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An attempt at a fast swing - I've got hooked on this sort of thing lately after buying Dennis Gruenling's 'That's Right!', which is definitely recommended. He makes it sound light and casual - it isn't: I had to chop the jam track down to 2 minutes to avoid hyperventilating (annoyingly, you can hear the cut) and it took me a staggering number of takes to play it straight through without completely losing the beat. By the time I was finished, I loathed the damn thing and was just relieved the pain was over! Anyway, some remarks on the choruses: continue reading...

This is something I put together a little while ago (so I'm cheating really). It's a solo harmonica piece where I was trying to work overblows into a 12 Bar Blues progression. I've used the overblows on hole's 1, 4, 5 and 6 (see if you can spot them). I was also trying to use the different 3 hole draw bends over the I and IV chords. The recording is straight into the mic built into my laptop and I haven't applied any effects or other software to it so the sound quality isn't that great. continue reading...

Fascinating and very revealing having to notate and analyze what I was playing and look for chorus forms. themes, patterns etc. instead of just 'jamming'. Almost felt like it reduced the creativity when I wrote down the tabs and tried to figure out the note length (?? - quarter note, eighth etc.) This takes a lot of time for sure. The title expresses what I felt by the end. Can't say it's something I'm proud of but I wanted to give this a try. Think I need a LOT more practice before I give this another try - so much easier playing what someone else has written - and that's not exactly easy!! continue reading...