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David's Tip of the Day: Downbeat of the Bass + Upbeat of the Guitar

Posted Wed, 04/24/2013 - 07:00 by David Barrett Admin
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Recording material for Accompaniment Study 7 yesterday on the subject of bass lines reminded me of why slaps and pulls are so cool when used together. When playing a line, like what's presented in Solo Harmonica Study 2.1 through 2.3, the slaps found on the downbeat represent the downbeat notes of the bass and the upbeat pull represents the upstroke of the guitar in a swing (think T-Bone Shuffle style guitar accompaniment). The drive this combination creates is one of the great reasons why we learn to tongue block on the harmonica.

David's Tip of the Day: You ARE practicing your Chorus Forms every day, right?

Posted Tue, 04/23/2013 - 06:50 by David Barrett Admin
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If you've been studying with me for over a year (first year students can ignore this, you're still focusing on your fundamentals) applying the Chorus Forms should be 1/3 of your practice time. The concept is simple... take a lick out of the song you're working on that day and apply the Chorus Form process...

A = that day's lick

Play it as these Chorus Forms with a jam track:
AAA
AAA with Fills
AAB
AAB with Fills
A B/A C
Move your lick up/down an octave
Work with fragments of your lick continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: iReal App/Program

Posted Mon, 04/22/2013 - 07:01 by David Barrett Admin
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The first program to be adopted as a learning and backing tool by the music community was Band In A Box. The newest tool to become widely adopted is iReal (http://www.irealb.com). For our blues harmonica world, jam tracks are superior due to their high quality, but where they fall short is in the ability to make custom chord changes for those wishing to study non-12 bar blues or chords in their raw form (music theory study), where the backing doesn't need to be inspiring... it just needs to be what you need it to be. continue reading...

What's New: Accompaniment Study 5

Posted Sat, 04/20/2013 - 18:46 by David Barrett Admin
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In this lesson we continue our studies of Hole Changes, this time with the use of bending to make our harmonica more complete across its range. We'll also spend time on how to use the bluesy flat-7th of each chord... as well as the less-common 6th. "Blues Creapin' Over Me" comes back again, this time as Version 2 with very bluesy bends, fills and a solo influenced by our Bending Study 4 song, "My Blues." This lesson is for intermediate skill level players. You'll need an A and C Harmonica for this study. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Little Solos

Posted Fri, 04/19/2013 - 08:13 by David Barrett Admin
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I was driving with my son (Ray, age 13) the other day and he was describing a new song that he really liked, stating it had killer little solos throughout the song. I assumed he meant fills. We listened to the track and sure enough the soloist was playing playing all the vocal fills, just like you've been learning in Accompaniment Study 4. This was a cool example of what I stated in the lesson that new players tend to play their accompaniment softly (which is correct to do so), but forget to bring their volume up for each of the fills... playing timidly. continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Stealing Solos - You've Earned It!

Posted Thu, 04/18/2013 - 07:18 by David Barrett Admin
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One of the purposes of my study songs is to give you "been there, done that moments" so that when you play to a particular groove, you have material to play. For example... you're about to do a solo in a slow blues, you could use any chorus from "Blues Creapin' Over Me, Version 1" (Accompaniment Study 3) "Blues Creapin' Over Me, Version 2" (Accompaniment Study 5), "My Blues" (Bending Study 3), "Blues for Paul deLay (Tongue Blocking Study 5), "Blues for Big Nate" (Jerry Portnoy Artist Study) or "Lonesome Bedroom Blues" (William Clarke Artist Study). continue reading...

David's Tip of the Day: Louder = Faster?

Posted Wed, 04/17/2013 - 10:39 by David Barrett Admin
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In our soloing we employ dynamics... louds and softs. A common rhythmic error... I sure have to compensate for this in my playing... is when a player increases their volume for dramatic effect they'll commonly start to rush... play too fast. Knowing this, when you increase your volume in a passage, make a point to keep the rhythm laid back and swingin'... this will help this common error from happening.

David's Tip of the Day: Keys & Positions - History of the Blues Harmonica Concert

Posted Tue, 04/16/2013 - 07:01 by David Barrett Admin
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I get emails on a regular basis in regards to what keys of harmonica and what positions they were played in for this concert. Here they are...

Joe Filisko continue reading...

What's New: HOHNER Masters of the Harmonica Interview

Posted Mon, 04/15/2013 - 07:20 by David Barrett Admin
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Hohner just released this video interview of me in Trossingen, Germany. Thanks to all involved... it was an honor to be a part of this series.

David Barret - HOHNER Masters of the Harmonica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vuvbSU86gs

David Barrett is the world's leading expert in blues harmonica education... blazing the way in every facet of its education for over twenty years. continue reading...

What's New: Train Imitation with Joe Filisko - Whistles

Posted Sat, 04/13/2013 - 07:16 by David Barrett Admin
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Joe Filisko is back with his latest submission series covering Harmonica Train Imitation. This week he talks about the "Why." A new video will release each week... for six weeks total on this subject.