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David's Tip of the Day: Value of Repetition, Part 5 (A B/A C Chours Form)

Posted Fri, 02/13/2015 - 08:23 by David Barrett Admin

In Little Walter's "Off the Wall" he plays a two-bar lick (A) that repeats to fill up the first line of the 12 Bar Blues. He then takes that lick and sequences it to the IV Chord to play a version of that lick, but now relative to the IV Chord (B). When the I Chord returns in Bar 7 he again repeats his main theme lick (A). In the last line, like the AAB Chorus Form, he changes his lick to bring the chorus to a close. This Chorus Form known as the A B/A C Chorus Form.

There are three ways to treat the B (lick found on the IV Chord, Bars 5 and 6)... continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Value of Repetition, Part 5 (Last Chorus Form)

Posted Thu, 02/12/2015 - 07:58 by David Barrett Admin

Now take a listen to the head of Little Walter's "Off the Wall." Your clue is that A (the main theme) is two bars long. Note how it's treated on the IV Chord (Bars 5 and 6), this is important to our discussion tomorrow.

David's Tip of the Day: Value of Repetition, Part 4 (Chorus Forms AAA and AAB with Fills)

Posted Wed, 02/11/2015 - 08:36 by David Barrett Admin

In Little Walter's "Juke" you hear him play the opening one-bar lick for four bars (A), then repeats those four bars (A), and then move away for the last four bars (B). This is called the AAB Chorus Form. If the opening lick, labeled "A," does not take up the entire line, then there's room to throw in a fill, labeled "f." The last line's fill is a turnaround and is labeled as 't." This makes the Af Af At or Af Af Bt Chorus Forms. AAB is the standard rhyme scheme for blues vocals. In the space you play harmonica fills... this is the Af Af Bt Chorus Form idea. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Value of Repitition, Part 3 (Chorus Forms AAA)

Posted Tue, 02/10/2015 - 09:12 by David Barrett Admin

In "Rocker" Little Walter plays the opening four-bar lick thee times. This creates the first of five common Chorus Forms, known as A A A. The lick is played (A) and then it's repeated two times (A A). Pretty cool that you can play one lick over all of the chords of the 12 Bar Blues and it still works.

Take a listen to LW's "Juke" and figure out which Chorus Form he's using in the opening chorus.

David's Tip of the Day: Value of Repitition, Part 2 (Each Chorus has a Theme)

Posted Mon, 02/09/2015 - 09:26 by David Barrett Admin

I'm not speaking of the type of repetition where the player runs out of ideas and repeats licks from early in a song or set... this is called "gettin' old" and no player wants that.

The type of repetition I'm speaking of is the melodic, purposeful type... where you present an idea and then explore for the listener what you can do with that idea.

The first lick you play in every chorus is by default the theme of that chorus (the "A" in my Chorus Form concept). This can come by the way of simple repetition or fairly advanced transformations. continue reading...

What's New: Joe Filisko Fox Chase Study - Guidelines and Tips

Posted Fri, 02/06/2015 - 22:19 by David Barrett Admin

Join Joe Filisko for his latest lesson on the Fox Chase/Lost John. In this lesson Joe shares his guidelines and tips.

David's Tip of the Day: Value of Repitition

Posted Fri, 02/06/2015 - 09:20 by David Barrett Admin

The listener wants more repetition than the player is usually willing to give.

David's Tip of the Day: Harmonica Service Workshops

Posted Thu, 02/05/2015 - 09:04 by David Barrett Admin

The chromatic harmonica has more moving parts than a diatonic (slide assembly, wind savers, etc.) and is more prone to needing adjustment now and again. If a reed goes bad on a diatonic harmonica we commonly weigh the cost of sending it out for repair, taking the time to learn how to repair them for ourselves or just buying a new one. Chromatic harmonicas are more of an investment and most chromatic players I know do their own repairs (unlike diatonic players... though more are doing it these days). continue reading...

What's New: Recording Study 4 - Kid Anderson Interview (Blues Guitarist and Studio Engineer)

Posted Wed, 02/04/2015 - 16:36 by David Barrett Admin

Join me for the latest release of the Professional Recording Series at BluesHarmonica.com for a 90m interview with master blues guitarist and recording engineer Kid Anderson. Videos include: How Kid Got Started; Plugins and Preamps; The Amp and Room; Miking Techniques; Amps and Amp Modeling; Setup and Prep; Error Correction; Mixing; Mastering; Using High-Level Musicians; Our CD Project

David's Tip of the Day: Ask a HOHNER Technician

Posted Wed, 02/04/2015 - 09:45 by David Barrett Admin

If you play Hohner Harmonicas and need some help, Hohner has a new website with a "Ask a HOHNER Technician" page... pretty cool! http://reedology.com/contact-us/

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