Woody
20 posts
Jul 03, 2010
6:09 PM
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Hi everyone...I have played guitar for 30 years.
I started blues harp one year ago last month.
I am lucky enough to be able to approach the instrument
with a guitarists insight..that is to say.....
Licks? No problem! Loads to make and play...
An ear for tone? I'm always aware of tone....
Scales? All that's needed is finding the notes....
However.....it ain't so simple on Blues Harp...
even with my insight, this instrument seems
to require a special delivery.
Please trade some of your personal secrets to
playing great blues harp with me....
thanks
Woody
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Electric Harp....I just love it.
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Buddha
2169 posts
Jul 03, 2010
6:36 PM
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practice.
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"All is bliss"
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wolfkristiansen
12 posts
Jul 03, 2010
8:47 PM
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Hi Woody-- baby steps for giant accomplishments. I'm an ear player; no written music or harmnica tabs for me. If your guitar learning was visual, ignore what I say below.
I got a harmonica for Christmas when I was eight, so, given the season, learned to play Christmas carols by ear.
Do what I did-- play simple songs in the key the harmonica was designed for. Put your mouth on the harp, blow, and listen! Once you can play simple songs (Oh Susanna, Camptown Races etc.)with single notes, you will be able to move on to everything else we Modern Blue Harmonica experts talk about.
If you are beyond all that, accept my apologies and heed what everyone else has to say.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
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apskarp
235 posts
Jul 03, 2010
9:47 PM
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For me it seems to be helpful to try to play everything I hear from the radio or in my head with the harp. It will require also playing in different positions. Playing with the band seems to be indispensable too..
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GermanHarpist
1616 posts
Jul 04, 2010
12:30 AM
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Resonance is KEY!
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Ben Bouman
11 posts
Jul 04, 2010
2:43 AM
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1 or 2 lessons from an experienced harpteacher will save you lots of time. There are some teachers who do on-line lessons through SKYPE.... ( like me!)
Ben Bouman
www.customharmonicasop.com
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Buddha
2171 posts
Jul 04, 2010
5:31 AM
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I give free lessons with the purchase of a harp.
There are mini-lessons while you are waiting and then a full on session after you get the harp.
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"All is bliss"
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beltone
21 posts
Jul 04, 2010
9:26 AM
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@Budda, gave the best advice. Just Play!
Simple melodies, hard melodies, tiad exercises it is all good, but there is no replacement for time and while learning songs and melodies on the harp are important, the time you spend doing that or just noodling around are key.
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-- BTMF --
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barbequebob
999 posts
Jul 04, 2010
1:10 PM
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Play, practice, and non stop experimentation from the embouchure shape, using the hands, fingers, tongue, relaxation, but it does help to have a good teacher. I'm largely self taught but I've never been afraid to ask questions, even stuff one may think is dumb because the only dumb question is the one youshould've asked, but didn't because you chickened out of it.
Tone, phrasing, technique, and resonance are all important and it has to work hand in hand together.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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harmonicanick
811 posts
Jul 04, 2010
1:56 PM
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I was watching a documentary about Nigel Kennedy the virtuoso violinist who now lives in Krakow, Poland with his wife on the BBC, as I am English.
Well, Nigel gets up in the morning and then practices for 2-3 hours EVERY DAY and he started age 4
he practises scales, triplets, doublets whatevah!!
Jason Ricci said in one of his, very entertaining tutorials, that its not how many years you have been playing, but how many hours you have put in..
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Joe_L
424 posts
Jul 04, 2010
2:17 PM
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Listen to BBQ Bob. His advice is very good.
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nacoran
2334 posts
Jul 04, 2010
2:51 PM
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Learn both tongue blocking and lip pursing right out of the gate. They are both really useful and the more comfortable you are switching on the fly the better. Use that guitar knowledge to get good at keying songs and writing harmony. Record yourself and push your tone in different directions. See what it takes to make a note sound sad and lonely (aside from switching to a minor key) and what makes it sound rough and crunchy and wild and how to change back and forth. The players who seem to do best with techniques like overblows seem to be the guys who get them working early and who learn to incorporate them from the beginning. If you get overblows, do scales and learn all the positions.
Get a couple really cheap harps like Blues Bands and take them apart. The more you learn about how the insides work the easier it will be to figure out how to do different things. Even if you aren't ready to emboss a reed learning to gap a reed and then setting it down for a while will let you consolidate some of that knowledge so it will be ready when you want it. Every player should at least know how to gap for regular play and to fix a misaligned reed and maybe spot and remove a bur. Tuning and embossing and overblow gapping you can learn later if you find you need it or you like doing it.
