Harmonica Thinking

Quick post. Looks like I will be appearing at the Harmonica Masters Workshops in Trossingden, Germany in November 2012 hosted by Steve Baker. Already looking forward to it. I will be presenting a seminar on my Brainstruments research as well as playing in one of the evening concerts. More details to follow when I have them.

Tongue Blocking - Using the Low Register Part 1

Just uploaded the next installment in my video tutorial series on Tongue Blocking. Having covered a lot of ground on holes 4 and above in 2nd and 3rd position we have now arrived at the point where we can begin to consider the bottom register. 

Playing the low register of the harmonica effectively whether you are using lip pursing or tongue blocking requires excellent bending skills. For this reason I'm starting things slowly with a couple of exercises that do not require any extra bending skill than I've already covered. However, to take things further we will need to up our bending skills considerably. With this in mind I'm going to start a separate series on critical bending techniques to support the more technically advanced techniques we are now moving onto. When I say advanced I mean in relation to intermediate players.  

Anyway I hope these two exercises get you to extend your use of tongue blocking into the low register. If you work on the exercises you'll be able to play some cool licks tongue blocked licks between the blow 6 and draw 2.

 

Problem Holding The Harmonica

Dale in America recently contacted me on YouTube about the way he holds the harmonica. Hang on, do I sound like some kind of agony aunt? Don't answer that, err anyway, I found his question interesting because like me he plays the harmonica upside down, that is to say low notes to the right. But unlike me he holds the harmonica with his left hand. My view is that this approach can cause some problems as the low notes do not form part of the chamber created by cupping your hands. 

After exchanging a couple of text comments Dale posted a video of him playing to which I then responded with another containing my advice for him. This is my first personalised video response to a player and hopefully it worked well. I look forward to seeing how his technique evolves. Here are the videos which might be of interest to others with the same issue.

Dale playing

My Response