Posted Tue, 06/17/2014 - 07:51 by David Barrett Admin
If your foot stops or stalls while playing a passage of music, it’s a great indicator that your rhythm is off. Use it as the canary in the coalmine—when your foot dies, something’s wrong.
Posted Mon, 06/16/2014 - 07:53 by David Barrett Admin
Dave has some great tips for you today on preparing for a jam session. You can see these new videos in the "Performance Training Study 4" lesson, in "Section 4."
Posted Fri, 06/13/2014 - 10:01 by David Barrett Admin
When watching players like Sonny Terry and Rice Miller on video you'll sometimes see them move their hands left to right or fan the harmonica while playing. Though they don't touch the harmonica, this rhythmic movement in front of the harmonica does alter their tone and volume in a rhythmic way. It's hard to call this a full-on tremolo due to its short duration and small tonal change, but it's cool and worthy of mention.
Posted Thu, 06/12/2014 - 08:08 by David Barrett Admin
Though not usually taught as a way to produce a tremolo, using the diaphragm in a panting-like movement creates an interesting version of it. Jason Ricci uses this and demonstrates it in his interview on the site http://www.bluesharmonica.com/jason_ricci. Why is this not taught?... it takes less effort to produce a tremolo from the throat (vocal folds opening and closing) and is easier to produce a vibrato by actuating it from the throat. With this said, Jason makes it sound pretty good, so it is a valid option.
Posted Mon, 06/09/2014 - 11:21 by David Barrett Admin
With all vibratos your mouth needs to be tuned to the reed you're playing, and with this type of vibrato you move your tongue in a Ya Ya Ya-like motion to change the pitch (jaw is stationary, only the tongue moves). This is similar to the idea of the Chewing Vibrato in the way that the throat is not used at all. continue reading...
Posted Sat, 06/07/2014 - 06:25 by David Barrett Admin
Mark Ford had a strong impact on the Bay Area blues harmonica scene in the early 1970’s, starting with the release of the Charles Ford Blues Band on Arhoolie in 1972, which is now considered a modern blues classic (Robin Ford on guitar, Patrick Ford on drums and Stan Poplin on the bass). His powerful amplified tone and mastery of the entire range of the harmonica (he’s known for his killer licks above Hole 6 in 2nd Position) has caused him to influence many generations of blues harmonica players around the world. continue reading...
Posted Thu, 06/05/2014 - 07:20 by David Barrett Admin
Practicing on a cold chromatic causes the warm condensation from your breath to collect on the reeds and wind-savors, causing the annoying buzz we hate so much. The answer is to warm it up. Some players stick it in their shirt pocket near their body, put it under their arm or even on a little heated pillow throne (very regal). If you use a laptop, just rest it on your laptop for a bit... this works great.
Posted Wed, 06/04/2014 - 07:20 by David Barrett Admin
The vibrato needs a bit of airflow to activate all of its moving parts, so it doesn't work at very low volumes. For this reason, practicing going from a low-volume tremolo into a vibrato is time well spent. The practice is straight forward, start playing a note as softly as possible, using a tremolo of course, and as the volume increases enough to use the vibrato, switch to a vibrato as smoothly as you can (not allowing the vibrato to kick start and start swing hard and fast... the goal is a smooth transition). continue reading...