soloing

Use more space in your playing. Most of us have a tendency to over-play, especially when excited or trying to play a burning solo. Space not only gives the other musicians an opportunity to uplift what you're playing (by playing fills and pickups to chord change for example), but also provides the listener with the space to digest what you played so they can appreciate when you repeat, use variation or move away.

Though the 12 Bat Blues Progression is the most common chord progression we play over, other chord progressions do exist. Some have very simple changes that can be "felt" and little to no study is needed. Some progressions introduce new chords and have unintuitive form lengths and require many hours of work in the practice room before ideas begin to flow.

Something always to keep in mind is that the chord progression for the vocals doesn't have to be the chord progression for the solos. In fact, it's a pretty common thing to do, historically speaking. continue reading...

"The Bounce" has a great head with the octave substitution technique we spoke of before on the IV Chord. This song can be found on the release The Best Of Rod Piazza 1968-2003 [Disc 1], though the Alphabet Blues release is in better tune (The Best Of Rod Piazza is a little bit flat). He's playing an A Harmonica in this instrumental.

Our style of music is vocabulary driven, and the best way to implement great sounding high end licks in our vocabulary is to harvest them from great players. Check out "Say What You Mean, Baby" by Paul deLay on the Greasy Kid Stuff release from Kid Ramos https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/greasy-kid-stuff/id626224731 This is a KILLER solo (and the entire album is great), with tons of great high end licks for you to use. He's playing a G Harmonica in 2nd Position in this tune.

Though only one of the blue notes in the blues scale is available from holes 6+ to 9+, it's still a viable way to play, especially when you add the 6 and 6' to round out the scale. Put on a more bluesy jam track (a "Box" is a good choice) and give it a try.

Upper Octave Blues Scale (Modified): 6+ 6' 6 7+ 8 9 9+

Instead of taking just one lick and moving it up an octave, try it with an entire song. Use "Temperature" from Tongue Block Study 2 and move it up an octave. Though by now you've probably already memorized the notes on your C Harmonica, you can visit Music Theory Study 1 for a note layout. The process is simple. The first lick of the song is 3 4+ 3, which are the notes B C B. Move these notes up one octave to 7 7+ 7. Print out the sheet music for the song and write below the TAB the octave above version. continue reading...

Our next step is to tip our hats to the V7 Chord in Bars 9 (the beginning of the V-IV-I lick) and 12 (the last piece of the turnaround). The V7 Chord is D F# A C, making 6 A, 8 D and 10 A from our scale available as notes of the V7 Chord. continue reading...

In Improvising Study 2 you learned about Focus Notes. These are the most common notes to start a lick on, and are based on the I7 Chord (G B D F on a C Harmonica in 2nd Position). Now that you've worked on Focus Notes on holes 1 through 6, it's time to work them from holes 6 to 9. Improvise again to the jam track you played with yesterday and now play one chorus starting, or playing a pickup to, the 6+ G (Root). Then the next chorus on the 7 B (3rd). Another chorus on 8 D (5th). Then 9 F (flat-7th). And lastly 9+ G (Root again). continue reading...

Now that you've dialed in playing up and down the scale, put on a jam track and improvise to it, ONLY playing the notes within the scale. It will be a challenge to stay within the scale, especially for those with more improvising experience (muscle memory will pull you out of the scale, so make sure to choose a moderate tempo jam track). Take mental note as to which notes within the scale sound really, and where, so we can further explore how to choose notes within this scale that will interact well with the three chords of our 12 Bar Blues progression.

The passage I had you practicing Friday (6+ 6 7 8) contains the first four notes of the ascending G Major Pentatonic Scale. Those notes, in this order, represents one of the best licks to transition you into the high end of the harmonica.

Here's the complete scale...

6+ 6 7 8 8+ 9+

Add the 10 at the end and you get another usable note = 6+ 6 7 8 8+ 9+ 10

Practice this ascending and descending 100 times today and you'll be ready for our next step. continue reading...