blues

Lastly, everything's just easier to play on a custom harmonica. The big one is that bending is easier (draw, blow and overbend) and the middle bends are less airy in tone. When playing a 3" you'll notice that there's an airy quality to the bend... this is normal for all harmonicas, but is greatly diminished with a custom harmonica.

Okay, let's review...

Balanced
Same breath for each reed, making playing across the range of the harmonica effortless

Dynamic Range
The main reason for playing custom harmonicas is so you can play softly, giving you great dynamic range

Longevity continue reading...

Join me, Gary Smith​ and Aki Kumar​ live on the air this Friday with Kathleen Lawton at KCSM 91.1 as we play tracks from our new CD and blow a little harp. Show starts at 9pm and we'll be on at 10pm. Click on the "Listen Live" button at top-left http://kcsm.org/jazz91/announcer_lawton.php

Yesterday I gave you two reasons of why custom harmonicas may not be necessary. Here are the reasons why I personally like custom harmonicas…

Balanced
Though construction and quality control is currently better than it's ever been in the harmonica's history... from the factory, for obvious economic reasons, you’ll never reach the level of attention that a customizer will give your harmonicas. Most simply, a harmonica will play more evenly across the entire range of the instrument. This means that it takes the same amount of air pressure to sound hole 1 as it does hole 10. continue reading...

I'm often asked about the value of using custom harmonicas. Today I'll state why playing a custom harmonica is not necessary or may not be a good choice for you. On Monday I'll speak of why players (including myself) choose to play them.

1) Most professional players started moving to custom harmonicas in the 1990's due to the low quality of harmonicas being produced during that time. Construction and quality control is currently better than it's ever been in the harmonica's history... you no longer have to play a custom harmonica to be a great player. continue reading...

Our latest installment of overbend studies has just released, featuring Jason Ricci. continue reading...

Congratulations to fellow student Iman Rahimipour from Iran on the article featuring him in the National Harmonica League magazine (harmonica.co.uk), written by Patrice Rayon. He's achieved LOA-L6 and Beginning Instructor Accreditation at BluesHarmonica.com. You can read the article here https://www.facebook.com/bluesharmonica. If you like the article, you can receive the magazine by become a member of NHL for a small annual membership. The magazine is filled with good harmonica articles and happenings around the world.

Yesterday I shared some reasons of why I don't like volume controls. Here are some reasons why a volume control can be good...

1) Set your volume control to 10, and the amp as loud as it can go just before feedback. Now drop your volume on the mic to 8. This 8 will be your normal volume, even for solos (remember to play softly as your normal playing volume... you want to have dynamic range so that you can play louder for your solo). If the band gets too excited and plays too loudly, then you know you have two more notches on your volume to get louder. continue reading...

Listen to "In Memory," the song featured in today's release of Recording Study 4. The pitch content of what I played and the textures I used in which to present them are of course important, but dynamics are center stage in this song to convey emotion. The use of dynamics (primarily volume change) is what's commonly missing from players in their first five years of study. The addition of dynamics easily doubles the emotional impression on the listener... I can't emphasize this point strongly enough. continue reading...

Yesterday I was communicating with an experienced player that recently began studying at BluesHarmonica.com. He sent in a study song submission and one of my suggestions was to play softer. He sounded good, but I could tell he was pushing the harp louder than he needed to. He replied that he's been playing with a band for a while, which is what I expected. Here was my response. These points are important for amplified players to keep in mind.

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Yes, playing with a band tends to bring your “default” volume up. Here’s how Little Walter did it... continue reading...

In Intermediate Student Ryan Walker’s latest lesson (Lesson 33) we presents his final Solo Harmonica Study composition, we start Accompaniment Study 8 on Hooks, and start Music Theory Study 4 on Melodic Development http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/ryan_walker