tips

Lee is a classic blues harmonica player, most commonly compared to the stylings of Kim Wilson in his approach. He has released two albums on his own record label and toured internationally until 2004, playing at venues such as Ronnie Scotts and festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival. He’s taught at the Harmonica Masters Workshops in Trossingen, Germany and the SPAH Convention in San Antonio, Texas. His popular YouTube channel has had over 1 million views and continues to grow a large subscriber base. continue reading...

"For those of us who want to become masters at playing the harmonica, practice will probably take the majority of the time you spend working to get better. As you have, or will come to realize, mastering the harmonica is a journey that will take quite a long time. Of course, everyone of you will have your own goals and ideas about the type of music you want to play and how good you want to get. However, the key to all this practice and playing is to have fun. You’re in charge of how much you practice and what you practice and most importantly, your attitude during practice. continue reading...

Ronnie Shellist's musical career began in 1997 working with singer/songwriter Hugh Fadal from Austin, TX. Blues great Gary Primich was a huge influence on his music as well as Guy Forsyth and Walter T. Higgs who lived and played in Austin in the mid 90's. Thanks to a great blues scene in Austin at the time, Ronnie had an up close and personal experiences in the scene that heavily influenced his ultimate musical direction. His style is a combination of mostly Chicago and West Coast blues influenced by funk and jazz greats such as Grant Green and Maceo Parker. continue reading...

http://lifehacker.com/5939374/a-better-way-to-practice

A nice article shared to me by Jon Harl (thanks Jon) on how to improve the quality of your practice time. Under “How to Accelerate Skill Development” item 2, labeled “Timing is everything, too” I recommend you base what you’re practicing on your daily energy curve. continue reading...

You of course have me to help you on your path to becoming a great blues harmonica player, especially those who submit recorded material regularly, but there are instructors local to you that can help too. Harmonica instructors are hard to come by, but guitar and piano instructors are not. They can help you with your timing (this is what I spend most of my time helping students with), rhythm training, music theory, improvising, accompaniment playing... all of the elements in music that are common among instruments and not specific to the harmonica. continue reading...

In this submission Gary answers questions from students, specifically... dealing with a loud band, mic'ing your amp, using monitors, playing through a vocal mic, cupping the chromatic harp, stage presence, dealing with feedback, using a wireless mic, creating deep tone and playing softer.

The 4 draw is the most over-used note on the harmonica in 2nd Position soloing for good reason... it can be presented in many ways (single, double, shake, slap, flutter, octave, etc.) and is a great launching pad to move up or down the harmonica. Today's law is that it's rare to play the 4 draw by itself, it's commonly presented with a touch of 5 draw in it to thicken its texture (what Joe Filisko calls "Dirty Notes"). The challenge is just to add a touch... too much and it becomes overly dissonant.

Tomorrow starts a series I'll call Laws of Blues Harmonica. These laws cover common practices in regards to the approach of technique on the harmonica and blues music in general. Laws are of course meant to be broken, and should be if you have a musical reason for it (commonly phrasing), but you can generally count on what I'll share with you as being common practice among blues harmonica players of past and present. continue reading...

Yes, you can just pick up the harp and play, but since we're studying how to play well, why not use a hold that's more stable and minimizes fatigue? Let's start today by looking at the basic 2-Point Hold (Pic 1 - 2 Points Contact.jpg). Note the position of the forefinger (A) on the top and thumb (B) on the bottom. Look at this, and then look at your hold and study how other parts of your hand (we're only talking about your left hand right now) may assist you in this hold. continue reading...

Harmonica customizer Jon Harl and I often discuss issues commonly experienced by my students and his customers… most often being focused on playability, tone and most commonly longevity. He works on some of my student’s harps and it’s common for me to receive a note from him like, “Please nudge your student to play softer, he’s killing his harps!” I asked him to write some Tips of the Day. Hearing from a person that works on harmonicas daily brings an interesting insight into proper technique. Thanks Jon!

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