Posted Mon, 04/20/2015 - 09:15 by David Barrett Admin
Start with a slap and continue to make the slapping motion with a fully supported airstream (not individual pumps of air like that of individual slaps).
TIPS:
Most importantly...
1) Keep your tongue to the left. The most common error is to allow the tongue to drift to the center, essentially causing the technique to turn into multiple pulls. continue reading...
Posted Wed, 04/08/2015 - 10:01 by David Barrett Admin
Place your lips over a four-hole span, using a light touch on the face of the harmonica. Use the top of your tongue just past the tip (called the blade of the tongue) with a light enough touch that the convex shape of your tongue does not completely flatten on the face of the harmonica. Cover the left three holes with your tongue, leaving the right-most hole to sound a single note. Move the harmonica latterly—the focus is to generally move the harmonica, not the face or jaw.
Posted Thu, 02/12/2015 - 08:58 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.
Posted Wed, 02/04/2015 - 17:36 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
Posted Wed, 01/14/2015 - 14:58 by David Barrett Admin
In our newest episode of the BluesHarmonica.com Recording Study series Aki Kumar shares his recording experiences and how he would like to approach our new CD project. Aki and I rehearse our harmony tunes and I provide you with MP3 scratch tracks and PDF music/TAB for you to play along with us.
Posted Fri, 01/09/2015 - 10:05 by David Barrett Admin
No matter which technique you use from the list of three I presented on 1/6/2015, if you make an error in your key selection, it's usually because you heard that the 5th of the key sounded good and took it as the root note.
Posted Wed, 12/31/2014 - 10:33 by David Barrett Admin
It’s very common for students to come in after transcribing a bit of music to have parts written, that they're supposedly reading from, but they actually play something slightly different. For example... they may write 4 5+, but actually play 5 6+. To fix this, slowly play out of rhythm (one note per tap of the foot will do), what you wrote. This will stop your muscle memory, which is commonly linked to rhythm, from guiding you towards playing by ear, not what you wrote on the page.
Posted Mon, 12/08/2014 - 17:25 by David Barrett Admin
In this lesson I'll show you how to record acoustic harmonica, mic a harp amp, do punch-in recording and edit multiple takes into one cohesive track. Many of the techniques I'll share with you are common to professional recording studios, just on a smaller scale. As a bonus, you get to follow fellow student Bill Bussell as he records his current study song ("The Tub"). This study is for all skill level players and no harmonicas are needed. continue reading...