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Okay, back in the late nineties,
I had just become aware of harmonica "newsgroups" as they were called back then;"bulletin boards" were pretty much out, and "blogs" and forums were still unheard of. Newsgroups were exciting, and I quickly found a dozen or so and signed up for all of them with the best of expectations. However, I soon became aware of a disturbing fact; while they claimed to "embrace" all harmonicas, they were all but devoid of any Chromatic content. Much to my dismay, I even read posts that actually dissed members who wanted to discuss Chromatics.
I know there are those who will disagree, but there are just as many who know exactly what I'm talking about. Most of my life, the only thing I disliked more than reading, was having to read stuff I disliked! After combing through what seemed like thousands of "five hole overblow," "Little Walter worship" and "JT-30" threads in search of a Chromatic morsel, I became very discouraged. I asked the few Chromatic playing friends I had if they knew of a site that had any substantial amount of Chromatic content and was told there were none. All I knew about computers back then was how to use a DOS version of WordStar to write letters to churches (for my ministry) Even Windows was pretty much foreign to me.
Okay, I suppose I am a dinosaur; I happen to like the Chromatic better than the other kind; but that's my right, right? Well, with that in mind, I decided that ~I~ (little me) would start my own small Chromatic group. The big difference would be that I would be very "up front" about the format. Rather than lie, and say "we talk about ALL harmonicas" and then bury Chromatic content under tons of diatonic stuff, I said that my group would only discuss Chromatics. I honestly thought that the "harp groups" would welcome the idea of getting rid of the Chromatic "riff-raff" so they could talk about bending notes while playing the Blues in beer joints, and stuff. I figured I would get between twenty and fifty silly Chromatic players, who'd discuss Chromatic stuff for a couple months and then I'd close the group when we ran out of stuff to talk about. Really!
Initially, I got some help from the late great Paul "Doc" Van derSijde, and G (AKA Greg Dyre) who told some of their Chromatic friends about the new group. We had forty members in just a few days. Soon afterwards, the word got out and Chromatic players around the world started joining this unique new group.
Up until this time, we were just a little bunch of silly Chromatic players. When our numbers reached about three hundred, an amazing thing began to happen; we were out-posting the "harp groups" with our comparatively tiny group. (and FTR, we still usually out post their 8K + members with our handful of supporting / posting members) Aaanyway, soon afterward, we began to notice an insurgence of so called "Chromatic" players from those "harp groups" (who "also happened to play diatonics") who were obviously more "liberal minded and enlightened," and not the "mean-spirited, close-minded, bigoted hater" that I've since learned that I am. Who knew?? ;o)
These "new guys" soon began posting complaints about the "draconian rules" against diatonic discussion on SlideMeister. These "Chromatic players" who never seemed to notice the lack of Chromatic content on the "harp groups" were now keenly interested in the lack of diatonic content on SlideMeister, and were demanding "equal time." Hmmmm! Go figure! The fact that we purposely started an exclusively Chromatic group somehow meant nothing to these guys, who showed up, lied to get in; by agreeing to the rules against challenging SlideMeister's policy, then began to complain and do just that on SlideMeister.
Instead of continuing to ride the back of the bus, we simply got our own bus!
In no uncertain terms, I was expected to compromise with the complainers. In other words: "do it their way." I didn't. When I didn't, I was called a Nazi, "The Feur" "The Ayatollah," a bully, close minded an authoritarian, a hater and a bunch of other things on my own list yet! What's up with that?? So I kicked a couple of them out, other well-known diatonic players ~threatened~ to leave as well (guess that was supposed to scare me 🥱) so I encouraged them to do so, and still others just stomped off in a huff. Buh-Bye!! For the first few years, every six months or so, it would start up again, and I'd kick a few more out. The bottom line here, and what they failed to understand is: I - D-O-N-'T GIVE - A - RATS - BUTT!! I don't really have to be here running this group. Heck, if everyone left, I'd just close it down and that would be that.
