very usual, especially in Cologne at that music school, to get lessons from another instrumentalist. Even a drummer will get lessons from a pianist. All that stuff. Only in Hamburg when I moved here in 2018 it was possible to actually get harmonica lessons because there's a huge jazz fan here in Hamburg. He has a foundation and he basically founded that Jazz Master Studies. So if you got the connections to your favorite teacher, and you can set it up, they pay for the lessons. So during these two years, I was able to get online lessons with Howard then. After being part of his online harmonica school for some time already, That was perfect, of course. And I had the chance to fly him over, invite him. He gave a workshop at the Music Conservatory. Everybody was amazed and we played a concert together.

SPEAKER_00: 16:23

Incredible. But yeah, again, interesting. As you say, lots of people do take lessons off other instruments, but I mean, you've done it entirely right because you didn't have any harmonica tutor in that conservatory. So again, what do you think that did to your playing compared to other harmonica players?

SPEAKER_02: 16:39

It was just... good to have some stuff pointed out by pianists or sax players like for example I remember a lesson from a piano guy and he was like yeah I noticed that you always do that this little vibrato thing on these notes like try to play these notes a little more stable and that was me playing the overblows or bendings and just trying to hide possibly bad intonation you know just moving around on that note and Yeah, you don't want to do it all the time, obviously. Were you 18 when you went to this conservatory? I got to do the math. I don't know. I was born in 95. So in 2014, I started the bachelor studies. In 2018, I started the master studies.

SPEAKER_00: 17:25

Either way, I don't do my master, but you hadn't been playing for that long before you, I mean, maybe only like five years or so before you went to this conservatory. So again, in that five years, you practiced a lot, right? You got to a good level to get onto this course. So you were playing every hour possible, were you? Definitely,

SPEAKER_02: 17:43

yeah. I feel like everyone has to have that period of time. I'm not sure, for me it was like two or three years where I basically didn't do anything else. I wasn't hanging out with my schoolmates at all. I didn't go to any parties. If there was like anything happening, I would just be like, yeah, I'm going to stay at home. I'm not going to go. And I'm rather going to stay at home practice. And as soon as my family went to sleep, I usually went down to the basement and continued practicing.

SPEAKER_00: 18:13

Great. So did you have a second instrument during your course there or were you just allowed to just do the harmonica, the humble harmonica?

SPEAKER_02: 18:20

Interesting. Yeah. I mean, the thing was in Cologne, I was officially on paper, I was a pianist. I mean, usually the piano is like the instrument you have to play as a secondary instrument. But for that reason alone, I actually wasn't able to pick the piano as my second instrument. I had to pick something else, so I went with singing lessons. Which was kind of cool. I never really made

SPEAKER_00: 18:45

use of that on stage. Do you sing during your recordings? I'm not aware that I've heard you singing on your albums.

SPEAKER_02: 18:52

Yeah, so the first time I sang was at a harmonica festival in the Netherlands. Very early on I got some lessons from Ben Baumann there. There was also... a festival where Rochelle Plass played so we had a band on site and she rehearsed before me and there was just like very very little time for me left to rehearse right before the gig and I wanted to play Just You Fool and sing that song too and I did that but didn't really feel right I think it didn't sound too bad, but we didn't have enough time to rehearse and that was just like a bad first singing on stage experience for me. So yeah, right after I never really sang again on stage, only when I started to travel to these Asian harmonica festivals, where I kind of felt comfortable again, because I felt like, yeah, nobody knows me here, so I can

SPEAKER_00: 19:53

do whatever I want. I know that Carlos Del Junco was one of your big heroes starting out, right? Is he kind of what got you into doing Overblows early on?

SPEAKER_02: 20:02

I'm not sure who got me into Overblows, but he was big for the transcription thing, too. I feel like for most of the albums, I transcribed every single song. And I remember playing the Jitterbug Waltz.

UNKNOWN: 20:23

Jitterbug Waltz

SPEAKER_02: 20:27

and everything he has on there the big boy cd i think that's also the record he presented at that harmonica festival in the netherlands i went to just experiencing his live show was just amazing yeah I still feel like he's one of the most musical harmonica players out there. An all-around package that feels really good, together with the singing and the songs and his sound.

SPEAKER_00: 20:54

Yeah, he's incredible. Yeah, I'm a big fan. And of course, you say you had lessons with Howard. So these were online one-to-one lessons that you did for two years with Howard, was it?

