Harmonica Thinking

Christmas Jamming in London

The magic of Christmas was in the air last week at Sam Hare's blues jam at Alley Cat in Denmark St, London. People looking forward to making the best of the season's holidays normally help create a festive, if laid back, atmosphere.  After this troubled year though, those feelings were even more amplified.  I took part in two sets, it must be Christmas, and as luck would have it a professional photographer and director Alex Kryszkiewicz happened to be in shooting some footage. 

Here's a song I did with Artie and Jake Zaitz guitars, Jamie Lawrence bass and Ed Green on drums. It's wonderful to capture moments like these so well for prosperity. The diffrence a professional eye makes to a film is obvious here. The footage looks cool but the music isn't too shabby either.  I've known Jake for over 15 years from the Weavers Jam days but had never heard his son Artie play until a couple of weeks ago despite attending similar jams for years and many people remarking how good he is. He didn't disapoint when I did. Fast forward seven days and I get to play some tunes with him, life's funny sometimes.

His farther is a fine player and so is his son. Artie puts a massive slice of tasteful jazz into his blues and for me strikes the perfect balance between making a solo look effortless but at the sametime not emotionally flat.  Oh he plays drums and bass too, one to watch for the future.  I hope 2012 brings all you jammers out there great moments like this! 

Merry Christmas

 

Bills Blues - Instrumental and 2 part walkthrough

Merry Christmas to you! It's been a crazy year in so many respects. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to taking a break.  In my world that means playing more harmonica. Yesterday, I had a bumper video recording session and made 3 connected episodes for my series on Tongue Blocking.

These new videos continue the idea of bringing together the individual techniques I've covered so far so you can move around the harp, deploy effects such as octaves and bend notes.  To do this I've taken the scale and rhythm covered in my last video "Bringing It Altogether 2"  and constructed a tune from them . Two of the videos provide a step by step explanation of the head and the other is a take of the tune itself.  The tune reminds of one of my favourite harp players the late, great William Clarke who I've already referenced in this current video series. Especially the octaves in the 2nd part of the head. So I've named the tune "Bills Blues" in his honour. Fittingly simple I hope you agree. Give it a listen and let me know if it reminds you of him. 

Beginners will struggle to play this tune. The 1st part of the head is certainly within reach if you are an intermediate player but you will definitely find part 2 challenging. There's one phrase in particular which requires expert levels of timing and control - (video 2 at 0.58 ). Whatever your level though, there will be something for you to work on in this tune if you have been practising and progressing the exercises in this tongue blocking series. 

Before sounding off, I wanted to say that last week my YouTube channel passed a 1000 subscribers. It's a small number compared to some other more establish harp players on YouTube but I am delighted to reach this milestone. My thanks go to everyone who has been taking an interest in my music, videos and this blog.

I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012. 

Bills Blues:

  

Walkthrough Part 1: 

Walkthrough Part 2:

Tongue Blocking video - Bringing it Altogether 2

My latest video on Tongue Blocking continues  bringing the techniques covered so far altogether. Here I'm using 3rd position again for an exercise that starts simply and develops to something that will challenge some advanced players.