Ask Instructor David Barrett

I am into Walter's boogie just now, and I am having problems just at the beginning (1st chorus).
I find very difficult to articulate properly the sequence:
3' 2 3' 3'' 2 3'' 3+ 2+ 3+ 3+ 2+ 3+ 3' 2 3' 3'' 2 3'' 3+ 2+ 3+ 3' 2 3'

The draw part is not bad but the blow one is very different from Horton's (of course!!!).

Did he play this passage puckering?

Hi, David -

I have been working with your "Basic Blues Harmonica Method" book, Level 1(published by Mel Bay) and prior to that I'd been using other books and just getting the hang of clean single notes, and the cursed 2-draw. It's getting better and my single notes with pucker are going well. I researched the forums here and see that the general advice--including yours--is to go with tongue blocking primarily but that puckering is also a good technique to have at one's disposal. That makes perfect sense. So, I am working on learning tongue blocking. continue reading...

Hello David, It would be really nice to have a lessons in Artist studies covering Snooky Pryor, Slim Harpo, Lazy lester, Jimmy Reed, Sylvester Buckley & Moses "Whispering" Smith !!!... I'm listening to a lot of their music and love the harping.

David,

I'm confused about what the blues scale is. I think at one point you taught me a 6 note version (in order to leave out bends, maybe?). And then I see the notes you choose for focus notes, are they the full blues scale? If not, is there one identifiable blues scale, what is it, and how does it related to the other two sets of notes I just mentioned, if at all?

Thanks,

Annamarie

David,
What is a " fly in " lesson? Is that where we come to the bay area?
Also do you offer a site for blues piano?

Hi David,

I will be in chicago on Thursday until Satuday and was wondering if you had any recommendations on places to listen to some classic Chicago blues harp. I was wondering as well if there were any harp 'destinations" in chicago that I should check out while I'm there.

Thanks.

Mike

Hi David

When you open the cup playing amped, do you increase your playing volume to compensate for the drop in sound going through the mic, or does the fact that the sound cuts through more make up for the volume loss?

Hi David
I have just signed up to your site for online instruction and I am finding it inspirational. I have been playing lip pursed for many years and I am trying to develop the tongue block sound. I wonder if you can help me with the tab for the George Smith track "Telephone Blues" from the Harmonica Ace album. I believe that the intro is a 1st hole draw then a 2nd hole bend then into a 1-4 draw octave but I'm a bit stuck to where it goes after that as I cannot get the descending part to sound right. I'm using an A harp.
all the best and keep up the good work
andy

Hey David how are you just a quick question i am now tongue blocking full time but when i practice for a while i find i have a little trouble controlling saliva. As disgusting as that sounds it's true to the point reeds stick while playing sometimes. Is this normal for beginning tongue blockers and if so is there a solution.

Hi David,
I'm having an issue with saving study songs on to my desktop in mp3 format. When I save a message comes up about a websaver format. Then when I load onto desktop the file is in a format with the symbol @ on the front and it will not load onto amazing slow downer. Need some help here.

Thanks
Anthony Giarratano