SPEAKER_02: 21:03

So yeah, I started out with the online harmonica school. There was also the time period where I was really deep into jazz. And then during the master's studies, I... had like, I mean, one and a half years of online lessons with him.

SPEAKER_00: 21:17

What's it like having Howard as a one-to-one tutor? Is he quite demanding at a mansion? It

SPEAKER_02: 21:21

was just cool to learn a lot about like odd time meters. We were playing all the things you are in 11.8 and stuff like that. Learning different rhythms, different patterns on different chords and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00: 21:38

So let's get into your recording career and some of your output, which is fantastic. Again, very varied. So you mentioned jazz. So when you were doing your course, was it a jazz course, the conservatory mainly? Oh,

SPEAKER_02: 21:49

yeah. So in Cologne, they called the Bachelor of Studies jazz pop. And here in Hamburg, it's jazz. And then you could pick another topic, basically. And that was music production for me.

SPEAKER_00: 22:04

So your first album, which released in 2013, so you were 18 at this stage, maybe 19.

SPEAKER_02: 22:11

Yeah, still in school, still at high school.

SPEAKER_00: 22:15

Still in school. So Mr. Quilento. So yeah, it's a jazz album, right? I mean, there's some great tracks on here. So there's one I picked out is Droning, which is kind of Arabian type scale. And you've got this kind of polytone self-accompaniment thing going on. So yeah, very advanced stuff.

UNKNOWN: 22:34

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 22:44

Yeah, I mean, at that point, I didn't really feel ready to record an album. However, at the Harmonica Masters, they shot some videos with the Hohner artists. And the guy who produced the videos, he's from Hamburg, and he has a label. And he basically picked three harmonica players he wanted to do a project with. And I was one of them. So I just started out to write my own compositions at that point. I traveled to Hamburg... Quite a lot at that time and also had like various writing sessions with other jazz musicians here. That way my quartet kind of formed. So I got to know the pianist first and we wrote some songs together and then I had my own quartet. was kind of a cooperation with hona too like i think they put out like a collector's edition together with harmonica taps and a golden melody you know

SPEAKER_00: 23:40

nice well it's a fantastic first album so well done were some or all of these songs your own compositions did you say on this album

SPEAKER_02: 23:47

i mean some of them yeah some of them were written by myself some of them by my pianist some of them by both of us and we got some covers on there too i think

SPEAKER_00: 23:57

Here's a word from my sponsor. Looking for a new harmonica? Or maybe you just want to replace the replates on an existing harp? Theharmonicacompany.com is a place to go for all your harmonica needs. They stock a wide range of harmonicas and accessories from all of the major manufacturers and always ensure that they ship quickly, offer excellent customer service and are super competitive on price. Go to theharmonicacompany.com and enter the code HAPPYHOUR7 at the checkout to get an additional 7% off the already low prices. have a question or need advice just drop Jonathan a line on sales at theharmonicacompany.com and he'll be happy to help the discount code and email address are also listed on the podcast page And then we'll move on to your, I think, your next album. I got the order wrong, but so the Old Friend album, which is with a pianist. So you've done a few recordings with pianists, which is a great combination with harmonica, of course. So, well, more kind of standard harmonica songs in there. Blue Zets on there, of course, is a Toots Thielman song, again, played on a diatonic harmonica.

UNKNOWN: 25:04

MUSIC PLAYS

SPEAKER_00: 25:12

You do, you know, you do Over the Rainbow, you do Imagine, so sort of more kind of popular, you know, sort of popular music. So yeah, what were you thinking for this one?

SPEAKER_02: 25:20

Yeah, that was definitely our Toots album. In between, I actually also recorded a second album with the quartet called Alighieri. I'm still a huge fan of that one because that's like all my own compositions and yeah, a lot of different influences coming together there. I'm starting to experiment with guitar pedals

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

and stuff. Well, I was going to that there's there's quite a lot of effects that on the harmonica on this one isn't this what pedals were you using

SPEAKER_02: 26:01

not too much actually it was just like a digi tag whammy kind of thing experimenting with some delays

SPEAKER_00: 26:08

too is is that something you're still doing using a lot of pedal well some pedal works

SPEAKER_02: 26:13

actually not like nowadays I'm mostly just playing into a microphone in a stand and I like the natural sound I like to especially playing the classical stuff or like more advanced pieces I feel like I got more freedom moving around the instrument if I don't have to hold the microphone right behind the instrument you know but yeah at that point I did that stuff a lot I even played it in a techno live band in Cologne where it was just bass drums trumpet and harmonica so i had to do a huge part for the chord stuff i was in charge of the harmonies basically so i had to use a harmonizer and the whammy you know to do some of that stuff but nowadays they are just sitting around here i'm not using them at all it would be cool to pick them up again

SPEAKER_00: 27:03

Yeah, so that song, El Giedi, it's Life and Death of a Star is the kind of subtitle, yeah, and is this one of your compositions?

