What's New!

Congratulations to fellow BluesHarmonica.com student Patrick Maley for his book release “After August - Blues, August Wilson, and American Drama.” Patrick specifically started to learn blues harmonica in research for his book and is now a LOA-7 player. You can check out his book on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/After-August-Blues-Wilson-American/dp/0813943000/...).

I will once again be participating in Joe Filisko's Teach-In for this year's SPAH convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For those of you that have not experienced SPAH, it's a wonderful event, worth your time and money to attend. For more information, visit https://www.spah.org/content.asp?contentid=138 Sharon and I will look forward to seeing you soon if you can make it.

In Gary Smith's latest submission we continue our discussion on dynamics. In this session we speak of changing tone with our hands, both acoustically and amplified (with a bullet mic and amp). You can find this lesson here http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/gary_smith

In this lesson series Joe Filisko takes what he's taught you and shows you how he incorporates them into his original recorded works. He shares his approach to the songwriting process, the techniques he uses, and how to play the main phrases within those songs. If you don't already own his recorded works, you can purchase them at JoeFilisko.com. In this lesson he covers "I.C. Special," from the I.C. Special CD. You can find this lesson here https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/traditional_originals

In this lesson series Joe Filisko takes what he's taught you and shows you how he incorporates them into his original recorded works. He shares his approach to the songwriting process, the techniques he uses, and how to play the main phrases within those songs. If you don't already own his recorded works, you can purchase them at JoeFilisko.com. In this lesson he covers "The Grind," from the Missed Train Blues release. You can find this lesson here https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/traditional_originals

In Gary Smith's latest submission we continue our discussion on dynamics. In this session we speak of changing dynamics every chorus (12 bars), changing with the chords, and changing in a way that is natural for the shape of the lick being played. You can find this lesson here http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/gary_smith

Sharon and I just reserved our hotel for the upcoming SPAH Convention (8/14-17). We hope to see you there! https://www.spah.org/ev_calendar_day.asp?date=8/13/2019&eventid=15

When studying a song, after you’ve learned the notes, rhythm, and the techniques used to present the licks correctly, the last step in getting a song performance-ready is to implement dynamics. In this lesson we dig into how the use of dynamics makes your music more exciting and emotional. We’ll study volume change, hand tone, head tone, textural change, and do exercises based on how professional players use dynamics. continue reading...

Here's a nice interview with Contributor Aki Kumar https://www.harmonica.com/aki-kumar-60369.html

In Gary Smith's latest submission we continue our discussion on dynamics. In this session we speak of muscle tension in performance, breathing from the diaphragm, the best sounding notes on the harp, and when not using dynamics is okay. You can find this lesson here http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/gary_smith