May 8, 2024

The Ten Minute Question: part 1

The Ten Minute Question: part 1
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Season 1 Diatonic Harmonica Chromatic Harmonica

Something a little different for episode 110 (and also episode 111 so I can keep the length around the one hour mark).

The next two episodes are a compilation of all the ten minute question answers from the series so far, in this, the 110th episode (get it?)

Not every episode had a ten minute question, such as the retrospectives, but most did, 96 in fact.

So I hope you enjoy listening back to this collection and apply some of the tips and tricks offered by the great players who have been on the podcast so far. 

I’ll say the name of each person before they respond to the question: “if you had 10 minutes to practise, what would you spend that ten minutes doing”.



Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

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Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
--------------------------------
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01:38 - Paul Lamb

02:30 - Steve ‘West’ Weston

03:50 - Giles Robson

06:30 - Billy Branch

07:31 - Joe Filisko

08:10 - Kim Wilson

09:03 - Rod Piazza

10:34 - Charlie McCoy

11:11 - PT Gazell

11:46 - Carlos del Junco

13:18 - Brendan Power

13:32 - Peter ‘Madcat’ Ruth

14:13 - Lee Oskar

14:40 - Howard Levy

15:04 - Rachelle Plas

15:34 - Gregoire Maret

19:11 - Mick Kinsella

19:48 - Jerry Portnoy

22:14 - Mickey Raphael

23:41 - Mark Feltham

24:43 - Antonio Serrano

25:13 - Grant Dermody

25:38 - Sugar Blue

25:56 - Jim Hughes

26:44 - Charlie Musselwhite

27:09 - Donald Black

28:42 - Greg Zlap

30:05 - Fata Morgana

30:33 - Errol Linton

31:22 - Filip Jers

32:25 - Son of Dave

33:08 - Steve Baker

33:50 - Robert Bonfiglio

36:44 - Will Galison

38:16 - Mat Walklate

38:50 - Bob Corritore

40:45 - Phil Wiggins

41:41 - Hermine Duerloo

43:08 - David Naiditch

44:00 - Adam Burney

45:16 - Tony Eyers

45:59 - Greg Huemann

47:42 - Jason Rosenblatt

49:21 - Cy Leo

50:36 - Rory McLeod

52:02 - Magic Dick

52:56 - Richard Gjems

53:51 - Rick Estrin

54:30 - Billy Boy Arnold

WEBVTT

00:00:00.450 --> 00:00:08.541
Hi all, doing something a little different for episode 110, and also episode 111 so I can keep the length around the hour mark.

00:00:09.243 --> 00:00:16.754
The next two episodes are a compilation of all the 10 minute question answers from the series so far in this, the 110th episode.

00:00:17.234 --> 00:00:17.535
Get it?

00:00:18.256 --> 00:00:23.062
Not every episode had a 10 minute question, such as the retrospectives, but most did.

00:00:23.082 --> 00:00:24.865
96 in fact.

00:00:25.378 --> 00:00:32.688
So I hope you enjoy listening back to this collection and apply some of the tips and tricks offered by the great players who have been on the podcast so far.

00:00:32.728 --> 00:00:36.493
I'll say the name of each person before they respond to the question.

00:00:36.933 --> 00:00:40.658
If you had 10 minutes of practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes doing?

00:00:41.859 --> 00:00:44.323
This podcast is sponsored by Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:00:44.783 --> 00:00:54.076
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.zeidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zeidel Harmonicas.

00:00:57.218 --> 00:00:57.853
Thank you.

00:01:38.882 --> 00:01:41.629
Just one of Sonny's rhythms.

00:01:43.112 --> 00:01:48.206
That's what I would work on because rhythm is the main thing in harmonica.

00:01:48.647 --> 00:01:50.572
Just that sort of, if you can hear it on...

00:02:12.514 --> 00:02:16.658
You know, just working, and they're a great breathing technique.

00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:19.040
It helps you with your breathing pattern.

00:02:19.822 --> 00:02:21.123
I mean, I wouldn't be out of breath.

00:02:21.183 --> 00:02:23.545
I could play that all day long, and I wouldn't be out.

00:02:23.645 --> 00:02:24.888
Some people would think, well, you're

00:02:24.948 --> 00:02:26.229
just drawing and drawing and drawing.

00:02:26.269 --> 00:02:27.350
Your lungs are going to burst.

00:02:27.790 --> 00:02:30.114
But just that sort of rhythm.