SPEAKER_02: 27:11

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 27:12

Yeah, so that's an ambitious title for a harmonica instrumental, but I think you pull it off.

UNKNOWN: 27:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:31

That's true but yeah I'm super happy about that album and I feel like I would put it out again like today if it would sound the same. So like I really like my vision came to life with that album at that point.

SPEAKER_00: 27:47

What year was this when you released this

SPEAKER_02: 27:49

one? 2015.

SPEAKER_00: 27:50

Right so yeah so again you're so 20 years old then. Yeah. So, and then you touched on, you've done lots of classical playing and it's something you've done a little bit later. You play with a piano player called Benjamin Nuss. Is that a German piano player?

SPEAKER_02: 28:05

Exactly. So he also started in Cologne at the music school. We never actually got to know each other in person. I just knew about him. At that point, I was looking for a pianist who can do both, very proficient in classical, because that was my initial idea. I wanted to play more classical music, definitely inspired by Howard. So I started out practicing all these Bach flute sonatas and stuff like that. So I just sent him an email and asked him if he wanted to start a project and record a CD. We still play together, and we got a lot of stuff coming up.

SPEAKER_00: 28:42

Yeah, so you released this album called Debut with Benjamin and as you say, you've got mostly classical music on there.

UNKNOWN: 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:03

but also a bit of jazz. There's 500 Miles High, which is a Chick Corea song, so yeah, you've got some jazz on there. So how do you approach playing classical on a diatonic? I mean, you've

SPEAKER_02: 29:13

really got to take a look at the repertoire, yeah. The flute stuff really works well. Of course, influenced by Howard, I kind of knew which pieces could work. Yeah, we still are working on the harmonica repertoire in the classical world, kind of. So at some point we even got the chance to... have composers write for our duo there was a foundation financing like seven or eight compositions there's even a website you can download the sheet music it's like seven pieces for diatonic harmonica and piano some of them are super cool some of them we still like to play and some of them are kind of more experimental, you know? So I met up with some of these guys and told them a little about the harmonica and they started to write something.

SPEAKER_00: 30:03

I mean, typically, classical music on the harmonica is played on the chromatic. And again, that more pure sound without the bends is something that most classical players would aim for, right? So again, what do you think about playing classical music on the diatonic as opposed to the chromatic in that difference in sound?

SPEAKER_02: 30:19

Yeah, I mean, it can be very soulful. And I try to shoot for that. And I feel like my taste plays a bigger and bigger role Nowadays, there's a lot of stuff that I practice, but I don't put it out. If I feel like something actually doesn't sound good, I wouldn't pursue playing it on the diatonic.

SPEAKER_00: 30:37

I mean, a golden rule of classical music, as I understand it, I play a little bit myself, I'm no expert, but absolutely no bending allowed, right? So is bending something that you avoid on the diatonic and just play the notes, you know, kind of clean in an overblows, an overdraws, or are you putting bending in for expression or...?

SPEAKER_02: 30:57

I like to put in

SPEAKER_00: 30:58

bending,

SPEAKER_02: 30:58

as long as it feels right, if it fits my taste, definitely. Well, classical music probably has branched out more, hasn't it, to allow some more bending? It definitely has. I mean, in our concerts, we still like to improvise a lot, and... play a lot of world music and stuff I mean it's on the album too and still we won that German Grammy for classical music called Opus Classic with that first album which was a huge surprise and we even played on TV during the awards which is also unusual for the newcomer artist. So that was super cool. And on TV, we played some Billa Bartok, which is classical, but very bluesy, kind of. And then Brazilian Choreo piece, which isn't really classical, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 31:45

Oh, the Brazilian Choreo. I had Victor Lopes on a few episodes, and that is amazing, that music. So yeah, great that you're playing that. So as you say, you won this German Grammy for classical music. So you obviously made a splash in the classical music scene in Germany there, right? Which has got all the great composers like Bach, as you mentioned. So how were you received in the classical world playing a diatonic harmonica? Was that always well received by the audiences and the critics and all?

