David's Tip of the Day: Practice those Endings!

Yesterday was the School of the Blues Student Concert. Though students did many things right, ending signals were more wrong then they were correct. Here are some tips...

1) Looking back at the band (and scanning all of the musicians as you nod your head) around bars 9-10 works well. You can also say, "Here we go." This works very well, though most students don't feel comfortable making a quick break in their playing to do this (for harp players and vocalists that is). What's good about these two are that the band will play an ending with you, circumventing the issue of #2 below.

2) Raise your hand in bar 10 and drop it on the downbeat of bar 11 (assuming we're doing a standard ending that is). This will have the band stop so that you can play an ending lick. Some students raised and dropped their hand too quickly, making some of the musicians miss their signal. Other students made the signal, but in the wrong spot... in most cases the band knew what they were trying to signal and it still worked out. This type of signal tends to be a LOT less successful due to the fact that the student needs to play in such a way that time is imbued to the band where they can all come back in confidently for the last couple of notes.

Final Hand Raise & Drop
With #1 and #2 above you still need to raise your hand at the very end and signal the final stop. Some students completely forgot this (and one of the other musicians had to do it)... or... and this was most common, they signaled too early (this happened a lot yesterday), causing all of the musicians to rush to the last note to played for this final hit. The student should wait until the band winds down... they have to feel that train coming to a slow, rolling stop... and then make the signal, not just making the signal because they know they have to make it.

This is all a challenge to do... this is why we all practice this... and we'll keep practicing it! When it comes time for students to lead their own bands they'll be ahead of their class!

For instruction on this visit the Lessons page at BluesHarmonica.com and study Performance Training: Openings, Endings & Breaks