At the age of 12, Chris Harper bought his first blues harp. He had always been fascinated by the sound of the harmonica, so he was thrilled to try to play it. At first, he had to endure some harsh criticism from his friends: "Give it a rest; you'll never learn to play it." However, he didn't let them discourage him and as time passed, the feedback got better-in any event, he never lost his desire to master the blues harp.