Tip of the Day

Longevity
The #1 killer of harmonicas is loud playing. Each reed vibrates at a fixed speed. As you play louder, the reed doesn't vibrate any faster, its arc increases, placing greater forces at its flex point (the base, at the rivet end), causing earlier metal fatigue. Custom harmonicas require less air to sound, and players will commonly play softer due to this, making custom harmonicas last longer that standard harmonicas.

Savings continue reading...

Yesterday I gave you two reasons of why custom harmonicas may not be necessary. Here are the reasons why I personally like custom harmonicas…

Balanced
Though construction and quality control is currently better than it's ever been in the harmonica's history... from the factory, for obvious economic reasons, you’ll never reach the level of attention that a customizer will give your harmonicas. Most simply, a harmonica will play more evenly across the entire range of the instrument. This means that it takes the same amount of air pressure to sound hole 1 as it does hole 10. continue reading...

I'm often asked about the value of using custom harmonicas. Today I'll state why playing a custom harmonica is not necessary or may not be a good choice for you. On Monday I'll speak of why players (including myself) choose to play them.

1) Most professional players started moving to custom harmonicas in the 1990's due to the low quality of harmonicas being produced during that time. Construction and quality control is currently better than it's ever been in the harmonica's history... you no longer have to play a custom harmonica to be a great player. continue reading...

The top of your tongue is wider. If you find yourself pushing your tongue on the face of the harmonica to cover enough holes for a tongue block technique, use more of the top of the tongue (tip under the harmonica) and go back to using a light touch on the face of the harmonica.

Our latest installment of overbend studies has just released, featuring Jason Ricci. continue reading...

Congratulations to fellow student Iman Rahimipour from Iran on the article featuring him in the National Harmonica League magazine (harmonica.co.uk), written by Patrice Rayon. He's achieved LOA-L6 and Beginning Instructor Accreditation at BluesHarmonica.com. You can read the article here https://www.facebook.com/bluesharmonica. If you like the article, you can receive the magazine by become a member of NHL for a small annual membership. The magazine is filled with good harmonica articles and happenings around the world.

Yesterday I shared some reasons of why I don't like volume controls. Here are some reasons why a volume control can be good...

1) Set your volume control to 10, and the amp as loud as it can go just before feedback. Now drop your volume on the mic to 8. This 8 will be your normal volume, even for solos (remember to play softly as your normal playing volume... you want to have dynamic range so that you can play louder for your solo). If the band gets too excited and plays too loudly, then you know you have two more notches on your volume to get louder. continue reading...

Why I don't like about volume controls...

1) The harmonica is a wind instrument... you control your volume with how much you breath through the instrument. Why do you need a volume control to control something that's part of the nature of the instrument? continue reading...

Once you've dialed in your amp to sound great for performance, turn the treble and mid up half a number. The tone we prefer is often too bassy and lacks the cut needed to be heard in performance. By bringing your treble and mid up half a number it provides a boost in the frequencies that make our sound more intelligible without sacrificing too much of the bassy tone we dig.

Listen to "In Memory," the song featured in today's release of Recording Study 4. The pitch content of what I played and the textures I used in which to present them are of course important, but dynamics are center stage in this song to convey emotion. The use of dynamics (primarily volume change) is what's commonly missing from players in their first five years of study. The addition of dynamics easily doubles the emotional impression on the listener... I can't emphasize this point strongly enough. continue reading...