General Discussion

I use a program called Anytune which is a more modern adaptation of Amazing Slow Downer.   

I there anyway to get a you tube audo into such a product without having the basic file?  Can I record it on Garage Band and then input the resulting file? 

Are there any sites for harmonica in a genre other than blues?  I play a lot of country and bluegrass and it seems like there's nothing out there.  I retune all of my harps to paddy richter because country required a lot more melody...and I thought I was pretty much committing a sin until I learned that Charlie McCoy does the same thing sometimes although his standard is country tuning.  I have a full blues set and don't plan on giving that up, but there are better tunings for the type of music I'm interested in and very little instruction on playing it. continue reading...

Hi everyone!

I just finished transcribing my first song by ear! That was a lot of fun! It is Roy Orbison's 'Candy Man', key of G. I also had a crack at writing down the music (first time writing music, also - I know there are some errors in there, but I got a bit lost and wasn't quite sure how to write it :)). There is a link below to the PDF - thought you guys and girls might be interested, it has some fun licks in it, plus a couple of easy bends. Let me know what you think. Enjoy! continue reading...

A very good friend of mine recently gifted me a vintage 12-hole Marine Band harmonica that used to belong to his dad. It would be from the late '60's or early '70's, I think. My question for this forum (I'll be posting another in the Tech forum), what is the tuning on this compared to a 10-hole Richter-tuned diatonic? It has "C" stamped on it, so I'm assuming it to be C major diatonic, but certainly goes lower. continue reading...

Well, I was sailing a little sailboat today and got it stuck on some shallow rocks (yep, that was dumb!). Had to jump in to push it off, and I forgot my harp was in my pocket, so it got a little bath. should I take off the plates or do anything special, or will it air dry fine on it’s own? Thanks so much!

Hi all,

Glad to be here. I have been practicing for about a week, now, and really enjoying the tin sandwich. I bought a special 20 in ‘c’ and followed the coupon to this great site. The intro on tongue blocking was so much more helpful than my Harmonica for Idiots book. 

A couple of questions:

1) My tongue is sore. Should I take a day off or so until it stops hurting, or just keep going and it will toughen up? Is it bad to practice every day? continue reading...

Has anyone here had or does any one know someone that has had Laparoscopic Antireflux Surgery and had problems playing after.  I have to make a decision wether I want to go that route and risk not being able to play.  

Posting in case anyone is interested in 3D printing harmonica parts. continue reading...

Hi, Dave. Last night I saw Mark Hummel and his band Blues Survivors at The Turning Point Café, a small club in Piermont New York about an hour North of Manhattan.  I had first heard about him on bluesharmonica.com. The music was absolutely fantastic, made more enjoyable because I had watched most of his videos. continue reading...

I admit I have been working on learning David's 'essential scales' for far too long.  It just seems it should not be this hard.

1- Do you guys envsion the musical scale?  In other words do you know the scale such that you could write it down from memory and then play those notes?

2- Learn the sounds from memory and essentially play by ear?

3- Have that 'mental map' David speaks of and envision the physical harp?

Or maybe you are just good at memorizing.

Any hints?

Gary