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David's Tip of the Day: A song is easier to remember if you wrote it

Posted Fri, 02/07/2014 - 14:35 by David Barrett Admin

It can be a great challenge to study an artist's song and remember the order of the choruses and the fine elements they contain. It's common to hear complaints by students that songs take a tremendous amount of time to memorize well enough not to have a simple mistake lead them astray and cause a wreck. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Top of the Tongue - Efficiency

Posted Thu, 02/06/2014 - 09:19 by David Barrett Admin

Here's my personal approach to playing the harmonica...

1) Tilt face of harmonica slightly downward (around 30 degrees)

2) Open mouth

3) Insert harmonica, bringing the harmonica to the tongue (not the tongue to the harmonica)

4) For a standard tongue block (single note at right, with lips over four holes and tongue blocking three holes to the left), the tongue moves just one click to the left (11 O'clock)

5) To tongue switch, move to the right to 1 O'clock

6) To play an octave, center the tongue and use a lighter touch continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Top of the Tongue - Tip or Convex Blade?

Posted Wed, 02/05/2014 - 09:09 by David Barrett Admin

Your tongue blocks two holes in the center, leaving the left and right holes open when performing an octave (1+ C and 4+ C for example). You can either use the tip of your tongue to block those two holes or use the tip-top of the tongue (called the blade), by using an ultra-light touch so that the natural convex shape of the tongue doesn't flatten out and cover too many holes. Give this light touch a try and I'll discuss some other interesting advantages of this light touch technique tomorrow.

Top of the Tongue - Angled Harmonica

Posted Tue, 02/04/2014 - 10:13 by David Barrett Admin

Knowing that we use the top of the tongue for our tongue blocking, and we commonly cover four holes with our tongue (the pull articulation for example) and even at times five holes (5-hole octave pulls and pull-slaps), it makes sense to tilt the face if the harmonica (the hole side, what faces you) downward. This downward tilt (10 degrees to as much as 45 degrees) allows the harmonica to match the angle of your tongue, instead of raising the middle of your tongue and pushing it outward towards the harmonica. Experiment with your tongue blocking while using this tilt, you may like it.

David's Tip of the Day: Top of the Tongue

Posted Mon, 02/03/2014 - 10:11 by David Barrett Admin

Simply stated, the more holes you need to block for a tongue block technique, the further back you'll use of the top of your tongue (your tongue is more narrow at the tip and wider at its base). This is achieved by either placing the harmonica deeper in your mouth, to access more of the back of your tongue, or by arching and sticking your tongue out towards the harmonica... and of course, there can be a combination of both.

David's Tip of the Day: Dynamics - Change within the Lick

Posted Fri, 01/31/2014 - 09:44 by David Barrett Admin

Listening to Kim's "Hunch Rhythm" I'm sure you noticed that he didn't reserve dynamic change for only chord change, he also would...

1) Start a lick soft and then finish LOUD

2) Start a lick LOUD and then finish soft

3) Start a lick soft, then go LOUD and back to soft

4) Start a lick LOUD, then go soft and back to LOUD

5) Play punctuated note(s) VERY LOUD to surprise and excite you continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Dynamics - Change Each Chord, Part 2 (Kim Wilson)

Posted Thu, 01/30/2014 - 12:01 by David Barrett Admin

One of the many areas Kim Wilson excels at is in his use of dynamics. Take a listen to "Hunch Rhythm" from his Tiger Man release. The opening chorus is the AAA Chorus Form and then the 2nd Chorus is A B/A C and as he gets into the 3rd Chorus and onward he drops Chorus Form use and focuses heavily on dynamic and textural change. Listen carefully to this on a good sound system or headphones and notice how well he uses dynamics. After doing this, listen back to the track you recorded yesterday and see if you can add MORE dynamics... louder-louds and softer-softs.

David's Tip of the Day: Dynamics - Change Each Chord

Posted Wed, 01/29/2014 - 10:45 by David Barrett Admin

Yesterday's dynamic change works best with live musicians that can react to your dynamic change. Our next two tips (today and tomorrow) works with both a live band or jam track.

Now use chord change as your trigger to change volume.

Play the I Chord (first four bars) at a given volume. When you reach the IV Chord (Bars 5 and 6) play at a different volume (louder or softer). When the I Chord returns in Bar 7, once again change your volume. Change again for the V-IV-I lick (Bars 9 and 10) and then again for the Turnaround (Bars 11 and 12).

Give this a try with your favorite jam track.

David's Tip of the Day: Dynamics - Change Each Chorus

Posted Tue, 01/28/2014 - 09:39 by David Barrett Admin

Listening to Little Walter's "Off the Wall" you noticed that he played each chorus at a different volume. He started off very strong and then dropped his volume low for Chorus 2. He then brought his volume way up again for Chorus 3 and then down for Chorus 3, and so on.

The turnaround is the most recognizable location in the blues and is a great place to remind us to change our volume. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Dynamics - Analysis

Posted Mon, 01/27/2014 - 12:35 by David Barrett Admin

Now that you've recorded yourself to a jam track, listen back to your use of dynamics (volume change). Did you stay at the same volume the entire time?... if you did, it's not uncommon, but it's time to fix this.

Varying volume is the strongest tool available to us to convey emotion to the listener. Along for the ride is tone. As we change our volume, our tone and how our rig (mic and amp) responds changes. This is why we use the term "dynamics" and not just volume change... when we change the volume, many other factors are dynamically changed with it. continue reading...

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