Perfect Pitch

Please excuse the cringe-worthy title, but for Harry Pitch the musical key of a harmonica – his weapon of choice – is very important. With mouth organs lying everywhere I asked him if there was any in particular that he liked playing the most; and he explained to me the virtues of the concert chromatic harmonica. Able to play in any key, it is far superior to a blues harp, a harmonica that can only play in one key is "no good, amateur."

Harry is the type of character to make an immediate impression. His passion for music has ensured that he is probably the most popular, if not best, harmonica player there is. Or so he says. Still playing gigs (and not just on Rosh Hashanah), the moment when he as a young boy walked into Woolworth’s with a friend to buy the cheapest instrument they could afford, a mere sixpence, sticks in his memory. However the love affair with the harmonica was put on hold during the second world war, as amongst the other atrocities the Germans committed at the time, the supply of harmonicas to Britain was blocked. So when evacuated to Peterborough Harry took up the trumpet much to malaise of his host family. He played silently by ear whilst they were in the house, self-teaching himself by listening to the radio and fingering the stops.

Even without formal musical training, Harry quickly found himself playing in a blues band for the workers at the engineering factory where he was a draftsman. Playing gigs every evening, he became much sort after and his musical career quickly took off.

"I was just sitting in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios having a cuppatea", he says unremarkably, "and a young man asks me for some help". The young man wanted some advice on a small harmonica riff. Harry hums a tune that sounds familiar. Of course he was more than happy to help, suggesting a blues harp in a particular key. Harry plays it for me, it sounds extremely familiar. That young man was John Lennon, and that tune is Love Me Do.

Most famously Harry can still be heard on episodes of Last of the Summer Wine, though he no-longer records the show’s arrangements, he is still grateful to receive the royalties from the rehashed tracks on previous episodes. Having worked with legends like Frank Ifield, who insisted Harry toured with him to play ‘I Remember You’, Harry is still in high demand today. His latest gig ended in a standing ovation after an impromptu rendition of Fiddler on the Roof.

Harry left me feeling a little star struck and reminded me of how my father crushed my dream of playing the harmonica at an early age because he couldn’t stand the constant cacophony of sucking and blowing tunelessly. Look where it could have led Martin!