Ask Instructor David Barrett

When we get to the Af Af Bt chorus form your challenge to me is to make up fills. In the earlier Af Af Af I'm given some specific examples. I like the repetition of the chorus form but find the fills to be more interesting. As a beginner I'm not sure where to find fills from what I've learned so far. What I'm playing doesn't sound anything bluesy like yours do on the video even though I know you're not reaching very far. Any suggestions about how I can find fills that fit other than the specific examples given in Af Af Af? Thanks!

I'm glad to realize that you make a series about tremolo and vibrato in your Tip of the Day.

I currently practice to unlock my tremolo and my flutter too from the triplet rythm. It would be nice if you could say something about the process and approach how to unlock it because it's difficult for me since a while to get an satisfying performance.

Thank you

Ralph

Hi David,

What does C major scale stack mean?

Also, in some of the movement exercise patterns, there are short underlines with the

ends up under 3 notes here and there?  oops..in Ex.1 there is a line under  4 notes, and in exercise 8, the line is

under 2 notes.

Like under 7, 6+, 7 and other combinations?

from,

Patricia Frizzell

(still pretty much a beginner)  thank you...

You probably use a camcorder to record your video lessons on this site.  The sound is very good and yet you are at some distance from the microphone.  When I record t home, I must be very close to my PE588 or Shure JT-30 mic, or the sound volume falls off rapidly and I end up with a weak recording.  What microphone will allow me to be at some distance from the microphone, the further the better, and still pick up my harmonica playing?  I do not, in general, want to hold the microphone while I'm practicing and making baseline recordings.

So I just got started on the LOA and there seems to be some inconsistancies between the video lesson and the Position Chart (or I'm not understanding you correctly <-- most likely). On the Understanding Positions video in Blues Harmonica Fundementals you state that 2nd position on an A harmonica is E. But when I look at the Position Chart it says that it is D. You also say that the D harmonica plays in the key of A when the chart says G. And you say that the G harmonica plays in D whereas the chart says C. I'm pretty sure that I'm misunderstanding you. continue reading...

Charlie's Swing is one of my favourite jam tracks from Play-Along Trax. It motors along nicely at 210 bpm in Bb and it's got a ii V I instead of the more usual V IV I. My question concerns bars 7 and 8 where we've got I ii iii and biii seventh chords. Standard stuff on guitar but not sure about harp. Is the concept here to just blow through the chord changes using the I chord's root/b7 (G/F) dyad then moving to its 5/5 (D/D) octave with the change to the octave intended to be a nod to the iii to biii even though the I chord's fifth (D) doesn't really work over the biii's m3 (Db)? continue reading...

Morning David,

Might seem a bit of a daft question this, but here goes. Whether I'm playing a solo, an accompiament or study song, as I play the harmonica to the jam track, I tap my foot to the beat, but as I tap my foot I count the beats off in my head per bar 1,2,3,4 and repeat this process until the jam track ends. My question is, is there a better way of staying in time with the beat rather than keep counting out the beat in my head. Hope this makes sense.

Regards,

Paul

There have been lots of questions in the past about tongue switching and I've got one I can't find an answer to by searching. My personal issue is I pucker hole one so I'm starting to work on tongue blocking out of the left side of my mouth as instructed on Level 1. My question is more about when to use this left side open embouchure. Is it only to play hole one? Or is it to go to any hole from anywhere on the harmonica to a lower hole? continue reading...

Sometimes there's just so much information available on the site I can't always remember where I saw or read something. My question is did you recommend to someone that it might be a good idea to devote one day per week to reviewing study songs, and other material I want to keep fresh, by playing them to jam tracks? It sounds like a good idea as it's a break from the daily routine and would keep everything interesting. Thanks!

Both No Sweat & Gary's Blues use the same jam track, the Texas Swing in D from Ultimate Jam.  But the sheet music for these songs show a different chord progression for the 3rd line.  Gary's Blues denotes a V7-IV7-I7-V7 progression and No Sweat denotes a ii-V-I.  Yet when I listen to the jam tracks downloaded from this site, the chord progressions sound identical, as indeed they should, since they use the same titled jam track.  I also listened to the Texas Swing in D from the Ultimate Jam CD, and it too, sounds identical to the study song jam tracks, differing only continue reading...