Harmonica Masters Workshops 2016 - Trossingen, Germany

Registration is now open for the 2016 Harmonica Masters Workshops in Trossingen, Germany.

http://www.harmonica-masters.de/en/

Instructors this year are Steve Baker, Joe Filisko, Marko Jovanovic, Antonio Serrano, Riedel Diegel and myself.

My classes will be as follows...

Wednesday (1/2 Day) - Dynamics
What differentiates mediocre playing from incredibly expressive playing is in the use of dynamics. We’ll run through exercises to develop dynamic volume and tonal control on your instrument and approaches for how to start using more dynamics in your playing right away. All skill levels may attend this class. Student should have an A Harmonica for this class.

Thursday - Blues Bass Lines & Hooks
Playing bass lines on the harmonica is extremely fun and sounds great. Playing bass lines is also the best way to learn chords in a very intuitive way. Knowing the chords of the 12 Bar Blues is extremely important for good accompaniment playing and for making strong musical choices in improvising. A hook is a small lick that’s repeated throughout a song to make it special. If a song lacks a hook and is boring with “nothin’ goin’ on,” play one of the hooks I’ll teach you to make it cool. Basic skills in bending are required to attend this class. Student should have an A Harmonica for this class.

Friday - Minor Playing
Harmonica players commonly run away from the bandstand when a song is called in minor. There is an approach to playing in minor, and it’s not as hard as you may think. We’ll explore the approach for 3rd Position (extremely intuitive) and 2nd Position (not so intuitive, but familiar), as well as the less-common 4th and 5th Positions. Basic skills in bending are required to attend this class. Students should bring their G, A and D Harmonicas for this class.

Saturday (1/2 Day) – High End Playing
Most recorded 2nd Position harmonica music is played on holes 1 through 6. Every now and again an artist goes to the high end and it’s usually damn exciting, but due to the lack of recorded material on the high end, it’s challenging to find good examples to study. In this class we’ll study artist licks that I’ve collected over the years. We’ll also examine scales that work great on the high end and improvising concepts such as octave substitution (moving licks from an area of the harmonica that you’re familiar with to an area that you’re not). All skill levels may attend this class.

I look forward to working with all those that can make this special event.