Tip of the Day

What does it mean to "help" the harmonica community?

Here are some examples...

1) Ask the leader of the local jam session you frequent if there's anything you can help with. Aspects of running or setting up for the jam... getting the word out via social media or flyers in the local area...

2) Get the word out about products or services you feel strongly about in your social circles... local and your social media (Facebook, blog, etc.). Possibly write a review. continue reading...

Most likely you didn't have anything to list when I asked you what you were doing for the harmonica community yesterday. Let's look at three paths of thinking though... supporting, helping and creating... you're surely doing one of these?

Supporting continue reading...

What are you doing for the harmonica community?

It's true that the harmonica is a blind person's instrumental, though we do have our hands. Your lips, jaw and cheek touch your hands while playing the harmonica, giving you a tactile reference. Experiment by playing across the range of your harmonica and noting where your face is in relation to your hands; you may find this helpful when working on new passages that require large leaps. As you practice those challenging passages, over time your muscle memory will take over and you won't need that tactile reference, but it can be helpful at first.

Have you heard of the 10,000 hours rule to mastery? Chapter two of Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers" does a good job of covering it. Dan Levitin's book "This is Your Brain on Music" also speaks of it in reference to the musical mind. Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein" covers the subject in reference to skills development for his memory project. K. Anders Ericsson, the leading expert on skills acquisition, coined the phrase and is the source quoted in all of these texts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Ericsson). Fascinating stuff. continue reading...

In Malcolm Gladwell's best selling book The Tipping Point he speaks about connectors. As my student, I am your connector. As a musician, knowing who the connectors are for your local music scene will make the difference between getting opportunities to play and not.

Visit http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/ for more information. His latest audio book of this work is on iTunes and is read very well.

Here's a quote on accompaniment playing from Steve Czarnecki, keyboard instructor at School of the Blues.

"We’re not always the center of attention in music or in life, and there are times when it pays to play the background role graciously—learning to be a member of the musical boiler room propelling the great ship of song. You can become a very popular musician by being a good accompanist."

The most effective way to encode a lick into your long term memory and ensure that it shows up in your improvising is to apply the chorus form method. Learn the lick, then play it as an: AAA; AAA with fills; AAB; AAB with fills; the three variations of A B/A C; change the presentation of the lick (dip, add a little of the upper note, shake, slap, pulls and slaps, flutter, octave, etc.); move it up and/or down an octave; break it into smaller pieces (fragmentation)...

This process is not only VERY effective, it's very fun!

We often hear a cool lick and learn just that lick, leaving the solo or instrumental behind (sometimes that lick is the only cool idea played... or at least cool to us at that moment in time). Many players just learn the lick and move on. If you move on you're guaranteed to not have it show up in your improvising. Unless the lick contains some super-sticky elements that makes it unusually easy to remember (doesn't usually happen) you'll need to play it a minimum of 50 times before it sticks into your long-term memory. continue reading...

If you have a band, take each new song you learn and place it in your set to give it context. Not only does playing a new song with the band in an upcoming gig give you the impetus to practice hard, the great thing about having a band is that you have the opportunity to use your new and old material often... the licks, movement and technique stay active in your playing.

I don't gig often, so I when I get a high-profile gig, I use it as an opportunity to write something new.

Since most of you will not have a band, you can place that new song on the bandstand via a local jam session. continue reading...