SlideMeister is a CHROMATIC group, period! (as in: preoccupied with that button on the end) I have no problem with folks who want to make their diatonic sound like a Chromatic, or their Chromatic sound like a diatonic; I'm just an average, old school Chromatic player, satisfied with the clean sound of a Chromatic, that snaps, "dead-nuts," from one note to another, without sounding like an out of tune "Dobro" or a stinkin' "slide whistle." I don't even allow the Seydel "slideless" chromatic discussion on anything but the little diatonic sandbox I made for folks like myself, with an occasional suck-harp question. (Again; it's all about that button!) Guess I'm just funny that way. Hey, when I'm in the mood, I have fun playing my "diabolics" too. (yes, contrary to popular belief, I have a whole box of those little ten holed critters, which I affectionately nicknamed "suck harps" back in 1999) Turns out I'm still especially found of my Golden Melodies, followed by the Suzuki pro, FireBreath and Manji and the lowly Special 20 - which is the real butt-kicker for the money) I actually play Country and Blues diatonic as well (or as badly - its hard to tell) as the average local, working Blues or Country band musicians, but my priorities (and SlideMeister's priorities) are always going to be the "Slide" "Chromatic" and of course their orchestral counterparts - bass, chord and Harmonetta. The preacher in me has always said: "Compromise Complicates," and since life is complicated enough as it is; I just don't do "compromise." Black/ white, up/down, on/off, and yes/no are the only components of policies that ever actually worked in ANYTHING, period! Look around kids; change "Black and white" to shades of grey, and EVERYTHING falls apart, EVERY TIME. If you doubt that, take a look at what's left to society today. Harrumph!
With my beloved Chromatic arguably on the fast track to "Harpsichord City," I decided to do anything I could to help prevent that from happening , or at the least, help slow its' descent to oblivion for as long as possible, and an "All Chromatic" discussion group (here-to-fore, totally unheard of) seemed more to me like an attempt at "equal time" than anything else. (come to think of it; still does 🙂 Hey, at least I'm honest about my bias.😎
In 1999, I started at SlideMeister@Egroups, which was soon bought by YahooGroups, which got so big (like what ever the government takes over) it took a week to get a question through to them, which, if not completely ignored was answered with a form letter that said to "read the FAQS" So, in November of 2007, I opened my own forum at my own domain: slidemeister.com. Since then, I have a couple "Minor-Meisters" on the shelf as well, which I may "light up" one of these days, (or not) when I figure out if, or what I really want to do with them. 🥱
If we were out for numbers, (as in "a whole buncha members" to brag about) we'd have well over eight thousand members by now, but we don't because I actually like to clear out the "dead wood" every few months. Nothin' personal, but if you don't even sign in; there's no sense in your being a member. You can do just as well as a "Guest," so you're outtahere! FTR, there's nothing wrong with being a guest. As it is, we average about 5:1 to a 15:1 "guest to member" ratio at any given time, and up to about a half million page views per month. Remember: It's free to browse some 237,000 posts in over 77,000 subjects.
Sure, we have our "ups and downs" but even with our relatively small "posting" membership of fifty of so (that's actually a guess😉) we still manage to out-post the other groups, and our "post per member" ratio is fifty times that of any other group on the planet.
See what happened to the guy who hates to read? 🙄
Will that ever change? Who knows; but SlideMeister won't. 😎
I know there are those who will disagree, but there are just as many who know exactly what I'm talking about. Most of my life, the only thing I disliked more than reading, was having to read stuff I disliked! After combing through what seemed like thousands of "five hole overblow," "Little Walter worship" and "JT-30" threads in search of a Chromatic morsel, I became very discouraged. I asked the few Chromatic playing friends I had if they knew of a site that had any substantial amount of Chromatic content and was told there were none. All I knew about computers back then was how to use a DOS version of WordStar to write letters to churches (for my ministry) Even Windows was pretty much foreign to me.
