band

The video of Beginning Student Hob Bosold rehearsing for the student concert is now up at http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/hob_bosold

My personal favorite way to open a song is to play the opening four bars of the I (one) chord by myself, with the band entering on the IV. The band will interpret the tempo of the song from my playing, so there's no need to count anyone in (tempo errors are more likely to happen when you count the band in verbally). You also don't need to tell the band the feel of the song in most cases (shuffle, slow blues, swing, etc.). What you'll play will be rhythmic, and the use of eighth notes (swing or straight) will tell them the groove. continue reading...

In Gary Smith's 53rd submission for BluesHarmonica.com we continue our series on blues bridges.

The next most common place to open a song is from the V. This is bar 9 in the 12 Bar Blues Progression. Even though there is a V Chord associated with the turnaround in bar 12, it's known that "The V" only means bar 9.

There are three options to this opening type...

1) You and the entire band starts from the V ("All In")... "E, Shuffle, From the V, All In" continue reading...

The common way to count a song in is to just count 1 2 3 4 and away you go. If the bandstand is loud and you need to get the attention of the band, use a pre-count. The pre-count is 1 (skip a beat) 2 (skip a beat) and then proceed with your standard four count. The end result is 1 . 2 . 1 2 3 4.

The pre-count is also useful/needed when the tempo is very fast and 1 2 3 4 is too quick for all of the musicians to get ready to play (the drummer to sit up on their throne... bass and guitar players to turn their volumes up... harp player to get their harp to their lips, etc.). continue reading...

Now provided in this lesson is a PDF list of famous songs that contain the grooves we cover in this lesson. For those that have not studied this lesson, join me and a group of the most experienced harmonica-backing blues musicians on the planet for a lesson on Grooves. Our band for this lesson is Rusty Zinn (guitar), RW Grigsby (bass) and Marty Dodson (drums). continue reading...

Last tip I spoke briefly about counting the band in. The most common error on the bandstand is to count the band in at the wrong tempo (commonly too fast due to being excited). The key point I stated was to hear the song in your head before tapping your foot and counting. continue reading...

Our first type of opening is simply from the beginning of the 12 Bar Blues Form, from the I (from the one... we use Roman numerals for chords). The speech will be as follows for "Need My Baby" by Big Walter Horton...

1) "G"

2) "Shuffle" (in this case with a Quick Change)

3) "From the I"

4) Count the band in and play continue reading...

Today I'll start a series to help you understand, and eventually use, the common opening types found in blues that are safe to call in a sit-in (you sitting in with an established blues band) or jam session (mixture of skill and experience level of musicians) situation.

Let's start with the basics of what generally needs to be stated for a song...

1) Key - "E," for example. Avoid drawn-out phrases like "Okay, we're going to play a song in the key of E." Keep it succinct... "E" continue reading...

Once a player develops good bending chops on one key of harmonica their next goal is to gain proficiency on all keys of harmonica. A simple way to do this is to take a challenging bending song that you can do well on one key of harmonica (a song that preferably uses both deep and half step bends, such as the Bending Study 5 song "Half Steppin'," which has every bend represented on holes 1 through 6 of the harmonica in the first chorus!) and play it in all twelve keys. continue reading...