Tip of the Day

Use a lighter touch. The gasket seal of your lips and tongue on the face of the harmonica work best when they're soft and supple. This is especially important when you perform tongue block techniques like the pull... with the slightest amount of pressure you should be able to close all of the holes in your embouchure for the start of the pull. This also helps when sliding on the harmonica... you're quicker and will have less abrasion due to the tongue and lips gliding across the face of the harmonica, not getting stuck in the holes as you move.

It was a good day when Shure came out with this Discontinued Microphones PDF listing years ago http://www.shure.com/americas/support/user-guides/discontinued-products/.... This made it easy to find which microphones had good elements, but were cheap due to their awkward size or lack of cool art deco styling.

At a Chicago Harmonica Masterclass Workshop (I believe in 2005) David Waldman shared a cool tip in regards to phrasing like Little Walter. He said, "If you want to emulate Little Walter's phrasing, start your licks on beat 2." He then played with the guitarist and improvised with this in mind, and sure enough, all of us instructors (Joe Filisko, Dennis Gruenling and Scott Dirks) nodded our heads in agreement... it sounded like what Walter would do. I experimented with this concept after the workshop and it's now a tool I use in my improvising from time to time. continue reading...

A very cool website on how sound works. Thanks to Dr. Peter Egbert for sharing http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/waves-sound/

In this podcast at 20:04 tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman talks about the commonly-referenced "flow" state, and more importantly when the flow state is not happening http://www.wbgo.org/checkoutjazz/saxophonist-joshua-redman-joins-the-bad...

A very extensive article on the past challenges of Hohner Marine Band quality control and the birth of harmonica customization featuring our resident harp tech expert Kinya Pollard, The Harpsmith, and other contributors to BluesHarmonica.com... Steve Baker, Joe Filisko, Brendan Power and Richard Sleigh.

The Return of the Harmonica
http://craftsmanship.net/the-return-of-the-harmonica/

"A Brief History of Harmonicas" from the What You Missed in History Class podcast http://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/a-brief-history-of-harmonicas/

Gary Smith called me yesterday to say that he purchased some 7189 tubes as drop-in replacements for the stock EL84 tubes and he loves the results and recommends it to any Blues Jr owners out there to give it a try. He purchased a matched pair for $66 at TheTubeStore.com http://www.thetubestore.com/Tubes/EL84-6BQ5-Tube-Types/Preferred-Series-...

Lastly, everything's just easier to play on a custom harmonica. The big one is that bending is easier (draw, blow and overbend) and the middle bends are less airy in tone. When playing a 3" you'll notice that there's an airy quality to the bend... this is normal for all harmonicas, but is greatly diminished with a custom harmonica.

Okay, let's review...

Balanced
Same breath for each reed, making playing across the range of the harmonica effortless

Dynamic Range
The main reason for playing custom harmonicas is so you can play softly, giving you great dynamic range

Longevity continue reading...

Join me, Gary Smith​ and Aki Kumar​ live on the air this Friday with Kathleen Lawton at KCSM 91.1 as we play tracks from our new CD and blow a little harp. Show starts at 9pm and we'll be on at 10pm. Click on the "Listen Live" button at top-left http://kcsm.org/jazz91/announcer_lawton.php