About Winslow

Recently David Barrett invited me to check out his new site bluesharmonica.com. Dave has always done exciting things for the harmonica, and this turned out to be his newest success in creating a new avenue to transmit rich, high quality content that promotes understanding of the harmonica. When he asked me to be a part of it, I said "Yes" without hesitation! Now that I'm here, my job is to be sort of the Big Giant Head of harmonica knowledge. I've poked into many obscure corners of harmonica information - including players, history, lore, techniques, styles, repair and customization - that I have a lot of information that may help you. Even if I don't know an answer chances are I can point you in the right direction. I invite all and any questions. Post them either as a new topic in this forum or in other forums at bluesharmonica.com. I play diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, XB-40, and bass harmonica (and a little accordion, guitar, bass, and piano - but only a little of each). My playing background includes blues, jazz, country, folk, Celtic (Scottish/Irish/French Canadian . . . .). I have a strong background in music theory and arranging as well. The only area where I'd refer you elsewhere would be in the areas of gear - mics and amps. We have two great experts onboard here at bluesharmonica.com, Fritz Hasenpuch for mics and Skips Simmons for amps, so you already have rich resources for those questions. As you may already know, David Barrett edits the online Mel Bay magazine HarmonicaSessions. I write the chromatic harmonica column for HarmonicaSessions, where I review new models of chromatic harmonica, give diatonic players a perspective on getting used to the chromatic and playing blues chromatic in several keys, and also go into specialized techniques for the chromatic (like slide ornaments), and techniques that work on not only chromatic but on other harmonicas as well (such as tongue blocking techniques and corner switching). Things I've done: I'm the author of the popular book Harmonica For Dummies. I teach diatonic and chromatic harmonica at the Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance in Berkeley, California, and privately in my San Francisco home. I serve on the board of the harmonica club SPAH - the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica and help plan the annual five-day convention. This is a blast for anyone who like the harmonica. You can check it out at spah.org In the 1990s I transcribed John Popper's harmonica solos for the songbook to the Blues Traveler album four . (I've also transcribed the solos of jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans and pop star Stevie Wonder, but these have not been published). During that period I also published the magazine HIP - The Harmonica Information Publication. I perform with (and sometimes lead) the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers. I also perform in a duo with violinist Tuula Tossavainen, where we combine jazz, Finnish and Celtic traditional music, and musette waltzes into a unique blend. You can see our 2009 feature performance with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddler on Youtube by clicking on this link. How I got started I started playing harp as a teenager in Vancouver, BC, hearing blues licks on British rock records in the late 1960s, emulating players I heard on mostly British rock records, like Jack Bruce (Cream), Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group), Mick Jagger and Brian Jones (Rolling Stones). Pretty soon I discovered Paul Butterfield and Charlie Musselwhite, and through them, the rich panoply of older African American blues harmonica players - Little Walter Jacobs, Big Walter Horton, Sonny Boy Williamson - both I and II, Sonny Terry, Jimmy Reed, James Cotton, and Junior Wells. Tony Glover's book Blues Harp had just come out and was a huge influence on everyone trying to figure out the harmonica, but there was a whole lot he didn't cover and there was no-one to answer my questions. Pretty soon I added a chromatic to my harp kit and started checking out people like Stevie Wonder, Larry Adler and Tommy Reilly (Toots came later - he was still a secret known only to jazz cognoscenti and John Lennon's dad). Pretty soon I was playing in garage rock bands, then in blues bands. But in the summers I was up in the Canadian Rockies, playing along with country singers and fiddlers from the Cree and Dené First Nations (that's the Canadian term for native American - er, Native Canadian). That started my appreciation for both Native music and Canadian traditional music. You can hear some of my solo projects playing mostly Canadian traditional music but also one blues-influenced tune (Windermere, played on an XB-40) at my Canadian trad site (click here). Eventually I moved to San Francisco (I married a woman from here and she got homesick - I don't blame her; it's nice here). I got involved in a Caribbean band called Cool Breeze where I played everything but harmonica, worked as a music scribe to a wealthy symphonic composer, and transcribed a lot of Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz. But always, I was stymied by the lack of harmonica information and over time sought it out - people, recordings, history, instruments, techniques, and all forms of harmonica knowledge, which I'm now ready to share with you. So, ask me a question.