Posted Fri, 05/22/2015 - 18:58 by David Barrett Admin
New videos have been added to the popular Minor Playing lesson. In Sections 2 and 3 of the lesson I've teamed up with Richard Sleigh and asked him to write a study song using the Minor Pentatonic Scale (same as the Blues Scale, minus the flat-5) to write a head that uses the same notes in four positions... 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th so that you can see how a melody can be directly transposed to one of these minor-friendly positions. I also requested that he solo two choruses in each of these examples so that you can hear the cool things that are unique to each of these positions. continue reading...
Posted Mon, 05/18/2015 - 07:59 by David Barrett Admin
Watching your foot while playing is helpful. If you find your foot stall, then you don't own that particular passage. This is what I said a couple of tips ago. Now let's make sure you REALLY are in time. Set your metronome to the desired tempo of the song you're working on and place it next to your foot. This will help you to stay in time with your metronome by giving you a visual confirmation of the tapping of your foot. As you develop your awareness of what your foot is doing this won't be necessary, but this is a good way to get started.
Posted Thu, 04/30/2015 - 08:25 by David Barrett Admin
It's not guaranteed that a fast lick will have a movement pattern, breath pattern or both, but it's worth looking for... the discover of them can help make a fast lick much easier to play.
Your Tongue Block Study 3 song ("Gary's Blues") contains a great example in Bar 6 of Chorus 5. Note that each beat has you moving up one hole and coming back, all with the same breath. For the next beat you move down the scale and blow, then using the same movement. Rinse and repeat and you have the entire lick. This discovery will help you to play this lick much more easily. continue reading...
Posted Mon, 10/13/2014 - 10:05 by David Barrett Admin
There was a desire from some of the students to re-post this dialogue from the public forum in a more prominent place... they, and I, feel it strikes a common chord with many...
Student
"I am 53 years old and have wanted to play the harmonica since I was 15 but never knew how to approach it. I took it up two years ago, starting with lessons from Portnoy, Gindick and Gussow. I found your site last fall and found exactly what I was looking for; the rich full sound of tongue blocking in a well-structured progressing in learning. continue reading...
Posted Fri, 10/10/2014 - 08:53 by David Barrett Admin
Here's a sneak peek of my interview with country harmonica wizard Mike Caldwell. In this video he talks about the spirit of music and then we jam it up! Full interview to release 10/22 http://youtu.be/2Qk6tJHVP2o
Posted Tue, 08/26/2014 - 07:17 by David Barrett Admin
A student asked today in the forum how to move an accompaniment line from 2nd Position to 3rd Position. This is a great skill, especially as one advances in their studies and finds themselves playing in multiple positions and needing to be speak fluently in all the areas we need to in music (in this case accompaniment).
Posted Tue, 08/19/2014 - 09:01 by David Barrett Admin
Continuing on the theme of the importance of being relaxed while playing for good tone... relax your neck/throat muscles. While performing the tremolo for example, only the muscles that are involved in the opening and closing of your vocal folds are needed. While performing a bend, the tongue is the only muscle that needs to move. Engaging the neck muscles around your throat will narrow your air passage, diminishing the size of that resonant chamber, sacrificing tone production in that part of your mouth. Early fatigue is of course an issue as well when using more muscle than you need... continue reading...
Posted Fri, 06/27/2014 - 07:16 by David Barrett Admin
Join me for Intermediate Student Ryan Walker's latest lesson where we cover Accompaniment Playing Study 5 (bluesy 7th Chords), Improvising Study 4 (V-IV-I Transition Licks), Solo Harmonica Study 3 (Bass Lines with Pulls) and Music Theory Study 3 (Playing in Minor).