00:02:30.854 --> 00:02:31.996
Steve West-Weston.

00:02:32.596 --> 00:02:35.719
Just 10 minutes would be probably just before I play.

00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:38.663
I would work on Sonny Terry's stuff.

00:02:38.682 --> 00:02:40.806
I'd just do Sonny Terry's style of singing.

00:02:41.409 --> 00:02:48.580
It's a lot of really controlled breathing, getting those going, and it's just like an exercise I use.

00:02:49.241 --> 00:02:49.641
Oh, really?

00:02:49.722 --> 00:02:50.423
Okay.

00:02:50.802 --> 00:02:56.512
I don't really associate you too much with doing Sonny Perry-style stuff when I've seen you play.

00:02:56.532 --> 00:03:00.698
I guess you do an acoustic one like that, do you, Marshall?

00:03:01.419 --> 00:03:02.060
Yeah.

00:03:03.161 --> 00:03:13.475
When we finished, recently I did an acoustic stuff the harmonica, what was it, Hopping by the Sea?

00:03:14.197 --> 00:03:15.838
Oh, yeah, the one in February of this year.

00:03:16.038 --> 00:03:17.360
I was going to come this year.

00:03:17.501 --> 00:03:19.003
It was a fantastic event last year.

00:03:19.063 --> 00:03:21.507
They had this guy from Uruguay who was just amazing.

00:03:22.288 --> 00:03:25.973
But I was going to go this year, but they did all sold out by the time I got round.

00:03:26.274 --> 00:03:27.736
Well, I didn't leave it that late.

00:03:27.776 --> 00:03:29.519
You know, those guys have done great down there.

00:03:29.538 --> 00:03:33.003
But me and Will Wilder and Joe Sisco

00:03:33.024 --> 00:03:36.830
did a thing at the end, you know, and it was just improvised.

00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:37.751
And we did a

00:03:37.790 --> 00:03:43.881
couple of numbers of it, like the Funny Boy Williamson thing, and then a Sonny Terry type of thing,

00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:44.342
you know.

00:03:47.106 --> 00:03:47.146
If

00:03:50.352 --> 00:03:51.253
you're in

00:03:52.496 --> 00:03:55.980
your early stages, I would really try and practice a shuffle rhythm.

00:03:56.662 --> 00:04:07.236
If you go to Snooki Pryor or Sunny Boy Williamson, The intro that they do, it's sort of based around Sunday Boys' All My Love in Vain.

00:04:07.758 --> 00:04:15.747
And your imagination, it's sort of like...

00:04:18.331 --> 00:04:20.713
And Snooki Pryor does it a lot as well.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:04:39.298 --> 00:04:42.963
Try and do the Snooki Pryor and Sonny Boy intro and

00:04:43.062 --> 00:04:44.285
try and get that rhythm down.

00:04:44.865 --> 00:04:54.519
Because once you've got that shuffle rhythm, you know, it'll really help you out, you know, to get people moving on the dance floor, to have an impact of jams and stuff.

00:04:54.619 --> 00:04:55.339
And also, if

00:04:56.141 --> 00:05:01.949
you've got another 10 minutes, you know, try and get Howlin' Wolf's solos down

00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:02.250
because...

00:05:02.817 --> 00:05:06.903
you know, very deceptively simple player, because rhythmically and tonally and

00:05:07.785 --> 00:05:11.689
phrase-wise, he's actually incredibly sophisticated and tasteful.

00:05:12.071 --> 00:05:13.213
Is it Moaning at Midnight?

00:05:13.273 --> 00:05:21.603
That very repetitive riff he plays, and that was so powerful and strong, and like you say, he's not the greatest harmonica player in the world, but it's very effective what he does.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
...

00:05:32.449 --> 00:05:39.480
You know, Little Walter, all of his major songs

00:05:40.201 --> 00:05:42.803
have a central riff, a central melodic figure.

00:05:43.665 --> 00:05:46.428
You know, Sonny Boy didn't do that.

00:05:47.470 --> 00:05:51.336
The band might have done it with Sonny Boy, like on Help Me, the band is the hook on Help Me.

00:05:51.975 --> 00:05:54.800
Little Walter could write melodic riffs that were hooks.

00:05:55.701 --> 00:05:58.685
And that's what sets him apart from all the other...

00:05:59.362 --> 00:06:03.208
from all the other harp players, you know, so he was a composer as well as a player.

00:06:03.809 --> 00:06:08.697
Sonny Boy doesn't really have composed riffs in his playing.

