Tip of the Day

I'm off to spend time with my family and am logging off until Tuesday. Happy Holidays to to you and your family!

Your tip for today...

Take your harmonica out... look at it closely... turn it in your hand and appreciate how simple, but effective of a design it is... put it in your mouth and play it softly... loudly... pretty... bluesy...... it's the time of year to appreciate the things we have :-)

You may think you need a special recording device for the process of recording yourself... you don't. Here's a quick list of tools you can use.

- iPhone built in voice recorder (or equivalent smart phone)
- Built-in microphone on your laptop
- Cheap mic for your computer (less than $15)
- Hand digital or mini-tape recorder
- Answering machine (believe it or not, just call yourself and leave a message! Be aware that some tones will set off certain functions on your answering system)

Recording yourself is one the best self-analytic tools you can use to better your playing. While playing you may think you've got a passage, but when recording and listening back you may notice rhythmic, technique or tone issues that were not apparent while in the act of playing it. EVERY professional player and educator I've spoken to swears by this. So, if you're not doing it, what are you waiting for!

Since we're at the end of the year it's a good idea to listen back to recordings you did at the end of last year. What areas have you improved? What areas would you like to improve this year? Set goals and project how much practice time is required to reach those goals. If you find it difficult to carve out the allotted time you need to reevaluate your goals.

Happy anniversary to BluesHarmonica.com and its subscribers... it's been a great year. I look forward to working with you more this new year and continue providing you with fun and educational content for the site.

Your tip... continue reading...

The people that hear you the most appreciate you the least. Find a room, garage, parked car, woodshed, outhouse!... okay, maybe not the outhouse... that's away from people you care about to practice. Every now and again come out and play them a little somethin'.

With software like the Amazing Slow Downer you can make a track that contains an even smaller piece of the song you're studying, even one lick. I'm sure you've experienced one lick in a song that just kills you each time... slow it down... loop it... save it with "30" as the setting of how many times to loop and you have yourself a practice track to attack the killer lick. Happy hunting!

Another good way to make a practice CD is to save each chorus of the song you're studying as a separate track. In the Amazing Slow Downer you can also choose to have it repeat the chorus multiple times so you don't have track back each time in practice.

When working on a study song start with the slowest provided speed on the site (commonly 30% slow). Work on each chorus until you can play the entire song very well at that slower speed, then move to the next speed (commonly 15% slow), and finally full tempo. Once you can play it at full tempo with me, each practice play along with me once and then the jam track once. Do this, back and forth, until you can play the entire song with the jam track.

When working on a study song it's common for a student to start from the beginning and work their way through to the end of the song. Let's say that you have the first three choruses down and you're working on chorus four. Start your practice by playing the entire song once, then set your loop to the beginning of the fourth chorus. Ignore the first three choruses as you study the fourth. Work the fourth chorus one lick at a time. Before you finish your practice time play the entire song from beginning to the end again one more time. continue reading...