In the broad scheme of things, having regrets about missed educational opportunities doesn’t sting half as bad as some other regrets relating to family relationships and parenting. But, related to my harmonica education, I have a list of three mentors that I could have learned from if I was paying attention at the time.

Ray Tankersly (1921 – 2008)

I went to high school with Ray’s daughter. I didn’t know it at the time but this harmonica player who was a vaudeville performer in the late 30s and early 40s and a front man for the Borrah Minevitch Harmonica Rascals was in the neighborhood giving lessons.

I had been playing diatonic harmonica since my freshman year and was getting pretty good. Then I got my first chromatic for Christmas my junior year but didn’t really know how to get started on it.

Ray could have helped me develop a strong foundation on the instrument right out of the gate. My development on the chromatic harmonica was delayed due to a lack of teachers/mentors. This was 1979, there was no internet and I was suffering from a lack of information.

As I said, I really had no idea of this incredible resource in my neighborhood. It took a couple decades to find this out at a high school reunion. I was reminded of this again at the 2018 SPAH Convention where Ray’s memory was officially honored.

Dick Gardner

At some point in the mid-1980’s I answered an ad in the newspaper for a harmonica band looking for a second chromatic player. I went to this guy’s house and I auditioned. I wish I could remember his name, but he told me I needed to learn to play with vibrato. He said in order to join his band (bass harmonica, chord, and two chromatics) I would have to get a few lessons with Dick Gardner who lived in nearby Santa Cruz at that time.

The idea of joining this harmonica band was not that appealing. It was corny music. But the idea of having a private chromatic harmonica teacher was something I was certainly interested in.

I had a lot of things going on at the time with people calling me to play saxophone gigs and I never followed up with this but studying with Dick would have been amazing. He also could have directly helped me with all the problems I was having with repair and maintenance of my instruments since he was one of the best repairmen around. Apparently, he would service Toots Thielemans’ harmonicas!

Dick was also a member of Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats as a bass harmonica player.

Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie is an absolute blues harmonica legend! If you follow the history of the blues, you can see the migration of the musicians from Mississippi to Chicago. Charlie was part of that migration upstream since he was born in Mississippi and later moved to southside Chicago. He knew Little Walter Jacobs, Paul Butterfield, and rubbed shoulders with all the greats!

Then he got smart and decided to move to sunny California.

Here he was in my neighborhood! A friend of mine, Steve Hilla said he was hanging out at Charlie’s house playing guitar and jamming. Apparently, that house was a place a lot of musicians would go and hang out. Steve told me that if you gave Charlie a $100 cash that he would teach you what he knew on the harp for an entire day.

$100 was a lot of money for a kid in 1982. In fact, the inflation calculator tells me that $100 at that date is equal to $336 today. The other thing that gave me pause was that a good friend of mine who was a bass player on the scene at the time said that Charlie had a drinking problem.

My thinking was that I wasn’t sure if this teacher would be sober or not during my lessons. Looking back, I don’t think it would have mattered much. I still could have accessed an incredible blues mentor. Heck, if he heard me play saxophone he probably would have hired me to join his band.

From what I understand, Charlie has been sober for a long time. I had a chance to say hello to him at the 2025 SPAH convention in San Antonio, TX. He is a super approachable and easy-going fellow. I very briefly talked to him about San Jose and another South Bay player Gary Smith.

I don’t beat myself up too much over these missed harmonica study opportunities since I was studying other instruments pretty intensely i.e. saxophone, clarinet, flute, and piano. There are only so many hours in a day and it’s very possible to overextend yourself with too much information. I have to say though when I think of these 3 guys born in 1920s through 1940’s I sure do like the idea of drawing from all this experience from past decades and pulling it into the present. A student can certainly do this by listening to old recordings of the great players, but wouldn’t it be great to share a meal or cup of coffee and have real conversations with an old lion and master musician!

Don’t ever hesitate to spend time with some old cats if you have the chance! I was born in 1963 and I know that is pretty old to some of you. You can get to know me and learn a few things from my harmonica courses on this website or from my Patreon, but I have had a few hungry students swing by the house to meet me in person and that is always a rewarding experience.

I think having a living, breathing musical mentor that you can spend time with in a room can’t really be compared to a remote lesson via Zoom or watching pre-recorded lessons from someone. I urge you, if you live in the same town with a musician you admire, don’t hesitate to reach out and spend time with them. The benefits go both ways!