Okay, I suppose I am a dinosaur; I happen to like the Chromatic better than the other kind; but that's my right, right? Well, with that in mind, I decided that ~I~ (little me) would start my own small Chromatic group. The big difference would be that I would be very "up front" about the format. Rather than lie, and say "we talk about ALL harmonicas" and then bury Chromatic content under tons of diatonic stuff, I said that my group would only discuss Chromatics. I honestly thought that the "harp groups" would welcome the idea of getting rid of the Chromatic "riff-raff" so they could talk about bending notes while playing the Blues in beer joints, and stuff. I figured I would get between twenty and fifty silly Chromatic players, who'd discuss Chromatic stuff for a couple months and then I'd close the group when we ran out of stuff to talk about. Really!
Initially, I got some help from the late great Paul "Doc" Van derSijde, and G (AKA Greg Dyre) who told some of their Chromatic friends about the new group. We had forty members in just a few days. Soon afterwards, the word got out and Chromatic players around the world started joining this unique new group.
Up until this time, we were just a little bunch of silly Chromatic players. When our numbers reached about three hundred, an amazing thing began to happen; we were out-posting the "harp groups" with our comparatively tiny group. (and FTR, we still usually out post their 8K + members with our handful of supporting / posting members) Aaanyway, soon afterward, we began to notice an insurgence of so called "Chromatic" players from those "harp groups" (who "also happened to play diatonics") who were obviously more "liberal minded and enlightened," and not the "mean-spirited, close-minded, bigoted hater" that I've since learned that I am. Who knew?? ;o)
These "new guys" soon began posting complaints about the "draconian rules" against diatonic discussion on SlideMeister. These "Chromatic players" who never seemed to notice the lack of Chromatic content on the "harp groups" were now keenly interested in the lack of diatonic content on SlideMeister, and were demanding "equal time." Hmmmm! Go figure! The fact that we purposely started an exclusively Chromatic group somehow meant nothing to these guys, who showed up, lied to get in; by agreeing to the rules against challenging SlideMeister's policy, then began to complain and do just that on SlideMeister.
Instead of continuing to ride the back of the bus, we simply got our own bus!
In no uncertain terms, I was expected to compromise with the complainers. In other words: "do it their way." I didn't. When I didn't, I was called a Nazi, "The Feur" "The Ayatollah," a bully, close minded an authoritarian, a hater and a bunch of other things on my own list yet! What's up with that?? So I kicked a couple of them out, other well-known diatonic players ~threatened~ to leave as well (guess that was supposed to scare me 🥱) so I encouraged them to do so, and still others just stomped off in a huff. Buh-Bye!! For the first few years, every six months or so, it would start up again, and I'd kick a few more out. The bottom line here, and what they failed to understand is: I - D-O-N-'T GIVE - A - RATS - BUTT!! I don't really have to be here running this group. Heck, if everyone left, I'd just close it down and that would be that.
SlideMeister is a CHROMATIC group, period! (as in: preoccupied with that button on the end) I have no problem with folks who want to make their diatonic sound like a Chromatic, or their Chromatic sound like a diatonic; I'm just an average, old school Chromatic player, satisfied with the clean sound of a Chromatic, that snaps, "dead-nuts," from one note to another, without sounding like an out of tune "Dobro" or a stinkin' "slide whistle." I don't even allow the Seydel "slideless" chromatic discussion on anything but the little diatonic sandbox I made for folks like myself, with an occasional suck-harp question. (Again; it's all about that button!) Guess I'm just funny that way. Hey, when I'm in the mood, I have fun playing my "diabolics" too. (yes, contrary to popular belief, I have a whole box of those little ten holed critters, which I affectionately nicknamed "suck harps" back in 1999) Turns out I'm still especially found of my Golden Melodies, followed by the Suzuki pro, FireBreath and Manji and the lowly Special 20 - which is the real butt-kicker for the money) I actually play Country and Blues diatonic as well (or as badly - its hard to tell) as the average local, working Blues or Country band musicians, but my priorities (and SlideMeister's priorities) are always going to be the "Slide" "Chromatic" and of course their orchestral counterparts - bass, chord and Harmonetta. The preacher in me has always said: "Compromise Complicates," and since life is complicated enough as it is; I just don't do "compromise." Black/ white, up/down, on/off, and yes/no are the only components of policies that ever actually worked in ANYTHING, period! Look around kids; change "Black and white" to shades of grey, and EVERYTHING falls apart, EVERY TIME. If you doubt that, take a look at what's left to society today. Harrumph!
