Tip of the Day

The 3 draw is commonly played at a quarter tone bend or dipped.

It's rare to hear an experienced blues harmonica player play the 3 draw without a slight bend. The bend is not as deep as a half step (3' Bb), it's between the 3 B and 3 Bb, and it's variable, so it's best not to say it's an exact degree in that range (the lighter the song, the less the bend... the darker the song, the deeper the bend).

If you're going for a lighter sound, then a dip is good. A dip is a slight bend (can go as deep as a half step, 3' Bb) that releases quickly to the natural 3 draw. continue reading...

The 4 draw is the most over-used note on the harmonica in 2nd Position soloing for good reason... it can be presented in many ways (single, double, shake, slap, flutter, octave, etc.) and is a great launching pad to move up or down the harmonica. Today's law is that it's rare to play the 4 draw by itself, it's commonly presented with a touch of 5 draw in it to thicken its texture (what Joe Filisko calls "Dirty Notes"). The challenge is just to add a touch... too much and it becomes overly dissonant.

Tomorrow starts a series I'll call Laws of Blues Harmonica. These laws cover common practices in regards to the approach of technique on the harmonica and blues music in general. Laws are of course meant to be broken, and should be if you have a musical reason for it (commonly phrasing), but you can generally count on what I'll share with you as being common practice among blues harmonica players of past and present. continue reading...

Time to help out our brother Adam https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/satan-and-adam-a-documentary#/story

One of my favorite podcasts explores the myth behind Robert Johnson's tale of selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads http://www.radiolab.org/story/199705-crossroads/

P.S., this doesn't work for harmonica players. Practice is the path to riches and fame... hundreds and hundreds of dollars await those who persevere.

Ross Garren's final part of his series on Introduction to Studio Harmonica Work http://tightcup.com/introduction-to-studio-harmonica-work-part-3/

This article is the second installment in a series Ross Garren has been working on for the Lone Wolf Blues Company's blog, Tightcup.com, on the ins and outs of studio harp playing http://tightcup.com/introduction-studio-harmonica-work-part-2/

A BIG announcement has just been made... you can now return defective Hohner Harmonicas at the place of purchase. In the past you would have to take the time and expense of mailing a defective harmonica to Hohner directly for repair or replacement, now you can just return the harmonica with proof of at the store you purchased it from. I recommend you print out the portion of this new Hohner Easy Reeding magazine though, this non-return policy has been around so long that I guaranty you'll have to prove that this is the case. continue reading...

Since the art of harmonica playing is mostly hidden from view, we spend the majority of our time listening when studying. To make this more convenient, you can take the same YouTube video and convert it to an audio file to use in your preferred audio program. Copy the URL from the YouTube video and Paste it into Media Human's YouTube to MP3 Converter software (http://www.mediahuman.com/youtube-to-mp3-converter/). Click on the download arrow and it downloads the video's audio into your iTunes library. continue reading...

Go to a favorite YouTube performance you've been interested in learning and click on Settings (gear icon at bottom right-hand side of screen), click on Speed and then select .5 (half speed) or .25 (one quarter the original speed). Pitch will remain the same when slowed down. This is a great tool to study songs from YouTube.