THE MISSION:  PLAY HARMONICA, IMPROVE YOUR GAME
    If you're reading these words, then you are almost certainly a blues harmonica player looking to strengthen your command of the instrument.  You'd like to deepen your tone, perhaps; learn tongue-blocking, overblowing, and other advanced techniques.  You'd like to add to your repertoire, so that you're not simply recycling the same old shuffle-blues licks.  You'd like somebody to help you decode what the stylistic originators and modern masters of the blues harp--Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Sonny Terry, Paul Butterfield--are really doing.

    Or perhaps you're a stone-cold beginner and you're confused by the multitude of instructional materials currently on the market.  You don't want somebody who talks over your head, but you don't want somebody who condescends to you or trivializes the instrument, either.  You don't want to waste your time.  You're looking for hands-on guidance from a harp-playing professional--somebody who has traveled the same road you're just setting out on, knows how it feels to be where you are, and genuinely wants to help you take the next step, and the step after that.

    You've come to the right place.

    I'm a beginner!  Take me to your beginner's welcome page NOW:

     http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/beginning_harmonica.html

    I want to know who YOU are, Adam!  Give me your qualifications and show me your blues duo, Satan and Adam, in performance NOW:

     www.modernbluesharmonica.com/biography.html

 THE STORE:  BLUES HARP LESSONS FOR INSTANT DOWNLOAD
    The heart of this website is The Store.  What you'll find there is a link to my homepage at Tradebit.com, a file-sharing site at which I've uploaded a series of blues harmonica lessons for immediate download.  Many of them are materials that I've worked up for my harmonica students over the past 20 years.  Some of them are original compositions designed to introduce certain basic techniques in a sequential way.  Others are transcriptions of classic  harp-based tunes such as Big Walter Horton's "Easy" and Paul Butterfield's "Born in Chicago."

     For a modest per-song fee, submitted through PayPal, you can download one of these lessons.  Each is available as two parts:  a QuickTime video ($5) and a PDF tab ($2).  The video lessons run from 12 minutes (a few of the early ones) to as long as 45 minutes or more.  The tabs are always shown on camera--one of my key teaching tools is to walk you through the tab, note by note--but many students will want a hard copy of the tab as well.  You can purchase one or both of these files, as you see fit.  (Many people choose to purchase the tab, even though they can scrape by without it, as a way of tipping me for the countless free lessons I've uploaded to YouTube).

    I've been developing these materials for many years.  They WORK.  They will improve your playing in ways that those who think they know how good (or bad) you are will find startling.  If you want proof, just hit the link for the Testimonials page below.

    The lessons are sorted into four levels in order of increasing difficulty:  BEGINNER, ADVANCED BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, and ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE.  If you're in doubt about where you fit in, take a look at the page marked "What level are you?"  Many lessons are appropriate for students at several levels; they'll challenge the better player slightly less forcefully than the not-as-experienced player, naturally, but both students will have something to gain from them.

     I want to know what players like me think about your teaching methods!  Take me to your Testimonials page NOW:

  www.modernbluesharmonica.com/testimonials1.html

    A word about my tabs:  Many years ago, when I got my first harmonica teaching gig at the Guitar Study Center in New York, I purchased a few of the commercially-available instruction books.  Most of them used standard harp tablature--numbered arrows pointing up and down--but none of them indicated, with even minimal precision, the duration of each note, not to mention the rhythmic emphases (syncopation or "swing") that made for real blues.  A few of them offered this information in the form of actual musical notation instead of tablature, but like most harp players, I didn't read music.  So I developed my own form of tablature from the ground up. 

    My tabs give you numbers and arrows to indicate which hole you play and whether it's draw or blow, like standard harp tabs, but they also give you a precise rhythmic count underneath the arrows.  As you'll see if you order one of my videos, I'm a stickler about counting time.  If you can't count your way through a tab, you can't play the song with the precision and intensity it deserves.  Modern Blues Harmonica is NOT about mush-mouth harp.  No matter what level you are, I believe in treating you like a serious musician.  Counting time accurately is part of what it means to be a musician.  My tabs, in any case, are specifically designed to ground you in rhythmic fundamentals.  Most of them are hand-drawn, but please don't confuse this handmade aspect with carelessness, backwardness, or lack of precision.   I take great pride in my work.  You can find a few other accurate, precision-engineered harp transcriptions on the web--Glenn Weiser and David Barrett are both excellent--but I believe that my tabs offer a combination of accuracy, accessibility, and an attention to syncopation that makes them unique.

     I want to check out your videos and tabs NOW:

   www.modernbluesharmonica.com/blues_harp_lessons.html

JOURNEYS AND GIFTS:  HOW I WENT FROM "RAW BEGINNER" TO PROFESSIONAL HARP GUY
    One thing I offer you here is a chance to find out more about the life journey that helped me make the most of my gifts.  Please take a look at the pages marked "Satan and Adam" and "Adam's biography."  They'll answer many of your questions in this direction.  The pages marked "Adam's music for sale," and "Adam's books for sale" will offer you links to Tradebit and Amazon, where you can purchase the music I've made with Satan and Adam and Charlie Hilbert, as well as the three blues-themed books I've written.  The page marked "personal appearances" will tell you where you can catch me in action.

WELCOME!
    Welcome to the site!  Please stay a while and look around.  And if you happen to be one of my YouTube subscribers and feel like tossing a dollar or two into the busker's tip bucket--well, please be my guest.  I'm grateful for your support.

  I want to know a little more about what you're doing here at Modern Blues Harmonica.  Take me to your free "welcome to the site" video NOW:

    www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2562564-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials

(You may also mail a cash, check, or money order donation to my PO box:
Adam Gussow, P. O. Box 2216, Oxford, MS 38655, USA)

Special thanks to Adam Marsh (a.k.a. Kyser Sosa) for the new Modern Blues Harmonica logo.  

"The will to excel is nothing without the will to prepare" 

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play blues harmonica - beginner blues harmonica - video harmonica lessons - Nat Riddles - Charlie Hilbert