harmonica

Beginning Student Hob Bosold learns how to count the band in, signal an ending, play accompaniment under a soloist and how to get back on track after getting lost. You can view his lesson here http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/hob_bosold

The first part of my interview for Liam Ward is now available here https://youtu.be/4kHXSLPxMis. In this snippet I speak about improvising.

Now provided in this lesson is a PDF list of famous songs that contain the grooves we cover in this lesson. For those that have not studied this lesson, join me and a group of the most experienced harmonica-backing blues musicians on the planet for a lesson on Grooves. Our band for this lesson is Rusty Zinn (guitar), RW Grigsby (bass) and Marty Dodson (drums). continue reading...

Here's an interesting short on Gary Sloan, supposedly known in Anchorage as the man who introduced Blues music to Alaska in the 1960's https://www.facebook.com/DODWMPW/videos/1081467821924832/

A big congratulations to David Fullen from Hilliard, OH for completing Levels of Achievement Level 10 Testing at BluesHarmonica.com! You can see his performance of original arrangements and instrumentals here: https://vimeo.com/173452298

Last tip I spoke briefly about counting the band in. The most common error on the bandstand is to count the band in at the wrong tempo (commonly too fast due to being excited). The key point I stated was to hear the song in your head before tapping your foot and counting. continue reading...

Hohner has just released their low series of the Rocket model. Lower keys (below G) have only been available in the Hohner Thunderbird series. Though the Thunderbird series is great, it's also more expensive than standard-keyed models. I haven't seen any price points as of yet on this new model, but it looks like we'll have a low series of harps below the $100 price tag now. Here's a video demonstrating the new model https://youtu.be/0CgLsZ0O7as

Our first type of opening is simply from the beginning of the 12 Bar Blues Form, from the I (from the one... we use Roman numerals for chords). The speech will be as follows for "Need My Baby" by Big Walter Horton...

1) "G"

2) "Shuffle" (in this case with a Quick Change)

3) "From the I"

4) Count the band in and play continue reading...

Today I'll start a series to help you understand, and eventually use, the common opening types found in blues that are safe to call in a sit-in (you sitting in with an established blues band) or jam session (mixture of skill and experience level of musicians) situation.

Let's start with the basics of what generally needs to be stated for a song...

1) Key - "E," for example. Avoid drawn-out phrases like "Okay, we're going to play a song in the key of E." Keep it succinct... "E" continue reading...

An enjoyable hour of popular music narrated by The Archivist (Roger Trobridge) from the 1960's containing harmonica. Though we don't study this era of harmonica playing (not known for its high level of playing), it's a fun listen.