vocals

You might already be familiar with Akarsha (Aki) Kumar from the recent CD "It Takes Three" with Aki, Gary Smith and myself (David Barrett), or the Contributor Videos Aki submitted in the early days of BluesHarmonica.com (2009). Aki was one of my students, and I'm proud to say one of my most dedicated and now accomplished students. He's been a professional player in the California Bay Area now for ten years, currently runs two of the most successful jam sessions in the area and has been featured on numerous CD's for the prestigious Greaseland Studios label. continue reading...

When the vocals begin, hold the last note you you were playing softly until the vocal phrase is over and then continue playing (this assumes you were playing a chord tone, otherwise you would of had to change quickly to a chord tone). If you were playing a riff (repetitive lick), keep playing that riff softly through the vocal phrase. Holding a note equals inactivity and continuing an already-established phrase (riff) is inactivity. Change is activity and will distract from what's happening with the vocals.

The most basic way of playing with a vocalist is to play when they're not singing, called playing "fills." This naming comes from the idea that you're "filling" the holes left by the vocals.

The first challenge is to know when to start playing (this tends to be fairly intuitive) and when to stop playing (which is a little less intuitive... it's easy to play too long and step on the next line of the vocals).

There's a simple answer... sing the vocals. continue reading...