With my beloved Chromatic arguably on the fast track to "Harpsichord City," I decided to do anything I could to help prevent that from happening , or at the least, help slow its' descent to oblivion for as long as possible, and an "All Chromatic" discussion group (here-to-fore, totally unheard of) seemed more to me like an attempt at "equal time" than anything else. (come to think of it; still does 🙂 Hey, at least I'm honest about my bias.😎
In 1999, I started at SlideMeister@Egroups, which was soon bought by YahooGroups, which got so big (like what ever the government takes over) it took a week to get a question through to them, which, if not completely ignored was answered with a form letter that said to "read the FAQS" So, in November of 2007, I opened my own forum at my own domain: slidemeister.com. Since then, I have a couple "Minor-Meisters" on the shelf as well, which I may "light up" one of these days, (or not) when I figure out if, or what I really want to do with them. 🥱
If we were out for numbers, (as in "a whole buncha members" to brag about) we'd have well over eight thousand members by now, but we don't because I actually like to clear out the "dead wood" every few months. Nothin' personal, but if you don't even sign in; there's no sense in your being a member. You can do just as well as a "Guest," so you're outtahere! FTR, there's nothing wrong with being a guest. As it is, we average about 5:1 to a 15:1 "guest to member" ratio at any given time, and up to about a half million page views per month. Remember: It's free to browse some 237,000 posts in over 77,000 subjects.
Sure, we have our "ups and downs" but even with our relatively small "posting" membership of fifty of so (that's actually a guess😉) we still manage to out-post the other groups, and our "post per member" ratio is fifty times that of any other group on the planet.
See what happened to the guy who hates to read? 🙄
Will that ever change? Who knows; but SlideMeister won't. 😎
More On SlideMeister.com
As I said, the thing I ran into when looking for an all Chromatic harmonica site was (first of all, ridicule ) then : "No such thing out there," then more ridicule, and "There's not enough interest in Chromatics," "It'll never work," and "You're an idiot for even looking for one." Those were some of the nicer things I heard. After over a month of that stuff, I was aggravated enough to say, "we (the Chromatic crowd) should start our own." I shared the idea with some computer/net savvy Chromatic playing friends and got some of the same comments as those above, along with "Who's got time to run something like that?" So I guess that someone turned out to be me, and I started the first (and probably only) all Chromatic group in 1999. After about seven years, finding myself more and more disenchanted with the "behemoth" YAHOO, with the help of my son Gabe, (who still stops in from time to time to fix stuff that I break) I started my own forum, on my own domain, and my own website. As far as I know, we may still be the only all Chromatic group; if not, that's cool too!!
