General Discussion

I'm sure y'all have been asked this a thousand times before and I'm sure my answer is here somewhere.

battling limited practice time so still working on lesson 1 and leaning the last choruses of the practice song but in breaking up my time I'm spending a few minutes relearning to the metronomea and tongue blocking technique a couple songs I'd learned kinda sorta prior to coming here. continue reading...

Who deserves the honor of a SPAH award in 2017?

The June 30 deadline is fast approaching to nominate candidates for a SPAH award. SPAH members received the printed awards packet along with the Spring 2017 issue of the magazine Harmonica Happenings, but you can also go to the SPAH website and download the packet:

You don’t have to mail in the forms. In fact, you don’t have to use them at all. Just include all the required information in an email and send it to:

spahwards(at symbol)gmail.com. continue reading...

Hi 

I am a newbie to music learning and harmonica. 

I am at Level 1 of the lessons and have a couple of queries i.e.

1) while practicing playing I am facing an issue where my mouth dries up and I am having trouble 'sliding' the harmonica across my mouth.

related to this, I am also facing a 'stickiness/friction' with the top-bottom metal plates.

any suggestions on how do 'smooth sliding'

  continue reading...

I am hosting the musical entertainment at an outdoor event towards the end of July. For the final number several of the musicians are going to get together to play "Rocky Mountain Way" by Joe Walsh and Barnstorm. I plan to sit in and play harmonica. As far as comping during the song, I'm good. However some us plan to take solos towards the end. Iv'e started to think about solo lick ideas, but thought I'd see if anybody has experience with this song or had any cool soloing ideas for this.

Thanks

BC

Hello all, I'm a beginner who just today got a Special 20 in C and a Manji in A after more than a month of wating. I've been using a Hohner Silverstar and a Swan 10 hole in the meantime, both in C. Using the Special 20 after using the other two is like night and day. I always had trouble with attacking the 2 draw fast on the Swan and the Silverstar, but with the Special 20 it responds instantaneously and gave me such a great feeling. Unfortunately the leaky 2 and 3 hole on the Manji sucked all the happiness away. continue reading...

Has anybody ever ran into a situation where you started to have problems with vertical and dizziness. I practice a lot and I do get light-headed when I finish but I wonder if I have a medical condition because I get light-headed even if I'm not playing I'm going to see the doctor I don't know if my extensive practicing has anything to do with it

Hi guy,

Although I am still not on the desired level to play some hard tunes, as I really like this one I gave it a try. 

I think it's good enough to share it with you. Any comment is appreciated. Bear in mind that I am in love with harmonica only for last few months. 

As I am not that skillful, I changed some parts a bit so it can be easier for me to play them.

https://youtu.be/PDsm15PmZs8

Cheers.

I am interested to know what an average maximum draw duration is that harp players can execute. I am working on LOA 3 and the Accompaniment song that has a challenging segment. Blues creeping over me, the harp solo verse starts with  4’ then 4------  4’  4------ 4’  4--------  3  3’ 2-----  Timing the MP3 the first two bars is 10 seconds, then it goes into 3  3’  2---.  Now I can do the C harp for 12 seconds but the A harp for just 10 seconds. continue reading...

I just passed Level 1 and feeling all righteous I dove into level 2 and low and behold the dreaded 2 draw.

I've done so much self analyzing I could throw the POS at the wall.

What I seem to know so far.

1.  I can get 2 draw to play well by just breathing in.

I can feel the air going in my nose and when I breath out I can definitely feel it coming out.

And I fill up with air instantly

So issues with closing off the nasal cavity - check

2.  I don't have this issue with other notes continue reading...

Hi,

I have been wanting for some time to accompany my wife singing Bang, Bang My baby shot me down from Sonny Bono.

The main guitar chords of the song are (from the most used to the least used in the song) :

• Fm (8 times)
• C (8 times)
• Eb (5 times)
• Bbm/F (4 times)
• Eaug (twice)
• Fm/Eb (twice)
• Fm/D (once), skipped in the analysis
• Db (once), skipped in the analysis

I have the following harps :

• G
• A
• Bb
• C
• D
• F

My first questions were : continue reading...