Tip of the Day

The next step in your practice routine is to bullet-proof yourself for the bandstand. When you play your tune with a band, their backing will not sound the same as what you've been practicing to. To help prepare yourself for this, use a program like the Amazing Slow Downer and slow your song down 10% to get a feel for what would happen if you count your song in too slow. Inversely, set the tempo 10% too fast, which is a more likely error than counting to slowly... we all get excited and tend to count songs in too fast. continue reading...

You've most likely played your song hundreds of times by this point, so you probably don't need the sheet music anymore (if sheet music exists). What you're most likely having issues with is remembering what the first lick is for each chorus. If you can remember the first lick, usually you're good to go for the entire chorus. Maybe you've accidentally mixed up the first lick a couple of times and subsequently missed a chorus or two in the confusion.

Here's how to deal with this... continue reading...

Joe Filisko: Lessons From an American Harper
http://popstache.com/?p=30872

If you have a harmonica with a bad reed, you can still use the rest of the harmonica for practice. Here's how Dan, a fellow BluesHarmonica.com member, does it... "I'm working on 1st Position right now. I have a harp with a bad 5 draw reed, but the 5 draw is rarely used in 1st Position. I work on my runs and all their associated bends on the lower four holes and the same for the top four holes. By using the bad harps like this, I've not affected my practice and have added another six months life to each of my good harps." Thanks for sharing this Dan!

Now that you can play your song at full tempo, make a playlist and play to the original (the one with harmonica on it) and if a jam track exists (like your study songs at BluesHarmonica.com), play with it after. The first play through helps to give you an imprint of the original song before you try to do it on your own. The jam track gives you the opportunity to practice without the auditory cues of the original harmonica part. continue reading...

Once your song is selected, it's time to get to work and learn it. Use the standard method I outline in Blues Harmonica Fundamentals on the site....

1) Loop the lick (with a software program like the Amazing Slow Downer) and slow it down to a manageable speed

2) Listen once... sing/hum once... listen... sing/hum... rinse and repeat

3) Stop the playback and work with the transcription (music notation with TAB) to work out the breathing, movement and techniques associated with the lick until you can play it close to what's in your aural memory. continue reading...

If this is your first performance, I recommend that you choose a song that's not difficult for you to play. This way your mind is not focused on "can I play this difficult passage," but on the performance itself and all the x-factors involved. X-factors are the elements you cannot control... your environment, the musicians, how well you can hear yourself, how the amp sounds and all the other stimulus that's involved in performance.

Here are some more elements to consider in selecting a song. It's good if you choose a song with... continue reading...

Students commonly worry about the memorization of a song in preparation for a student concert... missing a lick, a chorus or getting off in rhythm is a scary thing in performance to a new player.

First... why does a new player memorize a song? Simply stated, this offers the new player the highest probability of sounding good. Work on a song until it's mastered and the end result is darn good if you can reproduce it well on the bandstand (or home recording). continue reading...

Here’s a sneak peek of the interview I did with country harmonica legend Charlie McCoy releasing this weekend on the site. In this portion Charlie talks about his approach to accompaniment playing.
http://youtu.be/UPaZenhUhGE

Many years ago, Rod Piazza was speaking on the art of performance at a Harmonica Masterclass Workshop and stated, "People listen with their eyes," in respect to the importance of the visual element of your show. In last Friday's "Science Friday" podcast in "Judging Music with Visual Cues" I heard that science has confirmed Rod's assertion. Check this out if you get a chance, it's very interesting.

Science Friday: Judging Music with Visual Cues (8/23/2013)
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/08/23/2013/judging-music-with-visua...