*Phill Woddail started playing the Hohner Marine Band Harmonica in 1966 when his father gave him one to take to an Ozark Mountain summer camp. 

His earliest studies were on the Chromatic Harmonica. Workshops with Chamber Ber Huang, designer of Hohner's revolutionary CBH 2012 and 2016 models, and founder of the Department of Harmonica Studies at New York's, Turtle Bay School of Music exposed him to the larger world of chromatic technique.  A stint working with Hohner Harmonica Company in Hicksville, New York while studying with the world famous Robert Bonfiglio furthered his early devotion to   “serious” music.  Then when he relocated to Richmond Virginia, with Hohner's move to nearby Hanover, he fell into an unexpectedly lively old time scene.  So much for Telleman Croft and Bach.  Within a few months he had joined two square dance bands, The Virginia Whistle Pigs and The Downriver Dance Band and was a regular at the Main Street Grill where the local Old Time Music scene centered.  His mentors, multi-instrumentalists Harold Housenfluck, and Mark Campbell are both known as solid traditionalists, insisting on the correct executions of each instrumental part to match the specific version of any song played. “You hold the D two more beats in that Railsplitters version,” or “There's no minor in the Bogtrotters , Sugar Hill,  and you only do the B part one time through”, were standard fare for the Grill.

He extended his studies of the harmonica in workshops and classes with Howard Levy focusing on breath technique, amberature, and Modal Theory.  The modal theory tied right back into the Old Time Country Music which uses a "modal" tuning for many pieces which he now recognized as Dorian.  The CROSS HARP he had learned for blues and now applied to old time tunes such as Old Joe Clark and Little Sadie turned out to be Mixolydian.

Lately he has played on a couple of CD's with friends Scott Perry, Mark Campbell and Jimmy Costa.  Phill now chairs Old Time Jams on the first Thursday of each month at Tuggles Gap Restaurant,  and the second Thursday of each month at Oddfellas Cantina.  He still teaches workshops around Floyd periodicaly.

Saturday's workshop will feature Guitar, Banjo and Harmonica in an informal presentation allowing for spontaneous workshops on harmonica how-to and modal aproaches to playing traditional music.  Bring your harps; D, G, A and C are the most commonly used.  Bring your axe and your rack if you want to play with modes and chords.

Always remember, it's not about you.  It's about the song.