Tip of the Day

What's your left thumb doing? When you're working a Wa Wa or holding a bullet mic your job is to smother as much of the harmonica as possible. What's your left thumb doing? Is it just sitting under the harmonica or is it an active part of your closed cup? Take a look and see what it's doing...

My opinion here... I only clean the outside of my harmonicas every now and again... I never soak, wash, or in any way touch the inside (unless there's something that needs to be fixed). I'm off to the HarpSmith lair for filming now.. I'm sure he'll have something to say about that ;-)

This tip influenced by jbooth12...

Should you play ONE blues scale (they key of the song - G Blues Scale if you're in the Key of G) over all of the chord changes... or play a blues scale based on the starting note of each chord (C Blues Scale for the IV7 Chord and a D Blues Scale for the V7 Chord)? continue reading...

Only hold as much of the harmonica as you have to... the deeper the harmonica is in your hands the less there is to go in your mouth... the less harmonica in your mouth the thinner your tone and the harder it is to tongue block.

It's all about tone. Say "SH" and feel that the tongue is frontal in the mouth and raised. If your tone sounds whinny at times, this is why... this is where your tongue is... frontal and raised. Now try "AH" as well as dropping the jaw... this will get you a lot closer to the position needed for good tone. Experiment with this.

Most players tend to close their embouchure down as they move up to the high end of the harmonica: this causes the reeds to commonly flatten, sound airy, squeal or not sound at all, especially the 7 and 8 draw. When moving to the high-end OPEN your embouchure by dropping your jaw, tongue and opening your throat, as well as keeping your lips as wide as you can and still keep a single note sounding. Think warm air passage... like you're fogging a mirror with your breath. This will ensure big sounding high-end notes.

Take a couple deep breaths... relax yourself, you play better that way...

Say to yourself, "Play musically... play repetitively" (repetitively meaning chorus forms)

Good luck to all of the School of the Blues students performing at the summer concert today!!!

Now try these chords in a triplet rhythm (three notes per beat... same as yesterday) with TA-DL-A. This is also triple-tonguing. Our most famous examples of this are from Junior Wells (listen to the original release of "Messin' with the Kid," from the Hoodoo Man Blues album at :44) and Magic Dick ("Whammer Jammer," studio version at 2:09).

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 and same for blows...
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Now try these chords in a triplet rhythm (three notes per beat) with TA KA TA. This is called triple-tonguing.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 and same for blows...
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Now try these chords alternating TA and KA (start with TA). This is called double-tonguing.

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 and same for blows...
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

3TA 3KA 3TA
2TA 2KA 2TA etc.
1TA 1KA 1TA