approach

I've mentioned this book in the past, but a good friend (and fellow student of yours) reminded me that it's time to mention it again. "The Practicing Mind" http://www.thepracticingmind.com does a great job of simply laying out the mental process of practice.

Our most common position is 2nd Position, and when playing in 2nd Position we draw (inhale) much more than we blow (gives us access to draw bends). For this reason, every time you pick up the harmonica to play your reflex should be to exhale before starting.

This is consistent with 3rd Positions as well, but not so for 1st Position where we focus on playing more blows than draws.

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...

Listen to "In Memory," the song featured in today's release of Recording Study 4. The pitch content of what I played and the textures I used in which to present them are of course important, but dynamics are center stage in this song to convey emotion. The use of dynamics (primarily volume change) is what's commonly missing from players in their first five years of study. The addition of dynamics easily doubles the emotional impression on the listener... I can't emphasize this point strongly enough. continue reading...

Yesterday I shared with you the important tip of using a yawn to create an embouchure conducive to creating big tone. Today I share the second element of how I create big tone on the harmonica... it's the word "radiant." This helps me to both play softly and direct warm/radiant air through the harmonica. Playing softly is at the core of controlled technique and the ability to play with dynamics (playing softly as your default provides a large dynamic range in performance). continue reading...

Fellow student Mike Z (thanks Mike!) is also a guitarist and said that this video is really informative on how to back harp players in the traditional 1950's style. If you play in a band or with a guitarist buddy that's not hip to this way of playing, it would be wise to purchase this DVD for them as a gift.

Little Walter - 50's Guitar Styles, Instructional Guitar DVD continue reading...

Here's a sneak peek of my interview with country harmonica wizard Mike Caldwell. In this video he talks about the spirit of music and then we jam it up! Full interview to release 10/22 http://youtu.be/2Qk6tJHVP2o

Here's my personal approach to playing the harmonica...

1) Tilt face of harmonica slightly downward (around 30 degrees)

2) Open mouth

3) Insert harmonica, bringing the harmonica to the tongue (not the tongue to the harmonica)

4) For a standard tongue block (single note at right, with lips over four holes and tongue blocking three holes to the left), the tongue moves just one click to the left (11 O'clock)

5) To tongue switch, move to the right to 1 O'clock

6) To play an octave, center the tongue and use a lighter touch continue reading...