Tip of the Day

Now that you've tried it with a bullet mic, a cup and your own bare hands... try it now with a harp. Your goal is to play a note at regular volume and smother the harp so much that you can barely hear it. It really helps to do this in front of a mirror (even better is a dual mirror if you have it... like in your bathroom where you might have a a medicine cabinet mirror that can open, giving you the regular mirror and the open door mirror to see multiple angles). Again, flesh-to-flesh is the goal.

You've tried it with a bullet... a cup... now let's just do it with your bare hands. Save idea applies... smother the harp as much as possible... as much flesh-to-flesh as possible... then drop your harp in your lap and then blow into your cup... what leaks out is where you need to work the closing of you cup up.

Want to hear an excellent example of hand cupping technique? Listen to Big Walter Horton's "Hobo Blues" on the Blind Pig album Fine Cuts.

If you're relatively new to the world of harmonica and you don't have a bullet mic yet try this with a glass, cup or tin that's around 2.5" in diameter (that's the common size of a bullet mic). Even for players that have a bullet this is a fun way to experiment with different tones. continue reading...

The more airtight you can get your cup the bigger your sound when playing amplified (more muted, bassy, distorted, louder, etc.). Pic up your harp and mic and make your best, most airtight cup. Now drop the harp on your lap and place your lips where your harp was and blow... where air leaks is where sound is leaking. Work on closing those leaks and your amplified playing will move to the next level.

I'm back home now. Long, but all good flights over the last 24 hours. I heard we had some site downtime and we're working on on that right now... sorry for any hassle.

Your tip of the day...

After a run of performances it's a good idea to go through your harps and check that they're in tune and in good operating condition. I've forgotten to do this in the past and done a gig where the harps obviously should have had some TLC before the gig.

Off to teach at School of the Blues...

Great night last night... I performed a set and everything went very well... I couldn't have asked for better musicians... thanks to Steve Baker for hiring them. Olivier Ker Ourio's set was awesome. The grand finale was fantastic... it's always so much fun to play with great players. I'm off to the Harmonica Museum benefit concert and then to my travels back home. It was a pleasure again to spend time with all of you that met me here.

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More classes yesterday... covering bending and better V-IV-I Progressions and Turnarounds. The weekend performances started last night with Joe Filisko and Eric Noden and finished with Steve Baker and his band... all killer performances. Jam sessions of course followed. Tour of the Hohner Factory.

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Classes went well today... tongue blocking was the focus. We also spent some time doing hole changes, a concept taught in my Blues Harmonica Accompaniment Playing book. The evening jam session was a lot of fun with some great harmonica players. It's obvious coming to this event every year and other events in Europe that there's a very high level of players... more so than the states.

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Klaus Stetter (Managing Director of Hohner Germany) started the event at the Kesselhause (old generating plant for Hohner) saying welcome to everyone and then we were off. Instructors for the day were Steve Baker, Joe Filisko, Robert Koch, Olivier Ker Ourio (Jazz chromatic instructor), Eric Noden (guitar instructor) and myself. I did a skills assessment with my class and there were some great players. Today we go into the inner workings of tongue blocking.

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Flight from London to Stuttgart, Germany... tube to the main rail station... Stuttgart to Rottweil... Rottweil to Trossingen... and finally to the Hotel Baron for Steve Baker's Harmonica Masters Workshop (Steve and the Town of Trossingen with the assistance and support of Hohner Harmonicas). This is my fifth time to Trossingen so I went right to work getting the things from the local stores that I knew I would need for the following workshop days. I went to the Hotel Traub for the traditional instructor/staff dinner meeting where we enjoyed one of the best meals Trossingen has to offer. continue reading...