Cool Harp Blog

Adam Gussow harp lesson on YouTube

2007-06-07T20:47:00.000-05:00

Adam is a guy with harmonica in his blood. He looks like a mild-mannered college professor (which is what he is), but he's been AROUND!

Now sharing all his harp wisdom on YouTube, ten minutes at a time. Right now I think there is more than 60 there.

I'm working on three riffs I've picked up from watching his videos, all different skills.

-3 -2 -2b -1 -2 (quickly)
6 -7 -8 8 -9 9 -8 -7 (high end second position)
-1/4 -2/5 +3/6 pause -4/7 -3/7 (octaves)

Alton Brown plays the blues

2006-08-25T10:34:00.000-05:00

If I didn't think there weren't a million cooking blogs, I'd probably start one of those, too. Because cooking forces you to 'practice' every day, I'm probably a better cook than harp player.

I'm a big Alton Brown/Good Eats fanboy.

Anyway, heard of the 'cutting floor blues'? Here's Alton's Cutting Board Blues. He actually plays a quick riff on the harmonica, too. Cool!

YouTube - Blues Harp Lessons

2006-07-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

Ran across this by accident at You Tube. Apparently this guy has aspriations to put out a DVD. The Funky Blues Harmonica video gives a good view of his technique and overall talent. Looks like it's popular on You Tube with over 500 comments.

Here are all of his demonstrations and lessons (8 as of this writing):
YouTube - RonnieShellist

Wikihow harmonica playing

2006-07-12T15:58:00.000-05:00

The very cool Wikihow has an article on playing the harmonica. It's real basic, but worth a look. Even better, because it is a Wiki, you can add to or edit it! I made some additions including:

"Beginners will often find that the 2-draw single note is hard to play and sometimes suspect that their new harmonica is bad--it isn't. Don't draw too hard and keep adjusting your embouchure and angle of the harp till it rings true."

BTW: Howdy RSS readers out there! I see 6 of you at Bloglines, hopefully there are more elsewhere. I'm going to post a few more articles here at the Cool Harp Blog. Drop me an email, if you like.

Cool stuff from JT30

2005-05-27T15:41:00.000-05:00

Keith over at jt30.com sent me some links to some cool stuff on his website. Thanks man!

Here is a link to some clipart with every harp created, it looks like.
An old Far side cartoon (another reason to play the blues!)
"Here are some stencils for spray painting blues artists onto your amps and cars and garage doors." Keith, did you mean the front of the garage door? ;)
"And here are some harp mics that I've created, repaired, or restored." Man, you're killing me, these are sweet.
And of course his collection of harp jokes. These are great.

Cool blues podcast at The Roadhouse

2005-05-18T11:51:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to podcasts ever since I got my iPod in March. And I've been listening to The Roadhouse since then, too. Tony makes a nice show with 'undiscovered' blues music from garageband.com. You can usually get the actual tracks straight from garageband, too.

BTW: Life has been stomping all over my practice time, but its only made me realize how much I like the harmonica and how much I want to play the blues.

Cheap, legit, harp blues MP3s

2005-01-20T13:55:00.000-05:00

I just rejoined emusic.com. Ten bucks a month for 40 MP3s (pretty much unlimited use). I have created a list called "Blues Harp Picks" to help find the good stuff there. A trial membership is free with 50 downloads.

Check out Blues Harp Picks on eMusic now!

There are different kinds of guitar players

2004-08-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

I got to jam! Well, not really in a jam session, but at least a real taste.

At our church's annual retreat weekend, we usually have a couple guitar and fiddle players to have a porch-jam of folk songs. This year, the usual guitar crowd wasn't there.

Finally I found a guitar player from a sister church in the lounge, playing by himself. He had song books like James Taylor. I grabbed my C harp and the Harmonica Americana book. We tried playing together, but he didn't seem to be just playing chords, so I got a weak accompaniment. Perhaps he was trying to play 'lead' and not 'rhythm'. Assuming he was more interested in contemporary songs, I suggested "Blowing in the Wind", which he as able to put together some chords to.

But feeling that the chords needed help, he led me over to another gentleman in the middle of the main meeting area. He asked about what chords to play, and the other man, Rick, suggested D to complement my C-key playing. He confused both of us (although now I think he may have been thrown off by the fact I was not starting with a C note).

Rick ended up grabbing the guitar a couple times, finally hanging on to it and playing a couple songs. The lyrics to one were really cool, but I was too busy listening to the guitar to remember. I was also busy trying out some fills at the ends of his lines. And then he'd just play and let me go.

God, I can't tell you what I played! Mostly 2 and 3 draws, simple 'horn' lines in rhythm with the guitar, plus some fills. No extended solo, no fancy tonguing, and I felt my playing lacked the conviction of self-confidence. But the 'clunkers' were few, and I was happy about that. It was hard to determine where he was in the blues progression most of the time, as that's usually defined by the rhythm section.

Afterwards Rick said I did good and that I sound great. He really impressed me as a person...he listened, he encouraged, and he was sincerely interested. Made him into a role model right away.