And play. Harps are great. You can keep one in your pocket and pull it out on a lunch break or when you are standing in line.
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Nate
Facebook
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Woody
23 posts
Jul 06, 2010
5:15 PM
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Thanks Everyone ...all good advice....and I
do play everyday and have since May last year.
I love the idea of taking a harp apart to know
what goes on inside, I never thought of that.
I have had two lessons, one with Joff Watkins
and one with Captain Bliss and both helped me
SO much. I am willing to pay for more, and looking....
Captain Bliss really made me realise the tone that
can be generated and how much tone I lack.
I am a Marine Band Deluxe fan (the Crossovers seem
easier too, in my novice opinion) and seem to
make me sound more resonant than any Hohner
Blues Harps or standard Marine Bands.
Thanks again everyone, I will just play and play
and will update you this time next year.
I am Harpdoodle on YouTube and Myspace
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Electric Harp....I just love it.
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Woody
24 posts
Jul 06, 2010
5:19 PM
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PS.....I have met Nigel Kennedy too, oddly..... We chatted about Poland, Polish wives, Zappa and Luc Ponty.
Nice fella...really really genuine.
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Electric Harp....I just love it.
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Buddha
2195 posts
Jul 06, 2010
5:24 PM
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I watched a few of your vids.
I simply don't understand why you don't quell the wankiness and use your ear and guitar to find the notes and then practice what is in your head.
You're a decent guitarist so apply what you've learned to the harp.
Your technique is good enough.
Has anyone taught you how to breathe? Or how to control your air flow?
This is why you need to work with GOOD teachers and not just guys who think they can teach beginners because they think they are intermediate players themselves.
Stop with the shit that you spew from your harp and play music. You have it in you, now go forth and do good.
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"All is bliss"
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captainbliss
247 posts
Jul 07, 2010
4:02 AM
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@Woody:
*blushes*
Thank you for the kind words.
Seriously, I hope you took more away than an A / B comparison of "this is how I sound / this is how you sound" and that I made the bits about how to *produce* the tone clear (what I suspect Buddha means when he says "controlling the air flow" or, I say/said, by learning the art of breathing in and out).
If not, then it seems I would do well to heed Buddha's warnings about the perils of intermediate players thinking they can teach beginners!!!
Speaking of "guys who think they can teach..."
@Buddha:
I wonder whether your acerbic tendencies (however entertaining) might sometimes obstruct opportunities for learning? Whether there's sometimes a conflict between calling it as you see it and being a good teacher?
No challenge to your freedom of speech or qualities as a teacher (rumour has it you're good), just a thought...
@Woody:
Buddha is 100% right about the benefits of working with GOOD teachers (I don't mean me, I mean world-class players who are also world-class teachers).
For me, Blues Week (to which you might consider coming?) has completely changed the way I do everything on the harmonica. When teaching a student, I'm usually just trying to pass on what I've learned from my teachers up in Northampton - Grant (Dermody) and Joe (Filisko) have had the greatest impact on me, but I've learned a lot from some other wonderful players, too - with the best pale imitation and limited technique I can muster.
Basically...
There's *no* substitute for getting it straight from the horse's mouth and having direct and expert feedback on / tweaking of one's own playing from said horse (?!).
As for the "special delivery" of the blues harp...
Learn to play whole pieces. Slim Harpo tunes are great, as are diatonic harmonica "milestone" pieces like "Easy," a *controlled* train piece, "Amazing Grace," a fox chase etc etc...
You might also find Lee Sankey's videos useful/interesting (I posted them here on MBH a few days ago) and The London Harmonica Group isn't the worst place to be (details linked in my sig).
Keep playing, keep practising!
xxx
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MySpace | Facebook | Calendar | YouTube | London Harmonica Group | My Main Gig
Last Edited by on Jul 07, 2010 4:53 AM
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Woody
25 posts
Jul 07, 2010
5:08 AM
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Buddha...you are SO right, I have been so consumed
with actually being able to BLOW the harp, I haven't
sat down and done what Captain Bliss has said:
Learn some pieces from beginning to end.
All my little vids are improvised BLOWING and DRAWING.
Not much music there.
Thanks everyone ... I need to put my music
where my mouth is !
Captain...please teach me more,I will call you.
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Electric Harp....I just love it.
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