Progressing through the lessons
Hey David,
maybe this is a really dumb question but im a little confused as to how to progress throught the lessons. I think my confusing lies within the main study, prep study and support study. I dont really know what is the best way to progress through all of it.
With kind regards,
Alex
Thank you so much,
I already walked through the fundemental studies but missed the whats next section. I watched that but couldnt seem to remove this post in the forum as i already found the answer. Im really glad you provided me with the links to your two students though!
Have a great day
I'm happy to help Rero. There's a lot of information on the site and I understand that it can be difficult to navigate at times.
David:
I'm really beginning to get a lot more focused on the beginning lessons and feel like I'm learning quite a bit.. It's going a little slower than I had hoped, but I'm hanging in there.
I know you have addressed this a bunch, but I am having a very tough time bending when tongue blocking. When I first started playing (just a few short weeks ago) I didn't know anything about tongue blocking. I kept at it and was very pleased with my progress, especially when I started bending. Wow! I never thought I'd be able to do it. But, I did it and it sounds so "Bluesy." Now, I'm focusing more on your training and finding that tongue blocking is apparently ALL the TIME! Now, I'm having great difficulty getting any bends. Help! (Although, I notice in the beginning exercises, bending is not used much, I'm concerned about how to address this issue, knowing how critical bending is to playing the blues..)
Hello Ocalagator. I’m glad you’re finding the lessons helpful and are making good progress. You’ll get the bending, just give it time. Review Bending Study 1 often... you’ll pick up more fine details in the instruction every time you go to repeat it after each couple of months of practice. The big thing to get over is in being in a hurry. Music is a multi-level, discipline art, and the harmonica has many mysterious techniques, bending being one of the most. You WILL be able to bend well, you just don’t know when. Experiment, experiment, experiment... you’ll get it, but it will take perseverance.
I think your reply is exactly what I needed. I suppose I was a bit fooled into thinking that if I could bend some notes within the first week or two, that the rest would be "easy." Obviously not!! It IS going to take time and I just need to hang in there and stick with it. Of course, I was hoping for the "magic bullet" that would fix it right away, but you reminded me that there is really no such thing. Just hard work and practice, practice, practice!
I started out with the free month, courtesy of your arrangement with Hohner. I'm going to whip out the credit card right now, and keep things going! Thanks again.
Steve
Yeah, bending is something that develops slowly over time. Just keep in mind that the harmonica was not designed to bend, it's a strange technique that harmonica players happened upon and developed. The good thing is that there is no mystery on how the technique works (all the science is in that first lesson), it's now up to you to explore your mouth to find, and develop, the fine movements that create and control the bend.
I'm glad you're finding the material useful Steve.
Hello Alex, welcome to the site. After logging in, the page that opens up is called your dashboard. This is the same page that opens up when clicking on your user name at the top right of any page (under the picture of the harmonica and the word Welcome). On this page is a large video frame with a play button in the middle titled “Welcome!” Watch this video, this tells you how to use the sight and where to start.
As a beginner, you’ll start with Blues Harmonica Fundamentals (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/blues_harmonica_fundamentals). After this lesson you’ll move on to studying two lessons at the same time… Tongue Block Study 1 (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/tongue_blocking_1) and Solo Harmonica Study 1 (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/solo_study_1).
As you work through your lessons, you can also watch two beginning students on camera work through the same material with me. These students are Sharon Barrett (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/sharon-barrett) and Hob Bosold (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/hob_bosold). You’ll find their questions, and my answers to their questions, helpful in your studies as well.
If you have any questions during your studies, feel free to ask me here. Best wishes on your studies.