Oh, and he said that he learned some harp basics from Charlie 'CD' Musselwhite. He did some other naming of favorites and recommended I check out John Hammond's acoustic stuff.

The other guitar player later said that Rick is in a band that plays weekly. Gotta be cool coming from the Chicago area, huh?

The DVD is great, too

2004-08-16T11:59:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that I thought the Basic Blues Harmonica Method DVD that accompanied my 'beginner's set' from Harmonica Masterclass would follow the corresponding book. It doesn't, and that's great.

Instead I find David Barrett talking to me in a very conversational tone about a lot of the mechanics of harp playing. It's not a 'play along' lesson, but more of a classroom lecture. Production quality isn't the best, but the audio is, making hearing the subtle articulation changes easy to distinguish. David seems almost too relaxed, but soon I was impressed with his knowledge and ability to teach.

Being a 'straight-harp' player for a couple years, I was surprised at how worthwhile his discussion was, even if it wasn't all new to me. Especially new (first found in the First Lessons book) was the 'tilted embouchure', which I hope helps fix my very weak 1-draw and 2-draw. Discussions of articulation were also helpful, as that is something I haven't really thought much about up till now.

I can play blues! Finally!

2004-08-09T11:44:00.000-05:00

I've followed the classic routes of Jon Gindick and Jerry Portnoy blues harmonica material. I say classic in that everywhere I read online, people pointed at these. In the end, they made me feel like I was going to end up a straight harp player the rest of my life. Portnoy's 3-CD set focuses exclusively on technique, while Jon assumes that the reader has some comfort in 'playing what you feel'. I learned a number of Jon's licks, but had no comfort in playing them alongside a jam-track. My gut would sting everytime he we would play and I had no idea what he was doing on the "Rock-and-Blues Harmonica" CD.

Finally, I think I have the right book in front of me. I just ordered a whole 'beginners set' from Harmonica MasterClass. I've only started on "First Lessons Blues Harmonica Book/CD", but wow! Dave Barrett skips right to playing along with 12-bar segments, even avoiding 2-draws at first to make it easy on real beginners. Playing along with these segments is fun...I'm actually moving with the beat and sensing when I should come in. The instruction material is almost spartan, but he makes what you are supposed to do clear (unlike the Instant Piano guy on PBS that takes half an hour to get to the revelation that the left hand plays chords and the right plays the melody).

The lessons expain different phrasing styles of blues, giving some structure to learn how to jam later on. And the lessons do get more complicated, but they don't look hard. The fact is that they are lessons, that you can jump right in and practice with, and so I've found a new commitment to really practice, not just noodle.

It finally ends with a whole song to jam thru, given all the notes to play. Being able to play this song is a goal for me, a mark of achievement, something those other guys aparently don't understand is important to a beginner.

Here's what I got:
1) First Lessons Blues Harmonica Book/CD
2) Basic Blues Harmonica Method Book/CD
3) Basic Blues Harmonica Method DVD
4) C Harmonica Play-Along Trax 2xCD

The "Basic Blues" book that comes with this set is almost identical to the "First Lessons", but I think is included to accompany the DVD lessons exactly. I think you could get away with the "First Lessons" book, rather than the whole set to get started.

If I can just help one other person like myself, all this typing will have been worth it.

Shopping for an Amp

2004-06-08T11:57:00.000-05:00

Now that I have a mic (Egg-static), I need an amp to use it. Here are the ones I've shopped for on eBay:

Peavey Rage 'Transtube'--Cheap solid-state amp. Found one reference for it being okay for harp.

Peavey Classic 20--This looks like a great choice, but price is getting over $100.

Silvertone All Tube 5 watt Guitar Amp--A hand-built amp, but Silvertone has a good name.

Epiphone--Another sweet looking amp, but actually solid-state

Kalamazoo Amp--A tube amp, but not many on to bid on.

I think I will choose the Kustom Tube12 Practice Guitar w/Tube Pre-Amp. It got a good review at Harmony Central by one harp player. He recommended changing the tube to a 12AU7, which I will do. This is the only tube on this amp, so it is hybrid of sorts. At $75 new, its my best chance at getting tube performance, I think.

Good tab site & found a goodie

2004-05-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

So much news for me this week.

1. I played in our church's annual talent show with a guitar player. We played 'The ole grey mare' and 'Down by the riverside' right out of John Gindick's Harmonica Americana. The guitarist would have preferred measures shown in the tab. He actually had his own book for the Ole grey mare.

The crowd got clapping to Ole Grey Mare, so that was way cool. Got a hardy applause when we finished Down By. So cool. Don't even remember playing.

2. Found a great straight-harp tab site: http://www.dataflo.net/~mpurintun/index.htm

3. From the above, I found our about the 'eggstatic mic'. I ordered one off of eBay for $20. This starts something new for me!

Tear off a piece for me...

2004-03-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

Just got back from a trip to California. As I have come accustomed to, the harmonica in my bag got some scrutiny at security.

