jam

Mark Mumea of the Elgins has some two-guitar harmonica backing tracks available for download. Here's some samples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRiK9UTyjFM

Here's the website: http://www.devilstalemusic.com/product-category/cds/

Thanks to fellow students Mike and Dan for sharing this.

You of course have the "Share" portion of BluesHarmonica.com to share your recordings with fellow students, but here's another avenue to interact with harmonica enthusiasts... continue reading...

Students were naturally nervous to play at the evening jam sessions, especially with all the great talent and the video cameras rolling. We all have aversion to putting ourselves into situations where we may embarrass ourselves publicly. The key point I like to remind students of is that a jam session is not a concert. A jam sessions is an opportunity to explore new ideas and to allow the moment of collective vulnerability (for the band as well) to create new and exciting music that could only come from that dynamic moment.

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

A new house band rotation is starting at School of the Blues in a couple of weeks and in their prep email they're asked to watch this video. This work provides a great perspective for new players getting ready to play with others. Below is an annotated transcript for your reference.

"Journey Into Jazz" by Gunther Schuller, Narrated by Leonard Bernstien (1962)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15bpi_leonard-bernstein-journey-into-j... continue reading...

In jam situations sometimes songs are called quickly and the person counting in looks to you to solo in the intro. You may not know where in the form the song is starting, nor the feel of the song (even if they call a "Shuffle," there are many types of shuffles). You could just start blowin' riffs, but an even better approach is to play a long-held note (with vibrato would be a good idea) for about two bars... and then continue playing. continue reading...

Dave has some great tips for you today on preparing for a jam session. You can see these new videos in the "Performance Training Study 4" lesson, in "Section 4."

I was playing to a slow blues jam track many years ago and was frustrated at the way I sounded.

I went to my well of inspiration and listened to slow blues solos performed by Gary Smith. I noticed that the last note of each of his phrases was held (with a vibrato commonly) and the volume decayed slowly until the next phrase. It didn’t sound as if he actually stopped any of his last notes… they either disappeared into the mist of the noise floor of the band (maybe he was still playing, but I couldn’t hear it?) or he decayed to the point of almost stopping and he started his next phrase. continue reading...

The highest art of performance is to hear and react to what everyone in the band is playing as you play. If you're too focused on what you're playing, your ears close and your timing and groove suffer... along with your note selection relative to what the band is playing to support you (it's common for a soloist to play too light to a bluesy backing and vice-verse). continue reading...

This is the #1 challenge for new bands. At School of the Blues we CONSTANTLY work on this with our house bands.

The most common ending for blues is where the ending lick happens in Bar 11. There are two common ways to approach this ending:

1) If the leader (singer or last person to solo) looks back to the band at Bar 10 (the IV Chord) and nods there head or says "here we go," or saying something of that nature, then EVERYONE should play an ending lick. continue reading...