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Rhumba King

Original Blues Harmonica Instrumental Songwriting Contest by BluesHarmonica.com and the Harmonica Masters Workshops

Ben Bouman and Steve Molitor (Erwin iost was unfortunately unable to attend) performed their songs with the famed B.B. and the Blues Shacks at the Harmonica Masters Workshops in Trossingen, Germany on Friday, November 2nd. The audience voted for their favorite and with a very close margin we have a winner! Congratulations to Ben Bouman (BetaHarps) for winning the contest for his song, "It Beta Be A Rhumba!" Congratulations to Steve Molitor for winning a close 2nd Place for his song "Jumba Rumba." Thank to judges Steve Baker and Lee Sankey... the Hohner Company for providing both of them with very special harmonicas (pictured on our Facebook page)... and the Hohner Conservatory for hosting the event. Original entries can be found at the bottom of this page. Footage of the Rhumba King Concert (ten videos) can be found at YouTube

Previous Contests

Jumba Rumba - Take 3

Posted Sun, 07/15/2012 - 15:34 by walterjuke
walterjuke's picture

OK third times a charm (I hope).

Chilean Rhumba

Posted Sun, 07/15/2012 - 10:04 by ErwinIost
ErwinIost's picture

Rhumba from Chile. I hope you like it.
i tried to put some licks that i use to play when i play rhumba in jam sessions, but i also tried to give some sense to my song.
My gear:
Fender Champio 600, Chuck Gurney's mic(CM shure), Marine Band Deluxe.

Crying in My Rum

Posted Sun, 07/15/2012 - 09:50 by marcos
marcos's picture

Bad Rum (D minor) backing track
Forced myself to try this in third position. A learning experience, for sure.

Rumbalicious

Posted Sat, 07/14/2012 - 19:10 by karl
karl's picture

Howdy folks! My first attempt at writing something in third postion. I used the Rollin' Rumba track from third postion study #1. The first and last chorus were played cross harp on a D Hohner Golden Melody. Chorus's two thru six were played third position on a G Bushman Delta Frost. I recorded the acoustic harp with the onboard mic on my laptop computer and used Audacity to mix the tracks.

1st chorus - ABAC chorus form
2nd chorus - ABAC chorus form
3rd chorus - ABAC chorus form
4th chorus - ABAC chorus form
5th chorus - AAB chorus form
6th chorus - ABAC chorus form continue reading...

Rhumba for the Girls !

Posted Sat, 07/14/2012 - 14:18 by aphowel
aphowel's picture

This is an acoustic rhumba recorded through a video camera, and converted from video to mp3 (sorry, not great quality).

Rhumba in D (played in 2nd position), downloaded jam track from Dennis Gruenling.

Rachel's Rhumba

Posted Thu, 07/12/2012 - 10:43 by totaljim
totaljim's picture

Here's a rhumba in A, using the backing track from Joe Filisko's "Bhumba Rhumba."

Barumba Thing

Posted Wed, 07/11/2012 - 14:43 by hank stefaniak
hank stefaniak's picture

Transposed JimiLee backing track to F and varied the volume of the bt to try to fit with my attempts at some dynamics.

It "beta" be a Rhumba !

Posted Wed, 07/11/2012 - 06:40 by Ben Bouman
Ben Bouman's picture

The title says it all.... !
I used one of Jimi Lee's wonderful backingtracks to play, mix and master this home-recording.
Ben Bouman

Summer Rhumba

Posted Sun, 07/08/2012 - 07:07 by mishaikin
mishaikin's picture

Rhumba based on the Rhumba in G backing track from GrooveTrax (Every Groove A Bluesman Need to Know), CD2.

Enjoy listening!

splitting hairs again

Posted Thu, 07/05/2012 - 19:29 by Bluevan
Bluevan's picture

Rumbunctious

Posted Thu, 07/05/2012 - 09:26 by karl
karl's picture

Howdy folks! I don't have a lot of equipment so I used the on board mic on my laptop to record the acoustic harmonica. The backing track is from 3rd position study #1, Rollin' Rumba. I used Audacity to mix the two tracks. I used a Hohner Golden Melody A diatonic, playing cross harp in the key of E.

V-IV-I Intro - Let the band establish the Rumba.

1st chorus - Head. ABAC chorus form.

2nd chorus - Double with the bass line

3rd chorus - ABAC chorus form.

4th chorus - AAB chorus form.

5th chorus - ABC chorus form.

6th chorus - AAB chorus form. continue reading...

Have You Heard?

Posted Tue, 04/17/2012 - 19:00 by DOROTHY RIDDLE
DOROTHY RIDDLE's picture

Chorus Forms:
1. A, A', A''
2. A, A, B
3. Af, Af, A'f
4. A, A, Bf
5. AA, BA, C
6. AA', AB, C
7. head w/fills

G diatonic harmonica ( Hohner Special 20) in 2nd position, Key = D.