SPEAKER_02: 32:23

Interesting question.

SPEAKER_00: 32:24

So

SPEAKER_02: 32:26

definitely before the award... had some weird experiences of course like also booking concerts and stuff like some of the responses weren't very positive you know I remember one of them in particular and that the booker was like yeah like the harmonica is my most hated instrument ever so we won't have it at our venue you know but that kind of changed like with the award playing more of these classical concerts and working on the classical repertoire for the instrument and now there was last year when we recorded it two works for harmonica piano plus orchestra like newly written concertos basically that we're gonna put out this year

SPEAKER_00: 33:11

And then there's also, so you started out doing jazz and a lot of people sort of probably do this, you know, they play jazz, they want to play some classical and vice versa. So how have you found playing the two kind of poorly different genres of music there?

SPEAKER_02: 33:24

Yeah, I feel like there are more and more people doing this and it's good that things just melt because that's the way it's supposed to be and I feel like it's the way it always was. So there's quite a scene of players doing both classical and jazz now.

SPEAKER_00: 33:41

Obviously, in classical, it's all very strict. You've got to be perfectly strict with your time. Whereas in jazz, obviously, you've got more freedom from that score. So how was your leap across to classical? Did you have to really practice your reading? And the other question, are you reading the scores when you're playing them?

SPEAKER_02: 33:58

Well, I mean, I can read music very well on the C harmonica. and maybe a little on other ones like B flat and stuff like that G but still I do a lot of stuff by ear classical music definitely got me practicing a lot more again back then just learning these pieces knowing them by heart practicing with Benjamin who's like super proficient with classical music he didn't study jazz at music school but classical so he could definitely give me pointers here and there for expression and timing and all that stuff so That definitely played a huge role.

SPEAKER_00: 34:35

So, I mean, you've also got some great videos with Benjamin as well. I'll put a couple of links upon that on the podcast page. Yeah, so it's great to see you playing with him. Was that something you used and you released out for some promotion?

SPEAKER_02: 34:47

Yeah, some of these recordings are just for the sake of the YouTube video out there, right? Yeah. We'll go to that studio again. About to record a little Christmas album there. That studio sounds amazing. They got... Great room, great piano and the best microphone for the harmonica. You just record, they put like a little additional reverb on there and it sounds super warm and beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: 35:10

Another recording you've done is Cinema Paradiso.

SPEAKER_02: 35:28

Yeah, that's kind of sparked after playing a few more concerts with orchestras, you know. That whole thing started out doing some of these gigs playing the man with the harmonica. So like film music kind of events. Yeah, quite a few times I had the opportunity to play the Howard Levy harmonica concerto, which is a crazy experience. working with the classical orchestra is also different like the timing and you gotta be in touch with uh yeah with the orchestra and that's a new feeling compared to playing with a rhythm section in a jazz context you know

SPEAKER_00: 36:05

well you got this new album coming out with benjamin right so it sounds like classical is still something you're definitely going to to uh pursue

SPEAKER_02: 36:12

yeah because like most of the concerts we play as a duo are are played at classical venues or in a classical setting. We still incorporate the other stuff we like, but that's like the world the project kind of lives in.

SPEAKER_00: 36:27

Yeah, they always get good audiences in the classical concerts, don't you? So that's always rewarding.

SPEAKER_02: 36:33

Yeah, I mean, obviously classical music is also way more supported than jazz. Yeah, we can still improvise, continue doing that. And at the same time for the harmonica, it's important to maybe have a bigger repertoire in that world.

SPEAKER_00: 36:49

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, keep that good work up there. So I hope to see you over in the proms in the UK at some point in the future. That would be nice. That

SPEAKER_02: 36:56

would be perfect, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 37:06

It's...