First of all, for those who aren't familiar with the total format of SlideMeister:
SlideMeisterForums now resides here inside the original mother-site: SlideMeister.com, just as the old SlideMeister newsgroup resided inside E-Groups and later Yahoo.com. In fact this domain could host a hundred other forums just as Yahoo does, but we're never going to do that. We are currently hosted by an excellent company, and although we are quite satisfied with the service, SlideMeister and SlideMeisterforums are autonomous and can be moved (archives and all) to anywhere on the world wide web, if I ever find what I consider "a better home." (and I'm always looking ;o)
SlideMeister.com is unashamedly, blatantly and primarily dedicated to the recognition and the promotion of the Chromatic harmonica ( just as the others are secretly biased to the diatonic harmonica) The difference is that we proudly admit our bias. SlideMeisterForums (located on www.forums.slidemeister.com is not the main "SlideMeister" site, but rather a forum where we primarily discuss Chromatic harmonicas. We also have with a number of cool / fun ancillary boards there like BanterMeister, where discuss "Whatever" and even a small (separate) diatonic "sandbox" within a "safe, social distance" of course, from the important stuff, and believe me: "Never the twain shall meet." ;o)
SlideMeister.com and the attached forum are constantly under some kind of construction, (probably always will be) but even now, there's stuff behind the scenes on both, and I encourage you to snoop around both locations.
Don't be surprised to see some advertising one of these days on this site or the forum. (Hey, It could happen) Yes, this is a labor of love (but love don't pay the bills) so if we ever do run ads, please consider supporting/buying anything you see here, to help us keep the lights on.
You will soon come to realize that SlideMeister.com is more than a website and our forum is more than a newsgroup; we are an actual Chromatic Community (almost like a family) dedicated to the simplification of a total pursuit of not only our instrument, but many of the things Chromatic players tend to have in common. Unlike any other group out there, this group is laid out in a way that allows each user total flexibility and personalization. If you don't care about a particular subject, simply turn it off. Skinny it down to just what you want, or get the "whole enchilada" If you'd like to actually participate in the "back and forth," post videos, mp3's ,mp4's and such, go here to sign up as a supporting member. Then just like the old Burger King commercial, you can: "Have it Your Way!"
A.J.Fedor
First of all, for those who aren't familiar with the total format of SlideMeister:
SlideMeisterForums now resides here inside the original mother-site: SlideMeister.com, just as the old SlideMeister newsgroup resided inside E-Groups and later Yahoo.com. In fact this domain could host a hundred other forums just as Yahoo does, but we're never going to do that. We are currently hosted by an excellent company, and although we are quite satisfied with the service, SlideMeister and SlideMeisterforums are autonomous and can be moved (archives and all) to anywhere on the world wide web, if I ever find what I consider "a better home." (and I'm always looking ;o)
SlideMeister.com is unashamedly, blatantly and primarily dedicated to the recognition and the promotion of the Chromatic harmonica ( just as the others are secretly biased to the diatonic harmonica) The difference is that we proudly admit our bias. SlideMeisterForums (located on www.forums.slidemeister.com is not the main "SlideMeister" site, but rather a forum where we primarily discuss Chromatic harmonicas. We also have with a number of cool / fun ancillary boards there like BanterMeister, where discuss "Whatever" and even a small (separate) diatonic "sandbox" within a "safe, social distance" of course, from the important stuff, and believe me: "Never the twain shall meet." ;o)
SlideMeister.com and the attached forum are constantly under some kind of construction, (probably always will be) but even now, there's stuff behind the scenes on both, and I encourage you to snoop around both locations.
Don't be surprised to see some advertising one of these days on this site or the forum. (Hey, It could happen) Yes, this is a labor of love (but love don't pay the bills) so if we ever do run ads, please consider supporting/buying anything you see here, to help us keep the lights on.
You will soon come to realize that SlideMeister.com is more than a website and our forum is more than a newsgroup; we are an actual Chromatic Community (almost like a family) dedicated to the simplification of a total pursuit of not only our instrument, but many of the things Chromatic players tend to have in common. Unlike any other group out there, this group is laid out in a way that allows each user total flexibility and personalization. If you don't care about a particular subject, simply turn it off. Skinny it down to just what you want, or get the "whole enchilada" If you'd like to actually participate in the "back and forth," post videos, mp3's ,mp4's and such, go here to sign up as a supporting member. Then just like the old Burger King commercial, you can: "Have it Your Way!"
A.J.Fedor