Tip of the Day

Now use your teeth as reference for all of your bends. For example, when I perform the 3" on my A Harmonica, if I raise my tongue slightly to see where it is relative to my teeth, I find that the back wings of my tongue will touch my third molar on each side of my upper set of teeth. Take a moment and experiment with finding your tongue location relative to your upper set of teeth.

Since you and your instructor cannot see what's going on in each other's mouths, our teeth are an important reference for tongue location within the mouth.

Let's start this series with the fact that the tongue should never touch... for any technique... the back (anterior) of your upper front teeth (incisors). Having your tongue protrude this far will still allow you to perform most techniques, but the result is very poor tone. Experiment with draw bending, blow bending (especially blow bending), tongue blocking, slaps, flutters, pulls, pull-slaps, etc. continue reading...

A student just purchased a Bassman and brought it in to experiment with tube swaps last night. I was changing the power tubes and on one of the power tube sockets, one of holes where the tube tines insert folded in on itself... this is the second time this has happened on a reissue Bassman. It's going into the repair shop today. I don't know if this is just due to cheap Fender sockets (this has not happened with any other amp), but either way, just be careful when changing tubes to make sure that the pins go straight in.

This tip comes from Tad Robinson in an interview he conducted for BluesHarmonica.com (I'm editing it right now... to release in September).

His analogy for those learning how to improvise is that of a painter... learn how to paint still life first, before trying impressionist art. In other words, copy the blues harmonica masters verbatim first, then try your own thing after time. Cool analogy.

Want a cheap, but very high quality MP3 recorder? Check out the TASCAM DR-08 for $80 (down from a MSRP of $449.99) at MusiciansFriend.com http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/tascam-dr-08-linear-pcm-mp3-rec...
This will be great for those of you who want to record yourself playing the study songs for my review.

Description (from MusiciansFriend.com)
24-bit/96kHz handheld recorder with adjustable microphones for more accurate recording patterns. continue reading...

In my early years of performing, dry mouth was a big problem. Between the ages of 16 and 20 I was fortunate enough to participate in local blues harmonica blowouts and perform as a special guest for a local band (Powerhouse Blues Band) when they would open up for bigger names, such as Cotton, Piazza and Musselwhite (bigger name shows paid bigger money, so they could afford having another member on the payroll that night). The challenge was the anticipation of going up in the middle of the show... commonly only playing two or three songs... continue reading...

THE place to purchase hard copies of blues harmonica CDs is www.bluebeatmusic.com. Owner Charlie Lange is an avid blues music collector and a great guy. He carries over 25,000 releases, specializes in hard-to-find releases and goes to trade shows to get rare recordings for his customers. He specializes in blues harmonica recordings... Joe Filisko, Dennis Gruenling, I, and every other serious collector has purchased from Charlie for years. His prices are good and shipping is daily. So, you can see I highly recommend working with Charlie.

Blues Play Along Tracks for Harmonica Players by Shoblues
http://www.bluesharptracks.com/

Here are two videos that do a good job of describing how sound is produced.

Sound Waves and their Sources (1933)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK2-6cgqgYA&list=UUucupwTXUP0IaKzafA-WmvA...

Pitch Systems in Tonal Music Part 2: The Octave and Just Intervals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZL5evNWD2M&feature=BFa&list=PLB322565F6E...

Following the advice of Sissi Jones ("Sissi Jones Interview – Hohner Chromatic Service Tech" on the Equipment Page) use a small strip from a brown paper bag and place the strip between the lower and upper windsavers. With slight pressure from your thumb, push downward on the windsaver sandwich as you pull the strip out. This strip works as a slight abrasive and cleans the material causing them to stick that was between the two windsavers that was. continue reading...