Ask Instructor David Barrett

Hi,

I'm working through the Level 5 material and am stumbling on the wording of the music theory portion, specifically Ex. 6.1 where it says, "If I have an F Harmonica in my hand..." Can you clarify what you're after here? The fact that the scale degrees and the hole directions stay the same, but that the notes change?

If you go over this in one of your videos, please direct me there and I'll try to figure it out on my own, but I'm really stumped as to what you're looking for :p

Thanks!

I know this happens on a regular basis, but its new to me.

Playing my A harp, I noticed that the 5 draw had gone WAY flat, like a full 1/4 tone.  It's very noticeable.  Is this a "blown reed"?  Or what causes this?

I realize this is a matter of opinion, but I'd like to hear yours.  Is it worth the effort/hassle to fix/replace the reed?  Or should I just go get another harp?

Hello David,

I was wondering if you have any videos/exercises on the website on how to master the throat tremolo. I'm having a lot of trouble doing it on the draws when I increase the speed on my study songs. On the blows my vibrato is nice and even but on the draws I can't do it as fast and my diafraghm starts shaking. How can I get better at this?

Thanks for the help and for always answering so quickly.

Really loving the website!

Hi David,

For Improvising study 2, we have to make a chorus for each of the notes from 1 to 9+ which is about 11 choruses. The Temperature soundtrack has about 6 choruses, minus 2 for head and ending, leaving 4 choruses for focus notes. Do you want us to jam all focus 11 notes in one take or about 4 which is what fits unless we can jam two or three of them for each chorus?

Cheers,

Anton

I've been using the tongue switching technique to play the 1 hole blow/draw, playing out the left side of my mouth. A little awkward at first but it's comfortable enough now :)

I've noticed, though, that your tabs don't indicate a slap on low C's and D's. Just curious if this is to allow for other techniques on the 1 blow/draw, or if there's a particular reason we don't slap down there. Thanks for any insight!

What do you do with your tongue in order to play the lowest notes on the harp, espeically in going from higher notes?

Hi David,

I am a little stuck in the Accompiament Playing section where you want us to play the 12 bar blues (I Want You With Me) and staying on one hole for each of the 12 bar blues, moving up a hole one at a time.

I am sure about hole 5   That hole (in C) has notes E (blow) and F (draw) as options

For I Chord (G) - neither G, B or D are found in hole 5.  So move to hole 6 blow for G note?

For IV Chord (C) there is an E note, 5 Blow, so that will work, right? continue reading...

Is there a jam track for "I Want You With Me (Shuffle in E)" without vocals or harmonica?

Is there an area on the site where all the jam tracks can be found?  A catalogue, library or listing of all the jam sites in one location?

Thank you

Kurt Thompson

Hello David, First of all happy new year for you and Sharon!

I've been practicing the bending study 1 and was wondering how far should I go before jump into bending study 2 and dig in to the LOA 3 study song. Do I need to master the bendings or should I start to learn the song?

I'm already able to reach a pretty controlled bend on 6, 5 and 4. Strangelly the 1 sounds almost good, but the 2 and 3 I'm still strugling to reach the half step.  continue reading...

David: I heard you playing a major scale lick on holes 6 and 7. Now I can't find it. I don't remember whether it was in the forum or in the lessons somewhere.

mtnhank