General Discussion

As you know, you should always use a tuner when you're practicing your bending. Along with the bending exercises on the bending studies, I like to add in bending down to the note with my eyes closed and then opening them while holding the note to ensure it's accurate (give or take 5 cents in either direction). It's good to try bending into the note (up or down), stepping down to the note, and starting the onset of the note. This seems to help my ear know if I'm bending in pitch.

Hey everyone, here's a little food for your soul!

I picked up the harmonica abour a year ago. My goal was to learn to play harmonica as a new challenge because I liked the sound and I thought it would be cool. Well such a pretty vague goal makes it hard to determine if you reached it! Therefore, I came to the point where I was wondering if I was making any progress or if I would ever get "that" good (whatever "that good" may be). continue reading...

OK, so I don't know how safe it is to play harmonica when you drive, but I like to live on the edge I guess. I never drive anywhere without a harmonica in my pocket. I used to spend most of the time "noodling"-just solo improv stuff. I don't think driving is really the time to dig in and learn songs. continue reading...

When the Music Theory Lessons first came out, I was very excited. I plowed through them until I hit the part where I had to memorize every hole's pitches and scale degree for each chord. It just seemed so overwhelming and not that fun to just honk notes through the endless G major Shuffle. I got distracted too easily and ended up learning new songs or working on other things during my practice time instead. continue reading...

Every time I go through the Music Theory Lesson series, it becomes more and more internalized and I end up learning something new.

Singing lessons have helped me a great deal in learning to play harmonica. In addition to pitch recognition when bending, vibrato, tremelo, and dynamics, it has helped my breathcontrol. I was having a hell of a time with "Swingin' With George" over the summer. I just couldn't get the breath control down no matter how I tried. After a couple singing lessons where I learned about breath control and expanding you rib cage for "support", I picked up the song again and was able to learn it in a couple days without problem.

If I'm having trouble learning a lick, no matter how much I slow it down, it usually helps to eliminate dips, shakes, pulls, etc. from it. Once I have the basic notes and rhythm down, it's much easier to dress it up with the other "effects".

When I first started about 1.5 years ago I watched all the interviews. Now after working through most of the lessons on this site (exceptions being 3rd and 1st position), it's really neat to watch the interviews over. There is so much more info in there that I didn't understand the first time around.

Hi, can someone explain me how to blow and draw with the technique called "circular breathing"? Thanks

Hey guys, I've been playing for a little over a year and a half now. I didn't play a musical instrument before I signed up for this site. I wanted to share the youtube videos with you. There's a lot of room for improvement but I'm really digging into the Accompaniment Studies. Are you? ;)

http://youtu.be/_Mn0rQ8SqrA

http://youtu.be/lfliVZsVYbA continue reading...