General Discussion

I just don't get fills. I don't know where they come from. Maybe I should just give this up. It ain't happenin'. I hate doing chorus forms because of fills. I don't want to hear my attempts at them. They just go sour, have no rhythm. Learning songs doesn't help. I can only play the licks within the context of the song. I can't access them outside the song, and I don't how to pull any inspiration for fills from them anyway. And to top it off. continue reading...

It remains to be seen how much my practice is optimized after using this app, but you can't go wrong replacing less than optimistic or confident thought patterns with the one's Sam Brown replaces them with. Very elegantly done suggestion to practice, create, learn, perform, for musicians. Love to hear if anyone else tries it.

Hey Guys, continue reading...

This might be old news to some, but it's a handy new discovery for me. You can load an mp3 file into Audacity, split it into choruses and save each one as a separate mp3 file. From the online instructions (except I've changed the word 'song' to 'chorus'):

" 1. Click to place the cursor at the start of the first chorus

2. Choose “Add Label at Selection” from the Project menu (or Tracks menu in Audacity Beta). If you wish, you can type the name of the chorus.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each chorus. continue reading...

These are my favorite submissions to date
A Must See!

I just started learning Harmonica and purchased the Special 20 just yesterday. Where can I get some good simple songs (folk or any other) to start my practice? I did not see any link in this site, so thought of just posting a message.

Regards,
Satish.

I bought a valved harmonica time ago, and I thought it wasn't a good election for me, but I became aware about the musicality it had in the lower blow holes.
People use to complaint about 1 and 2 draws, but I find that I don't get the tone I want in the first, second and third holes blows.
Could valves solve this problem? I am thinking about valving the three first blow reeds.

G'day,
this has been bugging me for a while. I have a book of harmonica transcriptions called "blues harmonica collection" by David McKelvy. I haven't used it much. i have been told its not bad

i took a look at the transcription for "Checkin up on my baby", which the author attributes to Sonny Boy williamson.
its not any version i recognise. i have only ever found 1 recording of the song by SBW2, but i know its been done by others, including Jr Wells. continue reading...

where are the solo study mp3 that you upload?

Monster player!
I really thank you David for this interview, for me has been the best in bluesharmonica.com since today.
I have really enjoyed the two first chapters where Steve spoke about early influences. It was like a Oz story about a man and the people he met on the road and it was great to know how a big studious of blues Steve is.

All my respect for the old guard, I wonder how they managed to learn so much with so little help, and other times I think that difficulty was fundamental for developing a musical ear and to get a good grounded technique. continue reading...