Happy Holidays! If you found 2016 a mess of a year I can relate… Sometimes clearing the path for the creative musical life is a twisted journey & this year was one of the craziest rides yet… In fact, 2016 just might be the weirdest year I’ve ever lived through and
If you never heard of D. H. “Bert” Bilbro, I’d like to introduce you to one of the most fascinating harmonica players I have ever heard. In 1928 Bert recorded a steam train imitation on the harmonica that was done in one take, that at times sounds like two
I don’t know about you, but I have had a rocky relationship over the years with the idea of commitments. Im my musical life, there have been times when I was so excited about learning and playing music that it was not a conscious decision to commit myself, I was
I found a great phrase this morning in a book by Steve Chandler: “the voice of your spirit”. I like this Phrase. It zeros in on what I was trying to describe a while ago when I wrote to you about discovering your own voice by recording yourself and then
“If you don’t live it, it ain’t going to come out of your horn.” – Louis Armstrong I love this quote because it reminds me that playing the harmonica gets all tangled up with the rest of my life, and that’s the way it should be. It also means that
I’ve been re-reading Stephen Pressfields book “Going Pro”, and he tells this story about how Rosanne Cash had this disturbing dream about trying to join a conversation with Bonnie Raitt and some guy named Art, and Art dismissed her as a dilettante… This dream kept haunting Rosanne, and caused her
“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing” You can take what you already know, tighten up the timing, clear out some space here and there to create tension, hit accents like you mean it, and BOOM! you catch on fire, your friends won’t know what got
What you are looking at above is a photo of my new improved practice space. My goal is to do a short practice that uses: A time limit (7 minutes) Focus on one thing (the tab on the page in the practice journal) A metronome (using the metronome for the
The Power of Embarrassment, or One Good Reason to Teach Harmonica…. Last week I taught classes at an event called the “Harmonica Collective” in Indianapolis. I wanted to focus on a few things that I have found very useful in my own life and as a harmonica player.
The Harmonica Collective- Indianapolis Indiana, April 24th – 27th, 2013 If you would like to do some deep work on your chops and fill up your tank with new inspiration, come to Indianapolis April 24th – 27th for the Harmonica Collective: Winslow Yerxa, Jason Ricci, James Conway, RJ Mischo,