Blues for Paul DeLay / 5 Hole Octaves tip

I’ve been working on Blues for Paul DeLay (LOA 7). A great song, really fun to play.

The five hole octave exercises David provides are good but I thought I’d share something else that’s helped me out.

What I’ve been doing is learning major scale folk melodies in the upper octave and playing them entirely using octaves rather than single notes. This gives you a serious workout swapping your embouchure between the four hole blow and the five hole draw octaves.

I have a couple of examples on a low F harp.

Leadbelly’s Goodnight Irene (this is in 3/4 time).

And The Carter Family’s Wildwood Flower at a quicker tempo.

I’m still working on it but I’ve found that after practicing these a while the licks in Blues for Paul DeLay come a lot easier.

It’s been useful for me so maybe it will be for others too.

Ta, Kev.