What's New!

For those working through the overbend series on the site, you can now ask instructor Ross Garren in the forum under, "Ask Overbend Expert Ross Garren."

Our series on overbending starts with instructor Ross Garren interviewing the harmonica players that have pioneered the use of overbends in the blues. In this interview we feature Adam Gussow. Our original intention was to do a written article, but it quickly became apparent that we should video record these Skype interviews for you to watch. Skype video quality is not the best, but we thought you would appreciate seeing and hearing them over just reading an article. After watching these interviews Ross will start to walk you through the art of overbending in the blues. continue reading...

In this video Aki rehearses the band and records "Bombay Stroll" http://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/recording_study_4_professional_studio

New videos have been added to the popular Minor Playing lesson. In Sections 2 and 3 of the lesson I've teamed up with Richard Sleigh and asked him to write a study song using the Minor Pentatonic Scale (same as the Blues Scale, minus the flat-5) to write a head that uses the same notes in four positions... 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th so that you can see how a melody can be directly transposed to one of these minor-friendly positions. I also requested that he solo two choruses in each of these examples so that you can hear the cool things that are unique to each of these positions. continue reading...

In this video you hear Aki's Sonny Boy influenced song "In Love With My Baby."

In this lesson Ryan and I work on Accompaniment Study 7: Tramp Bass Line; Transitions; Walking Bass Lines; Solo Harmonica Study Final Ideas; Tongue Block Study 5: Blues for Paul deLay (all choruses); Music Theory Study 3, Sections 6 and 7.

In this video we rehearse the challenging accents in the instrumental "Blow! Blow! Blow!"

In these two videos we record the slow blues instrumental heavily influenced by George "Harmonica" Smith titled "Dark Night." Pianist Steve Lucky joins the recording crew for this and two more songs.

I'm proud to announce that the CD "It Takes Three" with Gary Smith, Aki Kumar and myself is now available at http://bit.ly/ittakesthree (physical or download). The transcription set is available at http://www.bluesharmonica.com/it_takes_three_transcriptions (harp TAB and standard music notation provided).

Here are some YouTube videos of the project. Thank you for your support!

It Takes Three by David Barrett, Gary Smith and Aki Kumar
https://youtu.be/dHhzq2AN99s

Bombay Stroll by Aki Kumar
https://youtu.be/iAPr6qUTufg

Blow! Blow! Blow! by David Barrett continue reading...

We're now on to the second day of recording. I move into the smaller isolation room and we start the day with all of my solo tunes. These two videos I record "Here We Go." This Tramp groove, based on Lowell Fulson’s song “Tramp,” has long been a favorite groove of mine. With a rhythm driven by 8th and 16th notes, it allows for fast playing and some very cool runs that traverse the entire range of the harmonica. continue reading...