THE MISSION
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 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 want to get started on the right foot. 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 want to watch your FREE "welcome to the site" video! Take me to it NOW:
www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/2562564-Documents-eBooks-Music-Tutorials
Did the free video whet your appetite for more? I hope so!
I want to check out your videos and tabs! Take me to The Store NOW:
www.modernbluesharmonica.com/page/page/4464251.htm
Some of you have arrived at this website after visiting "Adam Gussow's Dirty-South Blues Harp Channel" at YouTube. You know that I'm a guy who keeps his word. In February 2007, after surveying what was available on YouTube in the way of harp instructional videos, I uploaded my first video, "Blues Harmonica Secrets Revealed (Gussow.000)," promising to "give it all away." In 40 days I uploaded 40 free lessons, doing my best to demystify the instrument. I shared the knowledge that I'd accumulated as a performer with the duo Satan and Adam and as a blues harmonica teacher with more than 20 years' experience in private and classroom teaching.
The free lessons at YouTube have continued, and they will continue. I genuinely believe in serving my fellow players by sharing my knowledge.
But there is a place, too, for a different kind of sharing. That's where Modern Blues Harmonica comes in.
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, an innovative file-sharing site at which I've uploaded a series of instantly-downloadable blues harmonica lessons. 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 staged 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 for 12-18 minutes) and a PDF tab ($2). 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 worked with 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.
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 testimonial page NOW:
www.modernbluesharmonica.com/page/page/4770854.htm
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.
JOURNEYS AND GIFTS
I don't believe in cluttering your mind with innumerable ads, which is why you'll see none on this website. [NOTE: Well, almost none. I've made a rare exception for the Hohner banner ad above. See my note about this on the "news and updates" page.] But I do believe in making available, for a modest cost, certain materials for the dedicated blues harmonica student who'd like a little more focus and structure than I'm able to offer on YouTube. I also believe in making a space available where those of you who have appreciated the wealth of knowledge (and goofiness, and joy, and passion) that I've brought to my free YouTube lessons can give back a little.
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 "biography" and "Adam's books and CDs." They'll answer many of your questions in this direction. They offer links to Rounder, where you can purchase the three Satan and Adam CDs, and to Amazon, where my three books are for sale. The page marked "personal appearances" will tell you where you can catch me in action.
In case you haven't figured this out already, blues harmonica has the power to transform your life. My books and recordings testify to this. I hope you'll check them out.
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.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAUSE:
option #1: contribute to my PayPal merchant's account, entitled "Modern Blues Harmonica," using the donation button below. When taken to the PayPal website, please specify "donation" under "payment for" (or "item") and the amount you'd like to donate under "price" (or "unit price"). The words you see will vary slightly depending on the browser you use:
or option #2: 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 Benjamin Norman for the Modern Blues Harmonica logo.
blues harmonica - blues harp - harmonica lessons - harmonica instruction - harmonica tabs - learn to play harmonica - Adam Gussow - Satan and Adam - blues harmonica licks - learn blues harp - harp tabs - blues harp tabs - learn harmonica -
play blues harmonica - beginner blues harmonica
