Floats Like A Butterfly and Stings Like a Bee
Pierre GT Beauregard IV
It would be impossible to put together all of the thoughts and stories about Pierre in one place, and it would be scrambled at best because a moment in conversation with him, any moment, runs the gamut from other worldly places to special tunings on the harmonica to people, places and things. Someday there’ll be a book about him and you can read that to connect whatever dots I can offer here.
I met Pierre in the fall of 1989. I was looking to build on my harmonica basics and Rosy Rosenblatt had given me his number as a potential teacher. I knew of Pierre prior to that and was intimidated by the thought of being near him, with a harmonica in my hand. Yes, his understanding of music theory along with his playing are that advanced.
In the 30 years that I’ve known Pierre he hasn’t played out much. He prefers not to… he lives a quiet life out on the tip of Cape Cod, trying to find the roads to bring his harmonica inventions to the world.
About those inventions: Pierre and Magic Dick have created dozens of alternate tunings for the ten-hole harmonica. I don’t know all the tunings, nor how they figured out what notes to put where. I do know the process of taking apart the ones off the shelf and removing and replacing the reeds because, as a machinist I was involved by creating machines that would remove the reeds. But the rest of what goes into it is above my capacity and desire to know.
I saw Bluestime last night at a club in northern Virginia. Magic Dick's
harp playing was great as usual, but I was very disappointed by his
vocals. He really shouldn't be fronting that band - he should take voice
lessons or hire a professional singer. His singing almost ruined the
show for me.
There were a lot of harp players in the audience, including Marc Wenner
(who got a kick out me showing him the favorable review of the latest
Nighthawks album in AHN) and Doug Jay. Pierre Beauregard was there and I finally got to meet him. Pierre is a local harp legend, and he and Magic Dick have a patent on their harmonica tunings/designs. (I'm pretty sure their "Magic" harps have been discussed on this list) Pierre is also the
founder of the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra.
Most of my fellow harp players in the DC area know Pierre, and I had
heard a lot about him but never actually met him. His cousin Brett (I
forget his last name) is a fine local harp player and he introduced me to
him. I had told Brett earlier that I had a copy of Pierre's patent. He
told this to Pierre when he introduced me to him. Pierrre said, "Whoa, I
HAVE to talk to you!" We had a long (but not long enough!) talk about
what he and Magic have been doing with harmonicas and some of the tunings
they have created. He is a very interesting, energetic person who loves
to talk about harmonicas. I could try to give some details, but I was
mostly trying to understand what he was talking about without diagrams!
He told me that he and Magic Dick have been studying music theory for
years, and applying it to harmonica structure/tuning. He told me that
theory is just mathematics and understanding the relationships between
notes.
He couldn't tell me who is going to manufacture the Magic harps - I guess
there will be a press announcement or an article in HIP or some other
publication. He seems very enthusiastic about the future of his harps -
he said that they were designing tunings for everything from the ten hole
diatonic to the chord harmonica! I'll try to post some of the details I
can remember about the tunings and ideas they had in a future post. I
asked him if I can interview him and he said that he would be happy to do
an interview in the future. If or when I interview him I'll post it to
the list.
-Steve
It would be impossible to put together all of the thoughts and stories about Pierre in one place, and it would be scrambled at best because a moment in conversation with him, any moment, runs the gamut from other worldly places to special tunings on the harmonica to people, places and things. Someday there’ll be a book about him and you can read that to connect whatever dots I can offer here.
I met Pierre in the fall of 1989. I was looking to build on my harmonica basics and Rosy Rosenblatt had given me his number as a potential teacher. I knew of Pierre prior to that and was intimidated by the thought of being near him, with a harmonica in my hand. Yes, his understanding of music theory along with his playing are that advanced.
In the 30 years that I’ve known Pierre he hasn’t played out much. He prefers not to… he lives a quiet life out on the tip of Cape Cod, trying to find the roads to bring his harmonica inventions to the world.
About those inventions: Pierre and Magic Dick have created dozens of alternate tunings for the ten-hole harmonica. I don’t know all the tunings, nor how they figured out what notes to put where. I do know the process of taking apart the ones off the shelf and removing and replacing the reeds because, as a machinist I was involved by creating machines that would remove the reeds. But the rest of what goes into it is above my capacity and desire to know.
I saw Bluestime last night at a club in northern Virginia. Magic Dick's
harp playing was great as usual, but I was very disappointed by his
vocals. He really shouldn't be fronting that band - he should take voice
lessons or hire a professional singer. His singing almost ruined the
show for me.
There were a lot of harp players in the audience, including Marc Wenner
(who got a kick out me showing him the favorable review of the latest
Nighthawks album in AHN) and Doug Jay. Pierre Beauregard was there and I finally got to meet him. Pierre is a local harp legend, and he and Magic Dick have a patent on their harmonica tunings/designs. (I'm pretty sure their "Magic" harps have been discussed on this list) Pierre is also the
founder of the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra.
Most of my fellow harp players in the DC area know Pierre, and I had
heard a lot about him but never actually met him. His cousin Brett (I
forget his last name) is a fine local harp player and he introduced me to
him. I had told Brett earlier that I had a copy of Pierre's patent. He
told this to Pierre when he introduced me to him. Pierrre said, "Whoa, I
HAVE to talk to you!" We had a long (but not long enough!) talk about
what he and Magic have been doing with harmonicas and some of the tunings
they have created. He is a very interesting, energetic person who loves
to talk about harmonicas. I could try to give some details, but I was
mostly trying to understand what he was talking about without diagrams!
He told me that he and Magic Dick have been studying music theory for
years, and applying it to harmonica structure/tuning. He told me that
theory is just mathematics and understanding the relationships between
notes.
He couldn't tell me who is going to manufacture the Magic harps - I guess
there will be a press announcement or an article in HIP or some other
publication. He seems very enthusiastic about the future of his harps -
he said that they were designing tunings for everything from the ten hole
diatonic to the chord harmonica! I'll try to post some of the details I
can remember about the tunings and ideas they had in a future post. I
asked him if I can interview him and he said that he would be happy to do
an interview in the future. If or when I interview him I'll post it to
the list.
-Steve