Ask Instructor David Barrett

Hi Dave. Are there particular places/ lessons that discuss technique for playing acoustic harp using the vocal mic?

LOA 4 includes one tongue blocking song and one bending song. In other LOA work I've done everything concurrently so I'm getting a wide variety of new material every week. I was wondering about these two songs. This is the first time I've had two songs in the same LOA right off the top. Would you recommend doing one before the other or is concurrent still a good approach? Thanks!

I was rollin' along pretty good with chorus forms until I got to Rollin' Rhumba. Went through the video for Ex 5.1 quite nicely but when looking at my PDF copy I noticed 5.1 has a chord symbol above it and that the IV chord is indicated. Of course the video used 5.1 as A in the various chorus forms over all the chords. So my question is can most bluesy licks be used over any of the three chords but are there some licks that are just more suitable for the IV chord? I'll leave the V chord out of this question for now as that seems like another issue. Thanks!

Hello David, I´m running out of air so easely wen trying to play the Solo harmonica studyes, especially on number 3. What could be possibly happening?

Thank you

I know a little theory so that's a good thing though there are times when a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!

If we follow the circle of fifths clockwise I can see why playing a C harp in G is called 2nd postion and why playing it in D is 3rd position. That would lead me to conclude playing a C harp in A is 4th position. I understand all these possibilities are actually modes of the C scale which give us different types of major and minor scales depending upon where the whole and half steps end up falling. continue reading...

Hi, David:

For the improvising study in LOA-5, I created an original instrumental using the five chorus forms. In the past couple of weeks, though, that instrumental has evolved. It's now a stronger, more interesting song but no longer has all the different chorus forms.

When I submit for LOA-5, should I submit the original version of the song (the one with all the chorus forms)?

Hi David,

I'm trying to find the two as yet unlocked artist studies, but don't want to open my email everytime I want to load the studies.

I tried using the search option here on the site but can't find them that way either.

Can you give me a tip of how to find them?

(As you have zillions of students asking billions of questions each day, I'll remind you that I have just recently unlocked level 2 loa). :-)

Regards,

Chris (Gully)

I'm reasonably familiar with the Juke riff in 2nd position so I decided to try it in 3rd. With the F# being necessary I can only play it at the low end. The bend to the A then release to the B on the 3 hole is a bit of a challenge but coming along. As I can't fully replicate the riff higher up where there are no bends due to the lack of a F# I've been playing just the last couple of notes up there then comparing my 3" to see if it sounds similar to 6. My question is do you recommend this kind of comparison to your students? Is there a video? Thanks!

Hi there, I have a few questions regarding different things.

1) I'm learning The Strut at this moment, and I have a difficulty with the 3/4 dip with

a Seydel harmonica, problems which I do not have with my lee oskar in the key of D, nor do I Have

that problem on any other harmonica (all my others are Manjis), it just feels "stuck" when I try to dip it in a

fast and flowing manner. I tried working on my embochure for that specific harmonica but continue reading...

Hello instructor, I have a few questions:

1 - About amp settings on the band stand: We should set the Bass on 10 and the Treble on 0 (rule of thumb) but when you mic the amp, and the signal goes to the mixing table, does the sound man also have to set the channel to Bass 10 treble 0, or he should leave on the "flat position"? Should i tell him anything or should I leve him decide what it´s best for the situation? Because we rally want the people to hear that "bassy sound" right?

  continue reading...