Tip of the Day

Helpful tips from head instructor David Barrett for students of BluesHarmonica.com

Who was the first blues harp player to record? and other firsts...

Posted Mon, 12/19/2011 - 15:05 by David Barrett Admin

Check out Pat Missin's hugely-informative site for this great article: http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q5.html

Hearing yourself, desired tone and audience impact

Posted Sat, 12/17/2011 - 12:21 by David Barrett Admin

The magic combination is to hear yourself well on the bandstand, be pleased with your tone and have the confidence that your sound is BIG in the house. If you can’t hear yourself well, you’ll play too hard, putting undue stress on your harmonicas (I’ve destroyed MANY harmonicas playing too loudly) and hinder your dynamic range. Achieving what you hear to be good tone on the bandstand inspires you to play at your best. The louder a single-source is (an amplifier not mic’d), the less likely you’ll hear the same sound on the bandstand that the audience is hearing in the house. continue reading...

Ear Training for 3 Draw Bends

Posted Fri, 12/16/2011 - 10:41 by David Barrett Admin

If you're working on bending accuracy (when are we not!), then you already know you're wasting your time if you're not using a tuner or at least a piano to reference your pitch. There are times when we're not around such helpful devices and it's handy to have a different kind of reference...

Part of ear training is to develop a tune list of intervals. Here are some good references...

Whole Step Bend - "Three Blind Mice" 3 3" 2, 3 3 3" 3" 2

Half Step Bend on 3' - "Spoonful" = 3' 2 3' 2 3' 2

Half Step and Whole Step Bend - "There's a Place in France" 2 3" 3' 3" 2, 2 3" 3' 4 3' 3" 2 continue reading...

Tension

Posted Thu, 12/15/2011 - 00:41 by David Barrett Admin

We all have areas of our body that are tense while playing. Tension leads to poor tone (when this tension is from the neck up), slower playing (tense muscles are slow muscles) and fatigue (upper back, neck and tongue). It should be a goal of yours to practice and perform as relaxed as possible (body and mind). Put a jam track CD on and play through the entire CD. You could also make a playlist of the songs you've learned so far and play through all of them in one sitting. After this long playing session make note of where you're getting fatigued... continue reading...

Gift Ideas #8 - Volume Control

Posted Wed, 12/14/2011 - 01:10 by David Barrett Admin

Greg Heumann of BlowsMeAway Productions started his company many years ago (Greg was a student of mine) borrowing my Switchcraft volume control saying, "I can make this!" Now Greg offers an entire selection of in-line volume controls, adapters, wireless systems and custom microphones. http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Gift Ideas #7 - Blues Harmonica Method Level 2 BK/CD, The Tongue Block Method

Posted Tue, 12/13/2011 - 09:15 by David Barrett Admin

Blues Harmonica Method Level 2 BK/CD, The Tongue Block Method, just released. This would be on par with Level 4 bending and tongue block studies on the site.

Bending and advanced Tongue Blocking are covered along with three full-length song studies. Recording includes all harmonica parts notated in the book with accompaniment music. This book and its recording use the “C” and “A” major diatonic harmonica.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 – Bending
What Notes Can Be Bent
Bending Exercises
Two Note Combinations
Bending Example Song
Quartertone Bending continue reading...