Ask Instructor David Barrett

I have been practicing some improvising by keeping a rhythum and then playing any riffs that comes to me but always going back to my basic syncopated rhythum. ( -2, pull, 2 ,pull, -1 ,pull , 2, pull)

Is this what is called Vamping? Also without putting it into a 12 bar blues, is it beneficial and do players play this way when soloing? continue reading...

Hello David,

I'm a new student who appreciates all the work that has gone into the creation of this website to help students learn blues harmonica. I'm trying to follow the Study Plan and also follow Joe Tartaglia's progress, but I'm missing something. The Study Plan materials are organized by Skill Levels and subdivided into Sections and Studies. By contrast Joe's lessons are organized by Lesson Number. What's the correspondence between Joe's Lesson Numbers and the Section and/or Study Numbers?

Thanks,
Bill Owen
Professor56

Just a quick note to say thanks for all the cool material recently uploaded - the James Harman track, all the improvising lessons, the great songwriting submissions from Gary Smith and Mark Hummel, Joe Filisko's submissions, Aki Kumar's entertaining blues contest journey, Joe Tartaglia's lessons and now Steve Guyger's Snake Oil - a track I really love and have been messing around with for a while. This site keeps getting better and better!

Dave, you told me that a chromatic tuner would help me see how far my bends are going. This may sound like a weird question, what if I play a diatonic harp? Is that the same difference? Thank you Dan

David, I am new on the site. After viewing a video I must click on the "return" arrow on the upper left corner of the screen to return to the page containing the lesson series I am studying.Is there a way to get to the next video without these extra manipulations?

Hi David

First of all, I'd like to take the chance of this post to thank you for your commitment to teaching.

I've been a rather long customer of your methods (I bought the "Building harmonica technique" book something like 10 years ago and I consider it as the mother of them all ;-) ). I've got several books of yours (the Blues Harmonica Accompaniment Playing / Improvising Blues Harmonica are especially great) and for me the video is a real plus. There is something human passing to the viewer.

Now my question. When is the ending licks lesson coming?

All the best

Laurent

Heey David,

Can I upload 2 different instrumentals?
I have one song with a guitar player and one recorded with backingtrack.

There different songs and i would like to sent them both.

Greats from holland

koen jacobs

Hi Dave,
So I have been watching players on You Tube and I see some variation in the key of harp used when the band is playing in a flat key. For example, if the song is in "B flat" I see players going up one key and use an "A" harp. Is this right or am I off??
Thanks!

Hello David,

Could you have a look at the clip "V-IV-I Licks - Examples 1 through 25"? I get a black screen when watching it.
All the others work well.

Thank you.

From which age a childern will benefit of a stage... considering if to bring my kids with me (and more in general at which age a kid should start to play harp following a method as the one proposed here?)

Will be it possible to attend more then one workshop (lets say your and Filisko one) or the time will overlap?