Tip of the Day

"Play everything — no matter how trivial or trite it might be — with dynamics and sound and musical expression."

From: http://arbanmethod.com/wynton-marsalis-daily-practice/ Thanks to Jon Harl for sharing.

In this streaming radio archive Joe Filisko shares Rare Early Solo Instrumental Blues Harp Recordings. This comes to you via The Archivist (Roger Trobridge) of National Harmonica League: https://www.mixcloud.com/PodKast/

Now that you've had a chance to enjoy and analyze Aki's killer instrumental "Bombay Stroll," here are the Chorus Forms (CF) he used. Mr. Aki Kumar, can you please share with everyone on your Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/akikumar) how these CF came about? As you worked on writing this song, did you experiment with different CF's for each lick/chorus, or have you so internalized CF's now that you played the new lick at the beginning of a chorus and the CF flowed out? I assume that you worked out the first three or so choruses and then improvised by the time you reached Chorus 5? continue reading...

When preparing to perform a song make sure to practice your intro speech, count-in and signaling for breaks and ending (especially for breaks and ending). If you neglect this in your practice you'll be more likely to miss the timing of your signals in performance.

For about a month now we've been reviewing the common, and not so common, Chorus Forms used by blues musicians. Take a listen to Aki Kumar's instrumental "Bombay Stroll" released today at http://youtu.be/iAPr6qUTufg from the new It Takes Three CD and analyze it for his use of Chorus Forms.

Harmonica players who like to perform find that if they sing, they get to choose the song and lead the band at jam sessions. Singing is approached like the study of any instrument. There are exercises, such as scales to built range and intonation, and each song needs to be studied for its rhythm, melody and phrasing. Most new singers don't realize this and just start to sing the words and unknowingly start singing either on the wrong note of the chord or commonly in the wrong key.

There's an easy way to fix this... continue reading...

The theme in “Gary’s Blues” is presented in the first two notes, the 3+ eighth notes. This eighth note figure is restated throughout the song. You see this at the end of the first line, with the 4+ 3 played in the same eighth note rhythm. The second chorus starts with these 3+ eighth notes and you see them again in the third bar of Chorus 3… and at the end of Bar 4. This repeats in other places, but I think you get the idea. This type of thematic element is not commonly noticed, but it’s no doubt part of what makes a song cohesive. continue reading...

Through this series I hope you've caught on that repetition, or by another name... organization, comes in many different forms in music. Take a listen to "Gary's Blues," your Tongue Block Study 3 study song. Listen for themes and we'll compare notes tomorrow.

In Friday's Richmond Browne quote he states, "The listener is constantly making predictions; actual infinitesimal predictions as to whether the next event will be a repetition of something, or something different. The player is constantly either confirming or denying these predictions in the listener's mind. As nearly as we can tell, the listener must come out right about 50% of the time--if he is too successful in predicting, he will be bored; if he is too unsuccessful, he will give up and call the music 'disorganized.'"

Let's use the Af Af At (AAA with fills) Chorus Form as reference. continue reading...

A snippet from the Between The Ears program made it to the BBC World Service Saturday. 44 million listeners... the harmonica can use that type of exposure!

BBC World Service Arts Hour - Harmonicas: The chance to hear the harmonica as a truly virtuoso instrument http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02lgpyr