Tip of the Day

I was doing a show with Gary Primich many years ago and I was looking around for a chair or something to put my Bassman on to get it off the floor. Gary tilts back the amp and places a harmonica box under the front-bottom lip of the amp and says, "I find that one Hohner harmonica box does the trick to tilt the amp back at just the right angle so that I can hear myself well." Thanks Gary.

What do you do when you get lost in the music... i.e., can't feel the beat or know where you are in the form?

1) Use More Space - Longer rests between phrases gives you an opportunity to listen intently and focus on reestablishing your meter and where you are in the 12 Bar Blues form.

2) Use Longer Holds - This has the same affect as using space. Whether you hold a note (takes no brain power) or rest (takes no brain power), you can listen while doing any of these actions (or non-actions ;-) continue reading...

A soft wood toothpick does a great job of cleaning around the inside of holes (make sure the face of the harmonica is pointed downwards so that particles that come off don't go into the harmonica) and if needed, to lift reeds from the inside when they stick.

There's a reason why most rockin' harp players prefer higher-keyed harmonicas (C and above). Not only do they sound powerful (and brash when you want them to), these higher-keyed harmonicas are easier to hear... for both you and the audience. So, if you're having difficultly hearing yourself due to insufficient amplification or a loud band, this is a quick fix.

The last three days we focused exclusively on the flat-7th (F) relative to the I7 Chord (one-seven chord = G B D F, F being the flat-7th). There are two more chords used in the blues, the IV7 (four-seven = C E G B-flat, B-flat being the flat-7th) and V7 (five-seven = D F# A C, C being the flat-7th).

So, the flat-7th is relative to the chord you’re playing over.

Generally speaking, if your flat-7th worked in the opening of the song (the opening four bars of the I Chord), then your flat-7th should work fine on the other chords as well.

As you learned yesterday, context is everything… what you play relates... no, is dictated, by... what the band plays.

In the “Sounds Real Good” category, our flat-7th was matched by another instrument, still sounding bluesy (“bluesy” means slightly dissonant by the way), but since another instrument is playing it, it caries with it a message of uniformity. continue reading...

Referencing the C Harmonica played in 2nd Position (Key of G), the flat-7th of the G Major Scale (G A B C D E F# G) is F. This makes the common G7 blues chord of G B D F. Here are the three levels of how well that F (the 5 draw we spoke of yesterday… or 2” and 9 octave equivalents) match…

Sounds Real Good
Someone else in the band is also playing the flat-7th (F).

Sounds Okay, But Aggressive
No one else is playing the flat-7th (just you) AND no one else is playing a note that will clash with it.

Sounds Real Bad continue reading...

When students work on Accompaniment Study 5 they learn about the bluesy flat-7th (this is the seventh note from the root of the chord, lowered down by half step... what's called an interval of a minor 7th). This is your 5 draw in 2nd Position for example. When you first started to jam on the harp you soon found that the 5 draw was a great, bluesy note. In fact, it's the ONLY blues note on your harmonica (and its octave equivalent 9 draw) without using the technique of bending. continue reading...

There's a difference between being able to bend in isolated practice and bending in a dynamic situation, like your first bending study song "Feelin' for the Blues." Reliably executing technique in time is of course the goal of our musical technique study. continue reading...

A comment I commonly give students after they play a passage for me is to play their blow notes softer... especially the lower three holes (they're more sensitive to higher pressures). We play so many draw notes in blues that when a blow note comes along, our bodies use that blow note as an air dump, and the tone quality of our blow notes suffer. So, if you listen back to yourself on recording (you record yourself for personal critique, right?) and notice a more airy, flat tone, make a point to play your blow notes 20% softer.