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David's Tip of the Day: A Blues Harmonica Player's Journey, Part 5

Posted Fri, 08/17/2012 - 07:45 by David Barrett Admin
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Continuing in from yesterday...

13. “on top of the music”… where most new improvisers spend their time.

14. “inside the music”… awareness of all levels within music.

15. “what to say in the music”… final level of musicianship—a personal voice.

16. “full or rage—raw and ugly”… use of dissonance for emotional purposes (outside tones… such as those used within the Blues Scale)

17. “triumphant notes”… understanding of the power of chord tones

18. “happy notes”… Major Pentatonic for example continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: A Blues Harmonica Player's Journey, Part 4

Posted Thu, 08/16/2012 - 07:16 by David Barrett Admin
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Continuing in from yesterday...

8. “When you do, come back again. We'll be around” is a metaphor for the journey of musical discovery—the music will be there for the student to play once they’ve matured enough to approach it.

9. “listen to jazz records”, listening being the key element here.

10. “but you don't know how to play with people (he had been listening only to the trumpet player, and not to what the other musicians were doing)”… once a musician moves beyond their instrument, they’re ready to become musicians, not just operators of their machine. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: A Blues Harmonica Player's Journey - Part 3

Posted Wed, 08/15/2012 - 16:13 by David Barrett Admin
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I'll now spend some time on the areas I footnoted.

1. “three to six every afternoon” represents the average amount of daily practice time for the serious student of music. Dr. Anders Ericsson, expert in skills acquisition, states that it takes commonly ten thousand hours to reach a basic level of mastery.

2. “scales” represent where a music student’s study begins, preparing them for muscle memory on their instrument of the patterns needed for playing songs and the basic ear training required for tune recognition and ultimately creation. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day - A Blues Harmonica Player's Journey - Part 2

Posted Tue, 08/14/2012 - 08:38 by David Barrett Admin
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Here's a transcript of yesterday's "Journey Into Jazz" by Gunther Schuller. Look at the footnote markers I've placed in the text... I'll speak on those tomorrow.

"Journey Into Jazz" by Gunther Schuller
Narrated by Leonard Bernstein (1962) continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: A Blues Harmonica Player's Journey

Posted Mon, 08/13/2012 - 07:46 by David Barrett Admin
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In "Journey Into Jazz" by Gunther Schuller, Narrated by Leonard Bernstien (1962), you'll hear that it sounds like it was written for us blues harmonica players. Take a listen and we'll discuss for a while...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15bpi_leonard-bernstein-journey-into-j...

David's Tip of the Day: Octave Awarenes & Cool Ending

Posted Fri, 08/10/2012 - 08:11 by David Barrett Admin
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Here's a cool ending you can use that makes great use of the knowledge of octaves on your harmonica. These notes are based on the familiar "and many more..." musical vocal phrase.

1 2+ 2" -to- 4 5+ 5 -to- 8 8+ 9

A pro would play it as...

1 2+ 2" -to- 4 5+ 5 where you slap the 4, the 5+ and flutter the 5 -to- 8 8+ 9 in octaves

You can hear this at the end of Rod Piazza's Blues harmonica instrumental "The Bounce," a killer example of great instrumental writing (both Alphabet Blues and The Best of Rod Piazza releases have this ending)

David's Tip of the Day: Swingin' Metronome

Posted Wed, 08/08/2012 - 08:42 by David Barrett Admin
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The rhythm most commonly use in Blues is that of swing-eighths... it's the foundation of our shuffles, swings and slow blues. It can be a challenge to feel the swinging rhythm, especially when studying a new passage of music... but of course we have technology to help us out. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Work hard, but don't be in a hurry...

Posted Tue, 08/07/2012 - 07:31 by David Barrett Admin
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Work hard studying the harmonica, but don't be in a hurry. If you're in a hurry, you introduce stress into the learning process, and what should be a fun process to develop your skills on an instrument becomes a daily chore. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Berklee Online Music Programs

Posted Mon, 08/06/2012 - 07:23 by David Barrett Admin
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For those interested in a deeper study of music, but don't have the schedule to go to a local college, Berkleemusic.com has great online courses. Berklee School of Music has a long standing tradition of providing real-world music training for working musicians. You can just take one subject of interest, or start a certificate program. For more information visit: http://www.berkleemusic.com/?pid=4235

David's Tip of the Day: Dynamic Variety + Tonal and Textural Variety = Exciting Music

Posted Fri, 08/03/2012 - 08:03 by David Barrett Admin
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I just posted a YouTube video sample from our upcoming Music Theory Study 6 (releasing in September) where I open by playing with John Garcia. Notice how I change my volume from chord change to chord change, from lick to lick and within each lick. Note how I hold the 4 draw in the 3rd Chorus (around 1:00 in) clean, with no tremolo... then add vibrato... then some 5 draw for a thicker, more bluesy texture... then move my tongue forward to rob my mouth of the deep, resonant tone chamber I usually use to make the tone present with more bite... then open my hands to further brighten the tone... continue reading...