00:06:08.737 --> 00:06:20.798
He has stock riffs and he played, you know, he's a genius, but Little Walter, you know, like blues of a feeling, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, you know, you can hum Little Walter's riffs.

00:06:31.041 --> 00:06:31.802
Billy Branch.

00:06:33.024 --> 00:06:37.408
If I only had 10 minutes to play, I would improvise something for 10 minutes.

00:06:38.329 --> 00:06:38.470
Would

00:06:38.511 --> 00:06:38.971
you approach

00:06:39.011 --> 00:06:40.973
the improvisation by playing something in

00:06:41.052 --> 00:06:44.476
second position or by the blues scale?

00:06:45.077 --> 00:06:57.012
It would completely depend on how I felt at that moment, which is the way most of my recordings have been and a lot of my performances when I take a solo.

00:06:57.732 --> 00:06:58.894
There are certain songs...

00:06:59.586 --> 00:07:04.930
that I will play practically the same solo each time.

00:07:05.911 --> 00:07:12.879
But there's a lot of cases in which I'm learning as I'm going along on any given night.

00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:24.209
This is one reason I'm a person that doesn't mind sitting in because when I'm in different musical settings, I can explore different, experiment on different things.

00:07:24.990 --> 00:07:28.552
So if I had 10 minutes, it would depend on how I felt.

00:07:29.442 --> 00:07:30.807
I'd make up something.

00:07:33.278 --> 00:07:36.834
My favorite harmonica exercise is the train

00:07:36.894 --> 00:07:37.456
imitation.

00:07:37.889 --> 00:07:39.572
You can never have good enough rhythm.

00:07:39.973 --> 00:07:42.536
You can never have big enough tone.

00:07:42.576 --> 00:07:48.302
You can never have enough breath control and breath support in your playing.

00:07:48.583 --> 00:07:53.048
You got to love the sound of those harmonica chords being played.

00:07:53.168 --> 00:07:58.716
So the harmonica train imitation, that's where I'm always going back to.

00:07:58.755 --> 00:08:07.165
And I've actually been challenging my students these days to go back and revisit that to help overcome that.

00:08:07.458 --> 00:08:07.737
certain

00:08:07.817 --> 00:08:09.459
challenges in their own playing.

00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:12.122
If

00:08:12.262 --> 00:08:26.158
I had 10 minutes to practice and I was just a very, very beginner, I would learn how to tongue block pucker, tongue block pucker, tongue block pucker, to make it sound exactly the same, depending on whatever hole you want to go in.

00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.343
And then I would work on trying to bend a note.

00:08:30.983 --> 00:08:32.245
And that would be it, you know.

00:08:32.769 --> 00:08:36.395
And a Felisco is going to hate me for this, but I do a lot of puckering.

00:08:36.676 --> 00:08:37.057
I do

00:08:37.076 --> 00:08:38.259
a lot of tongue blocking as well.

00:08:38.619 --> 00:08:42.424
I kind of added tongue blocking on the low notes later on in life.

00:08:43.066 --> 00:08:43.947
And I think that

00:08:44.447 --> 00:08:48.033
there's certain, I guarantee a little Walter did not tongue block all the time.

00:08:48.193 --> 00:08:48.575
Did not.

00:08:48.894 --> 00:08:49.456
I can hear it.

00:08:49.836 --> 00:08:53.101
And there's certain transitional notes that you can't get otherwise.

00:08:53.793 --> 00:08:57.717
And there's certain ways the harmonica sounds that you can't get otherwise.

00:08:58.118 --> 00:09:02.923
You have to be able to get a lot of different sounds on the instrument.

00:09:04.083 --> 00:09:16.735
I think five minutes would be on something that you already know, some song that you've learned, just to keep your chops fresh and keep your mouth and your embouchure up.

00:09:17.296 --> 00:09:22.782
And the other five minutes, I think, would just be on trying to create something new that you haven't played before.

00:09:23.234 --> 00:09:27.860
You know, when I pick up the harp now, most of the times I don't have an idea in

00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:31.625
my head until I start playing the harp and something comes out.

00:09:32.086 --> 00:09:33.768
And I say, hey, yeah, that was

00:09:33.807 --> 00:09:35.009
something worth repeating.

00:09:35.049 --> 00:09:37.653
And then I'll go back and try to play that again.

00:09:37.692 --> 00:09:38.214
Sometimes

00:09:38.274 --> 00:09:39.095
I can play it again.

