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I mention this often, because I mention this often in my private teaching and in your submissions on the site in regards to your tone. Let's focus on your mouth cavity... your tone chamber. If your tongue PUSHES on the face of the harmonica, not only does the tongue encroach into the hole(s) you're intending to play (narrowing it's passage and creating poor/bent tone) but the body of your tongue commonly comes with it, moving forward and commonly upwards in the mouth, robbing your tone chamber of volume... low/small volume equals thin, wimpy tone... high/large volume equals big tone. continue reading...

When students reach the last stage of dialing in a song for performance they work on memorization. The common tool used is to list the first lick, or just the first couple of notes of the first lick, for each chorus. The goal is to have a quick bullet-point list of each chorus, but just enough written that it helps you to recall what that chorus is. It doesn't take much, and the goal is to be very brief. Instead of using hole number TAB, you can also use a shape (we tend to remember objects better than abstract numbers). continue reading...

A cool video just released on our buddies Joe Filisko and Eric Noden. They talk about their beginnings as a duo, their set development and songwriting process and play some tunes. http://youtu.be/OhQ_Syye-cM

There was a desire from some of the students to re-post this dialogue from the public forum in a more prominent place... they, and I, feel it strikes a common chord with many...

Student
"I am 53 years old and have wanted to play the harmonica since I was 15 but never knew how to approach it. I took it up two years ago, starting with lessons from Portnoy, Gindick and Gussow. I found your site last fall and found exactly what I was looking for; the rich full sound of tongue blocking in a well-structured progressing in learning. continue reading...