SPEAKER_02: 37:33

all me, basically. So, the whole production thing, I don't know, it basically also started during the release of my Agiedi album, when I started to experiment with the guitar pedals and stuff. I really got into the music of Flying Lotus, who's like a music producer, LA beat scene, hip-hop influenced. His aunt is Alice Coltrane. He worked with Quite a lot of jazz musicians too. That's how I got to know about his music. So I really started to dive into that stuff, working in Ableton and sampling stuff and just starting out to work on alternative hip-hop beats. that's how it all started and then at some point of course wanted to incorporate the harmonica and then I also had like a little hip-hop German rap project with a rapper from Cologne but only two years ago things started to get more seriously I feel like at that point I was listening to a lot of Dutch pop music so Dutch pop music has a big Afro influence and there was this guy his name is Seamart he's the one I also put out best and And he was signed to a Dutch label. At that point, I just played a little solo over their release, shared it in my Instagram story and tagged him. And he was like, let's work together. And usually, I mean, you know how it is most of the time. If somebody says, let's do something, nothing happens. But in this case, it got pretty serious. We had video calls every day and pulled off some bigger productions lately. He's super talented. He's producing too. So I really dove deep into this Nigerian Afrobeat music world.

SPEAKER_00: 39:29

So again, you know, you're bringing harmonica into a pop setting, which is fantastic to hear for us, you know, harmonica listeners. And it is, you know, great, as well as the jazz and the classical. You're really pushing out these pops.

UNKNOWN: 39:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 40:01

Is this kind of electronic music? Are you creating the electronic music behind or is there other instrumentalists on there?

SPEAKER_02: 40:09

I mean, usually it's all by myself. So sometimes I even record a little guitar. And I love to mix records for other people. I love to mix vocals. It's cool.

SPEAKER_00: 40:23

Yeah, no, amazing. Yeah, great. And great for your music as well, right, Neil, too. So you're composing songs as well, right? You're putting the whole songs together doing that. Yeah, so amazing. Basically, I mean, it's

SPEAKER_02: 40:33

different to composing for a jazz quartet, you know. But still, I mean,

SPEAKER_00: 40:41

it's still your own creation. Yeah, no, fantastic. Check those out. Really interesting what you're doing. And again, a widely different genre from the other ones we talked about. So let's talk about your online presence. So you have your own YouTube channel, which is very active and you've got lots of great stuff on there. And you, really interesting, watched one of your videos the other day about where you're basically just playing over different country songs. You pick out the sort of top five country songs and you say, OK, well, you just kind of literally have never heard it before and play over it. And it's just amazing to see that, you know, you're picking it out. And, you know, you're obviously playing the diatonic chromatically over it. And so, yeah, lots of stuff like that. And you've got challenges, which I think are sort of sponsored by Honia, where people can win prizes and everything. So what people sort of enter is kind of like a competition and they sort of win prizes from the best recordings, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 41:33

Exactly. That was kind of inspired by the music production scene because, like, there's this guy, Kenny Beats, who did these beat challenges. So he provided kind of a weird sample. every week or every month, and people had like two hours to produce something with it. So I thought, yeah, let's do something similar with the harmonica, that would be cool.

SPEAKER_00: 41:55

Yeah, and as you mentioned earlier, you put YouTube videos out quite early on, so that's something. How often are you putting out videos these days?

SPEAKER_02: 42:03

Oh, I don't have a regular schedule there, I don't know. I announce these Twitch challenges and sometimes... it includes some playing sometimes not too much playing sometimes I got some topics I want to talk about and at the same time I put out a lot of videos on my Patreon too

SPEAKER_00: 42:22

and so something else you do is you well you do live harmonica videos very similar to these for Honey Live X as it's called so you've got over a hundred videos out yourself so these are all videos on YouTube so a different format than podcasts which is audio only so yeah so you've interviewed many harmonicas I mean, it's

SPEAKER_02: 42:44

fantastic to stay in touch with the harmonica world. I mean, especially during the whole pandemic, you know, that's how it kind of started too, because I think the first stream was still me just like teaching harmonica. And then I just wanted to meet up with some of the players that maybe hit Hamburg on the road, you know. And then I wanted to do this live stream with Mark Breitfelder. covid started to hit and we were like oh yeah let's maybe do this separately at home you know so that's how the whole thing basically started yeah i love to do that stuff i love teaching harmonica And I will have my first instruction book coming out this spring. It will be published by Helen Ott.

SPEAKER_00: 43:29

What's the

SPEAKER_02: 43:29

focus on the instruction book? It's definitely a beginner book, but it starts to catch on quickly and in the end there are quite a few songs in there. It's like a song book too. It includes some videos too, like actual video tutorials basically. also some great recordings. I had a super nice guitarist playing and recording 20 songs with me. So I'm excited to finally hold it in my hands in spring and then I can bring it everywhere, you know? Have it in my pocket, give it to other harmonica players, travel with it to these harmonica festivals in Asia and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

Great stuff. And is the focus on sort of melodic overblow type playing or you're saying it's more beginner level?