The checker challenged me to 'tear off a piece for me', to which I politely declined. He told me he was from Louisiana and reached for the next bag.

What would Kim Wilson do? ;-)

Getting that 'tone'

2004-01-23T13:08:00.000-05:00

All harp players seem to hunt for 'tone'. I haven't yet, but I had a glimpse of 'fat' tone the other night while practicing. I feel my breathing is decent, but I can't get a sustainable and impressive train-chug sound, that tells me I need to learn something.

First step...I'm going to try the excercises at hunterharp.com to develop my playing from the diaphragm.

Next...someone at harptalk suggested getting a karoke player for home practice. The same effects that such a machine has for singers can be used for a harp. A lot better than spending $450 on a rig to please myself.

Generating tabs

2004-01-19T13:11:00.000-05:00

Someone asked at harptalk about making tabs. Here were my suggestions:

1. Jack's got a 'tab ruler' to help with sheet music here, but its not going to help transcribing to cross-harp.

2. Get some MIDI files (electronic sheet music) and run it thru this software: Melody Assistant asks what key harp you are using prior to generating the tab. This software is helpful for changing the playback speed of music so you can practice along, too.

Finding beginner harmonica tabs

2003-12-03T13:12:00.000-05:00

At the Harmonica Hangout, I posted the following links of sites with decent selection of Tabs, besides the obvious ones.

http://www.goldnuggetstudio.com/harppage.html#songs
http://www.inscorp.com/harmonica/music.htm
http://alphalink.com.au/~phaywood/harpoon/harpoonhounddawg.html
http://www.modempool.com/dking/blues%20harp%20tabs/index.htm

Some Blues Tab

2003-11-11T22:19:00.000-05:00

I've been listening and trying Gindick and Portnoy, but neither really try to get you learning how the music is improvised. Here, I printed out a Little Walter tab to help me see how a great player actually plays.

Lots of good tab, here, but helps if you have Irfanview to print it out, as they are graphic files. Also, gotta find the disks/mp3s of these songs to understand them better. Still, maybe they can help me.
My Tablature

The blues

2003-10-01T12:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'll bet there are a lot of harp players watching this show this week. (I picked taping last night to watch the Cubs-Braves game, tho.) Two observations:

I'm watching to understand the roots of the music I aspire to play. While this sounds obvious or contrite, I mean it sincerely. And I've found an emotional understanding of where the blues came from. Makes me feel like a phony, to want to play it. A middle-class white guy with a stable, boring love life--where are the blues in my life? Maybe I want to find emotions in my boring life and be forced to express them?

Second--playing the blues seems to be a very interactive experience. I watch these guitarist sitting across from each other, smiling at each other as they play. My biggest struggle with playing 'real' music is being aware of the other players (or CD). But I can feel where there is a hook, a sync, between players that pleases the soul.

I remember seeing a blues band at a bar in Atlanta, and I got such a high just counting off the 12-bar they were jamming to. Such an intimate feeling, I wish my wife played guitar.

Amazon.com: Music: Blues Harmonica Masterclass [BOX SET]

2003-09-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

I'm just starting to digest Gindick's Rock & Blues book. I wanted to wait to order the Masterclass. But I can't think of something I'd rather buy with a $50 Amazon promo certificate. I'll still have to pay another 13 bucks out of my pocket, but it isn't something I'd readily pay 63 for.

Amazon.com: Music: Blues Harmonica Masterclass [BOX SET]

Ordered a new harmonica

2003-09-09T20:55:00.000-05:00

I dropped my Lee Oskar C harp last week. Seems the 4-draw wasn't working the way it should after. A leaking 4-blow valve may be to blame. I know you can fix LO harps, but the Webmaster at harmonicalessons said it might be a cracked comb.

What a great opportunity to order a new harp. A TurboHarp! I got a 'translucent red rasberry' C harp with the special 'AX' turbolid/turboliner. The best! Custom made, so it has shipped yet.

My second harp was a G-key AX, which I started with boring old black (licorice). Did I mention I kind-of know Dr. Antaki? That story for another time.

International Harmonica Meetup Day

2003-08-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

Meet-up is a cool service I signed up for last year when I started blogging. I suggested there be a meet-up for Harmonica players. They listened! Now, how to get people to sign up.

International Harmonica Meetup Day -- Join other Harmonica Players

Welcome to Mel Bay's Harmonica Sessions� Web Magazine

2003-08-18T12:09:00.000-05:00

Looks like a good resource, written by David Barrett. First issue covers four articles. Would be nice to get email notices when the update.
Welcome to Mel Bay's Harmonica Sessions� Web Magazine

The Jambox

2003-08-07T12:18:00.000-05:00

About 20 harp tabs of various types. Some Beatles.
The Jambox

Humour

2003-08-07T11:56:00.000-05:00

Some good harp jokes.

Q. How do you get a harp player to play softer?
A. Give him some sheet music.

Humour

Yahoo! Groups : harptalk

2003-08-06T16:13:00.000-05:00

Looks like a pretty active group. Will track for a while.

Yahoo! Groups : harptalk