What's New!

Visit http://www.bluesharmonica.com/share/king-of-the-chug to enter the King/Queen of the Chug competition... submissions will be taken until 11/5. I've placed a video on that page as well with suggestions of how you might go about writing your composition.

King of the Chug

Original Solo Blues Harmonica Instrumental Contest presented by BluesHarmonica.com and Hohner Harmonicas continue reading...

In this lesson you'll learn how to navigate the upper four holes of the harmonica in 1st Position. This is also your first study song to use blow bending... each chorus progressively working your blow bend skills. This study is for advanced skill level players. You'll need the G Harmonica for this study.

Join me for an interview with leading harmonica amp repairman, customizer and manufacturer Dale Laslie, founder and CEO of DJL Vintage Audio and designer of the MegaTone Amp line. In this interview Dale defines the role of each element in the tone chain and discusses how these can be changed to maximize their potential for the harp. Co-designer Mike Wezolowski of the MegaTone WEZO-45 also shares with us the story of the building of this amp. To learn more about MegaTone Amps visit www.megatoneamps.com

Mark's latest submission is up. In this submission Mark covers how to create a set list.

In this lesson Joe starts to really get a feel for bending, dips, slaps and pulls... it's all coming together. The next step is his rehearsal for the student concert. Wish him luck!

- Checking in Between Lessons 12 and 13
- Catching Up
- Bending Study 2 - "Feelin' for the Blues" Chorus 1 and Bending Review
- Bending Study 2 - "Feelin' for the Blues" Chorus 2
- Bending Study 2 - "Feelin' for the Blues" Chorus 3
- Tongue Blocking Study 3 - "Gary's Blues" Chorus 1 continue reading...

Bending Study 6 - Blow Bending - Blow bending is the natural next step to continue your mastery of the harmonica... in this case, the high-end. Work with me here and develop your blow bends for a bit and then move on to 1st Position Study 2 where you'll place these blow bends into the context of music. This study is for intermediate and advanced skill Level players. You'll need a D and G Harmonica for this study.

1st Position Study 1 - We have three common positions that we play in as blues harmonica players: 2nd Position, 3rd Position and 1st Position... studied in that order. 1st Position offers great low-end (think Rice Miller's "Trust My Baby") and high-end playing (think Jimmy Reed's "Honest I Do"). In this lesson you'll learn how to navigate the lower four holes of 1st Position with the study song "The Tub." This study is for advanced skill level players. You'll need the G Harmonica for this study.

Minor Playing - Harmonica players will not commonly choose to play in minor due to the fact that there's not much historic precedence of our instrument doing this (in other words it's very rare and there's not much out there for us to copy). It is common though to play with other musicians and a song to be called in a minor key. What is the harmonica player to do? What position(s) are best suited for this and how do we approach it? In this study we answer those questions. You'll need three harmonica: G, A and C. continue reading...

In Aki's latest submission continue looking at performances from the the 2010 San Jose Harmonica Masterclass Workshop. Artists included are: Me (David Barrett), Joe Filisko, Dennis Gruenling, Aki Kumar, Andy Santana, Gary Smith, Dennis Carelli and Hank Stefaniak (that's right, you're on there Hank! ;-).

Submission #5 Part 1 Behind the Scenes at the Harmonica Masterclass Workshop: Welcome
Submission #5 Part 2 Behind the Scenes at the Harmonica Masterclass Workshop: Aki & Andy Santana continue reading...