One of the most mind-blowing musical performances I ever saw was a few years ago at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Sonny Rollins played to a large crowd outdoors on a perfect summer evening, and the highlight of the set was his version of “The Tennesee Waltz”. Here
Tag: Rhythm harmonica
Total 7 Posts
In this video I describe a tongue blocking technique that had me confused for years. First I didn’t know how to do it, and then I finally hit on a way to do this, but I did not know what I was doing. So I finally slowed way down 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
“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
I have gotten a variety of responses to the rhythm exercise idea, ranging from “I don’t need this.” to “Wow! this is realy cool!”. I also got enough questions about exactly what to do that I will describe it again as clearly as I can. You sit and cross your
Today I have a very simple exercise that you can try with someone who claims that they can’t keep a beat. Or someone who can’t keep a beat, but they don’t know it. Or someone who is trying to learn a new and tricky rhythm. I will get into why
I tried using a metronome many years ago. I did it out of a vague sense of duty. That somehow it was good for me I bought a mechanical metronome called a Mini-Taktell. I never liked it . It seemed cold and heartless. Then I found out the metronome was