00:09:39.174 --> 00:09:40.037
Sometimes I can't.

00:09:40.456 --> 00:09:46.706
And so doing that, I think that's how you create something new for yourself and add to your vocabulary.

00:09:47.138 --> 00:09:52.523
Yeah, that comes through strongly, as you talked about your instrumentals earlier on, that you try to come up with something new, yeah?

00:09:52.562 --> 00:10:04.332
I think a lot of people, and I find myself doing this quite a lot, might just play songs that you know of other people's harmonica parts, whereas you spend quite a lot of time trying to come up with your own new stuff, yeah?

00:10:04.633 --> 00:10:22.850
Yeah, trying to find a head that you maybe heard on a saxophone record, or you can't quite play the whole head, but you can take a portion of it and then elaborate Charlie McCoy

00:10:36.684 --> 00:10:47.157
Probably thinking of songs I've never recorded and trying them Thinking of songs that I have on my mind to record in the future and trying them out, you know, that kind of thing.

00:10:47.697 --> 00:10:49.019
So playing some melodies then?

00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:51.101
Yeah, melodies, right.

00:10:52.703 --> 00:10:59.793
You know, a lot of guys get all hung up on tunings and technique and all that.

00:11:00.674 --> 00:11:02.957
My whole focus is on songs.

00:11:03.597 --> 00:11:10.668
What song will sound good on this and what's the best way to record it and that kind of thing.

00:11:11.288 --> 00:11:11.729
P.T.

00:11:11.769 --> 00:11:12.350
Gazelle.

00:11:12.994 --> 00:11:14.235
Regulating breathing.

00:11:14.697 --> 00:11:23.532
Learning to relax and regulate your breathing because most people tense up and get too involved and try to play too hard.

00:11:25.534 --> 00:11:31.325
You're having to work way too hard to make any sound on an instrument that shouldn't be that difficult to do.

00:11:31.365 --> 00:11:33.849
Any particular tips on how you would do that?

00:11:34.610 --> 00:11:36.212
It all starts with relaxing.

00:11:36.273 --> 00:11:39.077
If you're relaxed, then your diaphragm is open.

00:11:39.330 --> 00:11:42.869
Then it's easier to inhale or exhale.

00:11:43.471 --> 00:11:45.423
It all kind of starts there for me.

00:11:47.841 --> 00:11:59.561
Lately, I've just been practicing just patterns and different keys and through like a cycle of force or chromatically down, just anything that kind of pushes me.

00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.245
I'm never going to be a hardcore jazz guy.

00:12:02.706 --> 00:12:04.570
It's actually opening up my blues playing.

00:12:05.311 --> 00:12:14.365
So if I try to play something in a weird key, it's helping my regular playing and stuff and just helps me to be more free in the easy keys, if that makes any sense.

00:12:14.446 --> 00:12:14.525
Yeah.

00:12:14.785 --> 00:12:18.932
Like, I mean, you know, even something like a triad coming down chromatically.

00:12:18.972 --> 00:12:23.039
That's

00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:24.903
just the whole one, two, three, four.

00:12:25.023 --> 00:12:26.384
But if you take it from the third.

00:12:26.404 --> 00:12:36.240
Et cetera, et cetera.

00:12:36.280 --> 00:12:36.621
So you...

00:12:36.929 --> 00:12:48.039
You have to literally think in your head, okay, now I'm in G, now I'm in F sharp, now I'm in F, now I'm in E, now I'm in E flat, and sort of visualize those patterns in each one of those key centers.

00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:49.841
It's a real workout.

00:12:50.361 --> 00:12:52.644
I just was doing that a little bit today with a metronome.

00:12:53.124 --> 00:12:57.967
Because I just started to visualize it, it's like, oh, I can actually think my way through this slowly.

00:12:58.548 --> 00:13:07.476
In a nutshell, lately, that's what I've been practicing, just different things that just sort of push me and challenge me to think clearly and deliberately in different key centers

00:13:08.077 --> 00:13:09.038
brendan power

00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:31.269
oh just whatever i'm into at the time you know again i couldn't say anything specific but if i'm into chinese music it would be a chinese chinese thing if it was into effects i'd be playing with them so yeah i couldn't say anything specific except what i'm gonna buzz on for that at the moment i've never had a practice regime i mean a lot of people practice scales and and all this kind of thing but i've never been one of those

00:13:32.033 --> 00:13:36.985
I'd probably play some songs.