SPEAKER_02: 44:15

I mean, it's not a blues book. But that's also possibly not what you would expect from me. There's blues in there, of course, but a lot of melodic stuff, different positions in the end, too. Bending exercises, playing along to drones, and weird arpeggios, and maybe just stuff that is easier than one would think, and sounds amazing on Marmorica, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 44:42

So all the exercises were written by yourself, were they?

SPEAKER_02: 44:44

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00: 44:46

Yeah, good work. Well done. Sounds like you've been busy. Great. So you mentioned you've been on TV a lot in Germany. So yeah, that's quite regular appearances and radio appearances and TV appearances over there.

SPEAKER_02: 45:00

I mean, kind of. We definitely had some stuff going on during this whole orchestra project. Quite some promotion went into that and they were saying hello at some of the concerts. But I feel like the harmonica can still... be way more present in TV and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 45:19

So a question I ask each time, Konstantin, if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes doing? I feel like I would

SPEAKER_02: 45:25

definitely focus on rhythm, because that's the most important thing. Yeah, it would be very rhythmically based and very few notes, I don't know. I would just start out playing stuff with three notes and... just squeeze out all the possibilities I can get. Are you talking about chordal rhythms? I'm talking about three notes, like actually melodic stuff,

SPEAKER_00: 45:49

yeah. And so now you've got your classical hat on as well, do you think about the rhythms as kind of written rhythms, or do you think of them more in a slightly looser jazz way?

SPEAKER_02: 45:59

Oh yeah, definitely slightly looser jazz way.

SPEAKER_00: 46:20

So let's now get on to the final section now and talk about your gear. So obviously you did your Hohner Live thing. You've been an ambassador for Hohner, I think, from the age of 13. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02: 46:33

Let me think. So basically the whole thing started when I played at the music fair in 2010.

SPEAKER_00: 46:39

So you were 15. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a young age to become an ambassador for Hohner. So how did that come about?

SPEAKER_02: 46:46

Yeah, it was really that jam session moment where they heard me play for the very first time and I got the invitation to the harmonica masters. And I think even one year later I gave my first workshop at the harmonica masters.

SPEAKER_00: 47:00

Wow, you must have got really good in those first few years. What were you doing in those first few years?

SPEAKER_02: 47:05

Yeah, I mean, definitely it was just practicing. I went to school, usually did my homework right after, and the rest of the day it was just practicing. Nothing else.

SPEAKER_00: 47:16

There's a great video of you with Hauno, and again I'll put a link on, where you're interviewed, I think you're age 14, and you're interviewed by Hauno, do you remember that?

SPEAKER_02: 47:25

Yeah, I mean, that was possibly the video, part of the videos they did with the Endorses, and that's where I got to know the label owner I recorded the first two albums with.

SPEAKER_00: 47:37

Yeah, so it's very cute. Do you ever watch that again, seeing the 15-year-old you?

SPEAKER_02: 47:43

I'm not sure, I don't want to watch that again, no.

SPEAKER_00: 47:46

It's good, it's good. You can see that confidence you've got there. It's like, if you say something like, yeah, they had to take me seriously when they heard me, I could really see that fire in your belly.

SPEAKER_01: 47:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 47:59

Yeah, no, it's great. Yeah, definitely well worth watching that. So as to the harmonicas you play, clearly you're playing Honours. So I think initially you were Golden Melody, and I think a lot of people who were playing the Overblows chose Golden Melodies back then, didn't they? But is that the reason you initially went for them? I think so.

SPEAKER_02: 48:16

Also because Carlos played them. And still, to this day, if I would have to get an out-of-box harmonica, I would get a golden melody. But I started to play custom harmonicas in 2011 or 12.

SPEAKER_00: 48:30

Was the golden melody choice because of the temperate tuning? Is that one of the main reasons for the overblows?

SPEAKER_02: 48:35

Nowadays, I would say yeah, but at that point, I wasn't too conscious about that.

SPEAKER_00: 48:39

Yeah, okay. And so, as you say, you now use customized harmonicas from Thomas Hanke. Is that his name?

