Posted Wed, 02/19/2014 - 08:55 by David Barrett Admin
Due to the fact that we're not required to study scales and chords to play our instrument (at least at the basic level), playing to non-12 Bar Blues can be a great challenge. Many times the change in the form is very simple once you look at it closer. I've placed at https://www.facebook.com/bluesharmonica my transcription of "Watermelon Man." In this blues-based jazz instrumental you can see that Bars 9 and 10 of our standard 12 Bar Blues are played three times (the V and IV Chord) to make this a 16 Bar Blues. continue reading...
Posted Tue, 02/18/2014 - 03:37 by David Barrett Admin
The simple toothpick is a great tool to have in your harp case. It works great for cleaning the little cracks a crevices where mouth gunk likes to reside and for freeing stuck reeds by simply pushing the reed in and out of its slot a couple of times.
Posted Mon, 02/17/2014 - 07:21 by David Barrett Admin
If you do have the opportunity to work with a private music instructor, I highly recommend you record your lessons. I record the lessons for my students (using the Tascam DR-40) at School of the Blues. A student asked me to give him some thoughts of how to best use his recorded tracks from his lessons. I thought you might like to see this as well.
Posted Wed, 02/12/2014 - 12:09 by David Barrett Admin
I'm interviewing Magic Dick this weekend for BluesHarmonica.com. If you would like me to ask him a question, go to http://www.bluesharmonica.com/forums/ask_david_barrett and reply to the "ask Magic Dick" thread. My time will be limited to ask these questions, but I'll do my best to get as many in as possible.
Posted Mon, 02/10/2014 - 09:11 by David Barrett Admin
Today's tip comes from Gary Smith in his latest submission videos (Submission 44). Gary's tip is that you set your delay repeats to that of triplets relative to the song you're performing. In this lesson
Posted Fri, 02/07/2014 - 14:35 by David Barrett Admin
It can be a great challenge to study an artist's song and remember the order of the choruses and the fine elements they contain. It's common to hear complaints by students that songs take a tremendous amount of time to memorize well enough not to have a simple mistake lead them astray and cause a wreck. continue reading...
Posted Thu, 02/06/2014 - 09:19 by David Barrett Admin
Here's my personal approach to playing the harmonica...
1) Tilt face of harmonica slightly downward (around 30 degrees)
2) Open mouth
3) Insert harmonica, bringing the harmonica to the tongue (not the tongue to the harmonica)
4) For a standard tongue block (single note at right, with lips over four holes and tongue blocking three holes to the left), the tongue moves just one click to the left (11 O'clock)
5) To tongue switch, move to the right to 1 O'clock
6) To play an octave, center the tongue and use a lighter touch continue reading...
Posted Wed, 02/05/2014 - 09:09 by David Barrett Admin
Your tongue blocks two holes in the center, leaving the left and right holes open when performing an octave (1+ C and 4+ C for example). You can either use the tip of your tongue to block those two holes or use the tip-top of the tongue (called the blade), by using an ultra-light touch so that the natural convex shape of the tongue doesn't flatten out and cover too many holes. Give this light touch a try and I'll discuss some other interesting advantages of this light touch technique tomorrow.