Harmonica Thinking

Appearance with Matt Schofield

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure to play again with my ex-guitarist Matt Schofield and his band who have gone onto take the world by storm. Matt played with me for several years and appears on my debut album "My Day Is Just Beginning". He was special then aged only 19 and I'm so so so pleased in the way his career has blossomed. He is such a gifted musician. The awards continue to pile in. Yesterday for example Mojo picked his latest album "Anything But Time" as blues album of the year, something never before achieved by a UK artist. Get in there! 

I appeared as a guest during Matt's show at Dingwalls, Camden which also featured  a 3 piece horn section and Paddy Milner on piano. The concert was filmed, along with several others from his recent European tour, and might be used for a future DVD. In the meantime, here's a lo-fi video from the show.... 

 

Many of you harp players out there will appreciate how difficult and frustrating it can be playing with a loud band. It's a battle we can rarely win, the harmonica is an acoustic instrument after all. As well as not being able to hear yourself, at all, there's also the special gift of nose bleed inducing feedback that you can only get with the insane combination of trying to use a microphone with an amp. What were you thinking Little Walter! Harmonica mic feedback has an uncanny skill for making an appearance at the least opportune moments, normally laying waste to a sensitive passage in someone else's solo or vocal. It knows.Throw into the mix the challenges of being a guest, for instance maybe not being to sound check, and it can be a unsatisfying recipe.

Matt plays with dynamics but when he unleashes everything this is no question a loud band. Even though I was really looking forward to sitting in, the most likely scenario was that I wouldn't be able to hear myself and would be drowned out by the band if the intensity rose, which it was guaranteed to do so. How wrong I was! In the end the sound crew did a phenomenal job both front of house and with the onstage monitors. I could hear and be heard. Why mention this?  Because it transformed what was already a special occasion for me into something I could enjoy musically as well. Anyone who has experienced anything similar will appreciate what a colossal difference it makes when sound crews look after you, especially as a guest. 

What a buzz, it was like old times in many ways as The Lee Sankey Group also used to feature 3 and sometimes even 5 horns. I hope we get to do it again sometime!

www.mattschofield.net

 

Tongue Blocking - Bringing it altogether

So after 8 videos on Tongue Blocking we've now arrived at a point where we can start pulling the various techniques I've covered together. These include producing single notes, basic bends and octaves. Hopefully you should now have some TB technique that integrates with your existing lip pursing foundation. As I say in the video, this is both an exciting and frustrating point in the learning curve.

On the one hand you may be seeing several benefits including a better tone. On the other hand though, you now also have several options for doing the same thing which means you will start tripping yourself up. I certainly did at this point and still do from time to time.  You will start asking yourself mid phrase "should I tongue block or lip pursue this?". So for a while things will seem confusing and you will lose some fluidity from your playing. Stick with it though. Eventually you'll iron out the transitions and knowing how to approach things will become second nature. 

In this video I explain a cross position riff which is anchored on the 2 draw lip pursed and uses 3 other tongue blocked parts to:

• leap 4 holes
• play a 7th 
• play two bends

It's an improvisational framework. You will be learning to seamlessly switch between the two embouchures and cover large intervals with ease. Get this riff down and you'll see even more of the possibilities of TB which we'll continue to delve into. Once confident, try to overlay other techniques such as tone variation and hand effects. More videos to follow next week. Enjoy! 

New Video Tutorial - Tongue Block Bends Continued

The latest tutorial from my Tongue Blocking Series continues on the dreaded subject of bending. I say dreaded simply as it's such a hard thing to explain, especially in a video. 

I think there's some good things ot work on here if I do say so myself. I set out 4 exercises to help your tongue block bends using draw 6 in 3rd position. Draw 6 is not to difficult to bend and 3rd position is great for utilising tongue blocking. Each exercise involves a different bend e.g rising, falling, etc and practising them will help you develop your skills enormously if you are now getting the basic bending engine for tongue blocking I outlined in the last video. They obviously work for practising lip pursed bends too. 

I've covered a lot of ground in the tongue blocking series now and if you've been practising you should be now be getting a basic handle on playing octaves, single notes and bending tongue blocked from hole 4 upwards. Remember some of the techniques can take a long time to learn but hopefully if you've been working through the exercises you will at least be seeing some progress. I know this is the case from some of the great feedback I've received from people on YouTube. People have commented that their tone has improved, that they are now able to move around the harmonica using tongue blocking and are playing whole songs using the technique. This is all great stuff. 

We are now reaching the most exciting but tricky stage of learning to tongue block. That is bringing all the individual techniques together into one overall seamless technique which you will almost certainly have to integrate to a greater or lesser extent with your lip pursing technique on holes 1,2,3 and 8,9,10.

In the next videos we'll start bringing it altogether.  My YouTube video views are now approaching 250,000 and I'm knocking on the door of 1000 subscribers. I want to thank everyone who is watching, commenting and subscribing for their support and interest. And also to those of you who read this blog!

Thanks,

Lee