SPEAKER_02: 48:46

Exactly, yeah. So he's one of the Hohner-affiliated customizers. Started to, basically like Howard, play these regular marine bands with the Special 20 cover plates. And he builds them for me. I got my first one in 2012, I think. It's great to work with a customizer for a longer period of time. So he really gets to know your playing and how you like things to be set up. So that's great. That's the only instrument I play, basically. Funny thing is, last year was the first time I met him in person when he visited one of our orchestral concerts.

SPEAKER_00: 49:23

So you mentioned that obviously you got special 20 cover plates on a marine band, so why these special 20 cover plates?

SPEAKER_02: 49:29

Oh yeah, so I feel like I want the sound coming out of the back of the instrument entirely. I feel like the whole thing with the open cover plates on the sides just sounds good subjectively, because the openings are closer to your ear. and I want the sound coming out of the instrument into the microphone for the audience to be warm and sound nice and at the same time but that didn't play a huge role making my decision at that point I got small hands and it's easier to cup get all these hand effects out of the instruments and the wah-wah and the hand tremolo but now I would also say having these special 20 cover plates on the instrument enables me to have more space to put my lips on the cover plates and take the harmonica further into my mouth. So I don't have to cover the openings on the side, which would just limit the space for my lips to put on the instrument.

SPEAKER_00: 50:27

I've got an impression that Special 20s are slightly bigger than marine bands, but I guess they're the same size, are they? These cover plates just fit naturally, do they? I'm not sure he makes them fit.

SPEAKER_02: 50:37

I think they kind of overlay in the back.

SPEAKER_00: 50:40

Do you mainly play a C harmonica and play it in all keys, or do you play multiple keys and then, according to the scenario, and obviously you've got a range of notes that you'd need to play some of the keys, so how do you approach that?

SPEAKER_02: 50:52

Oh, I definitely want to sound as good as possible, so that's why I carry all the keys and play all the keys, and I like the lower-tuned harmonicas. In most musical contexts, I play in more, so C to G instruments, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 51:06

yeah

SPEAKER_02: 51:07

yeah but sometimes i mean in jazz i like to pick a different position and sometimes i have a song i like to play in third and the other night I played in full. So whatever works and whatever sounds good.

SPEAKER_00: 51:19

So obviously most harmonica diatonic players would choose the key appropriate to be, you know, first, second position, third position, etc. So when you're playing with an overblow approach, are you mainly playing in first position? Would you call it, do you think of it in that way? Obviously you're playing different modes and things. How are you approaching that?

SPEAKER_02: 51:38

That's very different all the time and really depends on the composition. I feel like the melody is the most important aspect of the whole thing. That's where I really make the decision because like improvising, you can basically improvise in every key. Sometimes it's super beautiful to play a jazz ballad in D flat on the C harmonica, you know. But it really depends on the melody. So, yeah, it's just a matter of taste.

SPEAKER_00: 52:04

Great. So, I mean, so position-wise, obviously you can play 12 positions on your diatonic. How many positions would you say you kind of mostly use?

SPEAKER_02: 52:13

I mean, I use all of them. Possibly I don't play a whole lot of first position. It's just because, like, all of the notes are there and there's, like, less expression. You can get out of the instrument. I mean... 10th, 11th, 12th were great, and 1st to 6th definitely, and the others are a little more unusual, I don't know. However, they always occur from time to time, definitely. There's definitely some stuff I play in 7th position on the classical record too, so...

SPEAKER_00: 52:46

And so embouchure-wise, are you mainly puckering? You mentioned that you did tongue block for a while. You're a puckerer now, are you? Yeah, I

SPEAKER_02: 52:52

mean, I started out with the pucker, and then I had this little period of time where I was tongue blocking exclusively. But now I'm back to puckering, definitely. It's nice to have the flexibility, and I can switch between them all the time, and I can do the overblows, tongue blocked and overdraws, whatever. Especially for the classical stuff. Yeah, more complex jazz stuff. I got more control with the pucker.

SPEAKER_00: 53:21

I'm not a master, but I use a few overblows myself. I play chromatic. But I imagine puckering is kind of needed to do overblows more. I mean, is tongue blocking something you can use extensively with overblows? I think so, definitely.

SPEAKER_02: 53:34

Yeah. At some point I played some solos on giant steps, like transcriptions of it, using tongue blocking.

SPEAKER_00: 53:44

Great stuff. And so just going on to amplification, you mentioned now you're mainly using a sort of vocal, well, a mic on a stand with, you know, with kind of PA. Are you using any amps and what mic are you using usually for that?

