Tip of the Day

“Your creative capacity is determined by your musical and technical abilities, along with your available practice time. Your capacity will increase as your strength and skills grow. However, for you to make progress with basics such as on-stage confidence and ease of execution, your repertoire choices must be within your capacity. Musicians who pick unobtainable pieces foster destructive habits, such as anxiety and tension, and they miss out on learning how to present secure, poetic performances.” Pg 14

“As a general rule, rest 10 minutes of each hour that you spend in the practice room. Rest more if you’re working vigorously or adopting new techniques. A sensible practice-to-rest ratio, widely recommended by teachers and medical authorities, is to practice no more than 25-30 minutes before pausing for a 5-minute respite. Many musicians opt for more frequent breathers and rest 2-3 minutes every 15 minutes or so.” Pg 12

This week I'll share with you my favorite passages from Gerald Klickstein's book, "The Musician’s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness" Oxford University Press, www.oup.com ISBN 978-0-19-534313-7

Artful Practice
“Wherever you hope to travel on your musical journey, practice is the only route to getting there. You may wonder whether you possess the talent to reach your goals, but musical progress depends more on practice than on talent. Talent symbolizes your underlying potential; practice enables you to realize that potential. But not just any sort of practice will do.” Pg 3

"The Bounce" has a great head with the octave substitution technique we spoke of before on the IV Chord. This song can be found on the release The Best Of Rod Piazza 1968-2003 [Disc 1], though the Alphabet Blues release is in better tune (The Best Of Rod Piazza is a little bit flat). He's playing an A Harmonica in this instrumental.

"Walkin' By Myself" by Jimmy Rogers and Big Walter Horton stands the test of time as one of our greatest harp accompaniment and solo recordings every produced. Thanks to the "You Missed Monday" crew at the B1 Blues Room for sharing this.

Article by Scott Dirks
http://www.deltagrooveproductions.com/2014/03/07/walkin-by-myself-scott-...

Solo Transcription by Joe Filisko
http://ots.youmissedmonday.com/transcriptions/WBMsolo.pdf

Check out William Clarke's "Pawnshop Bound" on the Serious Intentions release at 1:44, it's a killer solo that not only includes high end work, but high end work with 5-hole octaves. He's on a C Harmonica in 2nd Position.

Playing above the sixth hole in 2nd Position is generally rare for post-war blues harmonica players. The 1961 instrumental "Steady" by Jerry McCain is a rare example of one of our classic blues harmonica players doing just that. The lick is found in the 4th Chorus, with a pickup of 4 5+ 6+ and the main lick of 6 7 8. He's using a Bb Harmonica. The recording I have is from "Blues Masters, Vol. 4: Harmonica Classics (Rhino R2 71124)," though I just looked it up on iTunes and it can be found on "Harmonica Classics By The Blues Masters" and can be purchased individually. continue reading...

Our style of music is vocabulary driven, and the best way to implement great sounding high end licks in our vocabulary is to harvest them from great players. Check out "Say What You Mean, Baby" by Paul deLay on the Greasy Kid Stuff release from Kid Ramos https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/greasy-kid-stuff/id626224731 This is a KILLER solo (and the entire album is great), with tons of great high end licks for you to use. He's playing a G Harmonica in 2nd Position in this tune.

Though only one of the blue notes in the blues scale is available from holes 6+ to 9+, it's still a viable way to play, especially when you add the 6 and 6' to round out the scale. Put on a more bluesy jam track (a "Box" is a good choice) and give it a try.

Upper Octave Blues Scale (Modified): 6+ 6' 6 7+ 8 9 9+

Instead of taking just one lick and moving it up an octave, try it with an entire song. Use "Temperature" from Tongue Block Study 2 and move it up an octave. Though by now you've probably already memorized the notes on your C Harmonica, you can visit Music Theory Study 1 for a note layout. The process is simple. The first lick of the song is 3 4+ 3, which are the notes B C B. Move these notes up one octave to 7 7+ 7. Print out the sheet music for the song and write below the TAB the octave above version. continue reading...