00:13:37.265 --> 00:13:37.826
I'd probably

00:13:37.866 --> 00:13:46.206
think of a song that I'd like to play and play it, because I find it's more entertaining to myself.

00:13:46.547 --> 00:13:51.018
Think of a song and then think, well, what if I played that same song?

00:13:51.490 --> 00:13:52.551
in first position.

00:13:52.951 --> 00:13:57.235
And what if I played that same song in third position or 12th position?

00:13:57.296 --> 00:13:58.235
What would it sound like?

00:13:58.336 --> 00:14:02.100
And so I kind of will amuse myself in that way.

00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:05.964
And by trying out melodies in different positions,

00:14:06.083 --> 00:14:08.186
I think that's a great way to practice.

00:14:08.405 --> 00:14:10.807
But it's also, it's more entertaining than

00:14:10.888 --> 00:14:12.769
just running scales or something like that.

00:14:13.410 --> 00:14:13.990
Lee Oscar.

00:14:14.292 --> 00:14:20.658
You know, I think it's good to play with good tone, play with phrasing, breathing.

00:14:21.186 --> 00:14:31.985
Take 10 minutes every day when you're starting off and just learn to play a pure tone on the two-draw or the three-draw because you've got to learn to play unconstricted air.

00:14:32.024 --> 00:14:33.587
You don't suck air.

00:14:33.668 --> 00:14:34.350
You breathe air.

00:14:34.931 --> 00:14:39.458
So 10 minutes, and it's good to practice getting nice tone.

00:14:40.640 --> 00:14:41.201
Howard Levy.

00:14:41.730 --> 00:14:59.611
Well, I have these things that I call rhythmic breathing rudiments, where I transfer drum rudiments to the harmonica, paradiddles, roughs, all sorts of things like that, which I do, and certain arpeggios, you know, playing melodies in certain keys, expanding the pitches of the overblows.

00:15:00.472 --> 00:15:03.557
Yeah, stuff that I warm up with before I play my concerto.

00:15:04.378 --> 00:15:05.259
Rochelle Plass.

00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:07.741
Pushing on my...

00:15:07.841 --> 00:15:14.889
record app on my phone and try to find new melodies and new tricks on the harmonica.

00:15:15.211 --> 00:15:22.658
I will just play and record while I'm playing and I will hear what I've played to see if there's something interesting.

00:15:23.179 --> 00:15:28.065
So you see recording yourself as a really important part of your practice and then listen back to that?

00:15:28.125 --> 00:15:33.171
Yeah, if I have only 10 minutes to play in a day, I will try to find a new melody, for example.

00:15:34.192 --> 00:15:35.453
Gregoire Marais

00:15:36.162 --> 00:15:41.325
I would come back to playing scales and arpeggios and the sound.

00:15:41.807 --> 00:15:45.182
So I would do long tones, like something like that, like...

00:15:49.505 --> 00:15:53.789
And really have the sound really steady, like not just going through.

00:15:54.169 --> 00:15:57.253
First, without vibrato, you know, just really straight.

00:15:57.474 --> 00:16:00.135
Just to have a real control of the sound.

00:16:00.316 --> 00:16:03.698
And then eventually you can venture into playing vibrato and all that stuff.

00:16:03.860 --> 00:16:06.942
The other thing that I would do is playing really soft.

00:16:12.126 --> 00:16:14.129
But with a lot of projection.

00:16:14.288 --> 00:16:17.712
So you hear, you heard me, and it's very soft.

00:16:17.812 --> 00:16:18.913
At the same time, it's very...

00:16:19.330 --> 00:16:20.565
Clean, precise.

00:16:21.057 --> 00:16:24.941
You have control of the note from the very beginning until the very end.

00:16:25.020 --> 00:16:27.484
It's not something that's just kind of going all over the place.

00:16:27.844 --> 00:16:32.447
It doesn't have to be a long tone that stays playing that long forever.

00:16:32.707 --> 00:16:34.470
It just can be relatively short.

00:16:34.610 --> 00:16:36.731
As long as it's really controlled, it has to be controlled.

00:16:36.751 --> 00:16:38.033
That's what you're practicing.

00:16:38.332 --> 00:16:39.453
That's the first thing I would do.

00:16:39.594 --> 00:16:42.336
The other thing I would do is literally arpeggios.