SPEAKER_02: 53:59

Yeah, usually I don't play any gigs that require an amp. It's really just like me basically being the vocalist and playing through the PA and there's the microphone I like the most, the Sennheiser 441.

SPEAKER_00: 54:13

Mm-hmm. That's the one that Howard uses, isn't it? Yeah. And do you use any effects at all on the PA, even just a touch of reverb, anything like that?

SPEAKER_02: 54:21

Yeah, a touch of reverb, but that's it. And then, like, all my effects that I actually do myself, you can actually tell that it's me only, so that's cool. And I got, like, more control... over the tone especially thinking classical music if I would have to play that holding the microphone wouldn't sound as good there's a lot of I would call it compression going on using my hands like trying to make the difference between banded and overblown notes compared to the natural notes as little as possible so my hands play a huge role in that just dampening the overtones to make them sound less different here

SPEAKER_00: 55:13

So, like you say, the cupping is a really critical part of the sound. I mean, you can get such amazing tones out of that, yeah. Definitely. But if you're playing in a louder setting, do you then feel you do have to hold the mic to be heard, or are you happy still to stand off the mic?

SPEAKER_02: 55:30

Yeah, in a louder setting, it definitely makes sense. And, I mean, I also love that, you know? Just holding it in my hands and being free, moving around... Because I'm usually the guy that moves around a lot playing. If you check out some of the live performances at the Seoul Harmonica Festival, I'm moving around like crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 55:54

dancing and so okay then so final question just about your future plans obviously we've talked about you having a new album coming out with Benjamin Nuss you're still a young guy very excited to hear what you're going to come out with I imagine you're going to come out with lots of incredible things over what will be a long career so yeah what have you got planned

SPEAKER_02: 56:14

I mean big thing is releasing these orchestral works so we're just finishing the mixing part of it right now it's to be released this year We're also recording a little Christmas CD for the very first time. We really got into Christmas in December. We played our first solely Christmas gigs and it was super well received.

SPEAKER_00: 56:37

I love Christmas songs on the harmonica. Every December I start playing Christmas songs early on so I can play them over Christmas. So I think they're great. So I'm all for some Christmas harmonica. And I'm sure you'll make it sound amazing. So I look forward to that.

SPEAKER_02: 56:49

Yeah, so we're going to put that out. i know it would be cool to play with a band again but i'm not sure because it's just like a completely different approach like recording and then also bring it on stage and touring obviously it's easier to travel with in a dual setting you know and play gigs that way and then i love producing and i think like two weeks ago i made a crazy harmonica song again with a fantastic harmonica hook actually playing to the chromatic harmonica and I'm right now just in touch with like different artists and figuring out who's gonna record some vocals on there so this is like basically the next single after the best I know track but chromatic harmonica

SPEAKER_00: 57:37

yeah chromatic yeah and you're so you're touring through 2024 you've got some dates on your website so quite a few in Germany but there's a few outside Germany as well I saw one in Amsterdam for example so is that in the duo

SPEAKER_02: 57:51

that's an orchestral kind of gig and we're going to play at Konzerthobau which is amazing very great concert hall

SPEAKER_00: 57:57

I've been there once yeah

SPEAKER_02: 57:59

so I'm really looking forward to that and this summer I'm very sure that we get to play in Asia again Benjamin has a really good connection to Japan and he's playing there quite frequently he has he's in touch with all these game music composers and he's playing their music and he speaks Japanese fluently so I'm sure we're going to go there and then maybe the harmonica festivals in South Korea and maybe the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival so yeah that's uh the stuff coming up

SPEAKER_00: 58:29

so thanks so much for joining me today Constantine Reinfeld it's been a pleasure to speak to you thank you that was a whole lot of fun Once again, thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast. Be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas. Thanks again for Constantine for joining me today. What a tremendous player he is already at the age of 28 and such diversity playing jazz to classical and also placing the harmonica slap bang in a modern setting. I look forward to following his harmonica career for years to come. Also thanks to Jonathan Prestidge at the Harmonica Company for providing some sponsorship for the podcast. I've been talking with Jonathan and he's a really nice guy, so do check out their website. The link is on the podcast page. Now let's hear Constantine play us out with more great contemporary use of the harmonica on a cover of the Don Toliver song, No Idea.

UNKNOWN: 59:31

No Idea