My name is Pat Missin and I play the harmonica...
... I also repair, modify and rebuild them, design them, write about them, research their history and teach people how to play them. I have written for countless specialist publications (in three different languages, so far) and I have contributed material to the Blues Archive at the University of Mississippi and to the British Institute of Jazz Studies. I have served on judging panels at harmonica contests in the UK, Europe and the US and given numerous workshops and seminars on all aspects of the harmonica. Rumours that I have a life have been greatly exaggerated...
In more than two decades as a working musician I have performed on a wide variety of instruments in a wide range of genres from folk to reggae to avant garde to pure pop music. I have shared a stage with the likes of Lee Oskar and original Mother of Invention Jimmy Carl Black, as well as opening for acts as diverse as Midge Ure and Rufus Thomas. I have been featured on recordings by singer/songwriters Angie Scarr and Roger Higgins and legendary British composer Basil Kirchin. My own solo CD is long overdue...
I am a member of:
The National Harmonica League
The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
The Harmonica Teachers Accreditation Board
Harmonica Collectors International
The Reed Organ Society
The Galpin Society
The American Musical Instrument Society
The Just Intonation Network
I am a graduate of The Silva Method
and an Honorary Member of the Hull Surrealist League