session

You might already be familiar with Akarsha (Aki) Kumar from the recent CD "It Takes Three" with Aki, Gary Smith and myself (David Barrett), or the Contributor Videos Aki submitted in the early days of BluesHarmonica.com (2009). Aki was one of my students, and I'm proud to say one of my most dedicated and now accomplished students. He's been a professional player in the California Bay Area now for ten years, currently runs two of the most successful jam sessions in the area and has been featured on numerous CD's for the prestigious Greaseland Studios label. continue reading...

It's always good to hear advice from experienced players on stage etiquette... we sometimes forget that it's not all about us ;-)

Derek Trucks’ 10 Commandments of Jam
http://alanpaul.net/2015/04/derek-trucks-10-commandments-of-jam/

I'm now releasing Section 5 footage of the actual studio recording session. It's taking about three hours to edit every ten minutes of finished footage (three cameras rolling), so instead of waiting until I'm done with the entire project I'll release one video a week for you. Thanks to volunteer cameramen Marc Graci, Gleidson Sousa and John Rafferty!

In our latest episode of the BluesHarmonica.com Recording Study series Gary Smith, Aki Kumar and I rehearse our harmony tunes together and I provide you with MP3 scratch tracks and PDF music/TAB for you to play along with.

You of course have the "Share" portion of BluesHarmonica.com to share your recordings with fellow students, but here's another avenue to interact with harmonica enthusiasts... continue reading...

Students were naturally nervous to play at the evening jam sessions, especially with all the great talent and the video cameras rolling. We all have aversion to putting ourselves into situations where we may embarrass ourselves publicly. The key point I like to remind students of is that a jam session is not a concert. A jam sessions is an opportunity to explore new ideas and to allow the moment of collective vulnerability (for the band as well) to create new and exciting music that could only come from that dynamic moment.

The highest art of performance is to hear and react to what everyone in the band is playing as you play. If you're too focused on what you're playing, your ears close and your timing and groove suffer... along with your note selection relative to what the band is playing to support you (it's common for a soloist to play too light to a bluesy backing and vice-verse). continue reading...

This is the #1 challenge for new bands. At School of the Blues we CONSTANTLY work on this with our house bands.

The most common ending for blues is where the ending lick happens in Bar 11. There are two common ways to approach this ending:

1) If the leader (singer or last person to solo) looks back to the band at Bar 10 (the IV Chord) and nods there head or says "here we go," or saying something of that nature, then EVERYONE should play an ending lick. continue reading...