Tip of the Day

Fellow student Keith Mitchell just started Gospel Harmonica Community to "give birth to a online community for Gospel Harmonica enthusiasts." To read more about this Google Hangout visit: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalAspirations

Our Tip of the Day comes from Grant Dermody on how he approaches non-standard chord changes http://youtu.be/kRKqgsBN5oQ

Every now and again I'll see a new student use a small zip-lock bag to store their harmonica, or a large zip-lock bag for all of their harmonicas. Get rid of the bag, harmonicas need to breathe to vent the moisture from playing.

A quick harmonica-related motivational article from fellow student and TEDx Talk speaker Bruce Turkel

Be the Best at Everything You do From Now on by Bruce Turkel
http://turkeltalks.com/be-the-best

Continuing on the theme of the importance of being relaxed while playing for good tone... relax your neck/throat muscles. While performing the tremolo for example, only the muscles that are involved in the opening and closing of your vocal folds are needed. While performing a bend, the tongue is the only muscle that needs to move. Engaging the neck muscles around your throat will narrow your air passage, diminishing the size of that resonant chamber, sacrificing tone production in that part of your mouth. Early fatigue is of course an issue as well when using more muscle than you need... continue reading...

A light touch of your lips and tongue on the face of the harmonica are essential for the proper execution of technique and to achieve good tone. If your tongue, lips or corners of your mouth become tender and painful, then you're pushing too hard.

Since we've been dancing around the subject of openings, I might as well define the most common ways a song can start.

From the I (one chord) - Beginning of the 12 Bar Blues form

From the V - Bar 9 of the form (V IV I V and then the form starts from to top)

From the Turnaround - Bar 11, the beginning of the turnaround (I V and then the form begins) continue reading...

Fellow LOA student Ross Garren just started this article series for Lone Wolf Blues Co.

An Introduction to Studio Harmonica Work, Part I
http://tightcup.com/introduction-studio-work-part/

Here's the 12 Bar Blues Form... one bar for each chord symbol (roman numerals):

I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I V

The only place where four bars of the same chord happens is in the first four bars (first line). So, if you don't hear any movement to another chord from the band for more than two bars, you know you're somewhere in the first part of the form.

In the second line, the IV Chord lasts for two bars and then the I Chord for two bars. If you hear two bars and then a chord change, then you're somewhere between bars 5 and 9. continue reading...

In jam situations sometimes songs are called quickly and the person counting in looks to you to solo in the intro. You may not know where in the form the song is starting, nor the feel of the song (even if they call a "Shuffle," there are many types of shuffles). You could just start blowin' riffs, but an even better approach is to play a long-held note (with vibrato would be a good idea) for about two bars... and then continue playing. continue reading...