00:16:49.182 --> 00:17:23.201
That kind of stuff, which is really, really actually important for just articulation and then I would just play like even just major scales in all 12 keys or you can do it over two octaves and then eventually you can kind of do it fast that already with these exercises you have a lot now if you have all that stuff together and you can sort of practice That's great.

00:17:23.422 --> 00:17:24.424
So already a lot.

00:17:24.644 --> 00:17:28.895
And then if you had another 10 minutes, I would kind of, whatever, choose a song.

00:17:28.996 --> 00:17:30.118
It doesn't have to be complex.

00:17:30.278 --> 00:17:34.630
Whatever song you want to play and try to really play, play the melody sounding really good.

00:17:34.931 --> 00:17:36.134
Each note sounds great.

00:17:36.385 --> 00:17:42.250
And the last thing that I would say is it's really beneficial to practice with a metronome.

00:17:42.411 --> 00:17:51.179
So whether it's a tune or even those exercises that I just showed, just try to practice with a metronome because time in jazz is essential.

00:17:51.378 --> 00:17:52.740
You've got to be able to have good time.

00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:53.000
It's

00:17:53.079 --> 00:17:53.520
interesting.

00:17:53.540 --> 00:17:56.522
So you're still working on those more basic things now, are you?

00:17:56.564 --> 00:17:57.144
I always go

00:17:57.183 --> 00:17:57.423
back to

00:17:57.463 --> 00:17:57.584
that.

00:17:57.663 --> 00:18:07.855
The very complex stuff, I'll work on it for a while and then I'll go into something else and I'll just explore different things, different types of scales, different types of everything.

00:18:08.095 --> 00:18:12.363
The thing that I never change are those basic exercises.

00:18:12.763 --> 00:18:13.746
First, start slow.

00:18:14.047 --> 00:18:15.950
Don't start playing fast.

00:18:16.570 --> 00:18:17.753
Fast comes later.

00:18:18.394 --> 00:18:22.442
Fast is not as important as sounding great.

00:18:23.104 --> 00:18:24.606
What you want is to sound great.

00:18:24.767 --> 00:18:25.909
Each note sounds great.

00:18:26.349 --> 00:18:28.273
Each note is a pure treasure.

00:18:28.513 --> 00:18:29.675
It sounds so good.

00:18:29.855 --> 00:18:34.564
I mean, when you listen to other instrumentalists, when they play the instruments, it's like that.

00:18:34.904 --> 00:18:36.867
Every time they play something, it's like, wow.

00:18:36.988 --> 00:18:41.295
Listen to Keith Jarrett, you know, every time he plays a note, it's ridiculously beautiful.

00:18:41.976 --> 00:18:47.865
Listen to Herbie, listen to Pat Metheny, every freaking note he's playing on the guitar is perfect.

00:18:48.026 --> 00:18:50.150
Always like that sense of perfection.

00:18:50.369 --> 00:19:11.215
already first with the sound the tone and then eventually you get to if you want to play faster or you know whatever more complex you can but there's nothing wrong with playing very very simple as long as it's beautiful that's going to be more much more effective and emotionally interesting and powerful than playing fast

00:19:13.318 --> 00:19:17.383
probably practice bending notes on the diatonic.

00:19:17.643 --> 00:19:25.651
Because I don't think there's a better exercise for either instrument, chromatic or whatever, is just stepping down through the bends and back up.

00:19:25.711 --> 00:19:26.571
It's different pressures.

00:19:26.612 --> 00:19:36.082
And find if I do that before a gig, if I just take an A or a G and just play the bottom half of it, bending up and down, bending up, it really gets my embouchure straight.

00:19:36.682 --> 00:19:42.968
And I find that if I don't do that for a while, if I don't do any bends, it kind of affects both.

00:19:42.988 --> 00:19:44.529
It affects my chromatic playing as well.

00:19:44.769 --> 00:19:47.837
So yeah, I would practice bending on the Titanic.

00:19:48.179 --> 00:19:49.060
Jerry Portnoy.

00:19:49.561 --> 00:19:50.765
The two-hole draw.

00:19:51.165 --> 00:19:56.199
I once walked around my house for almost two weeks playing nothing but the two-hole draw.

00:19:56.599 --> 00:19:59.626
It's the tonic note, and it's your root note.

00:20:00.107 --> 00:20:02.173
It's where you come back to all the time.

00:20:02.433 --> 00:20:06.558
Playing long tones, you know, note selection is very important.

00:20:06.618 --> 00:20:11.584
I mean, I've never particularly cared about impressing people with technique.

00:20:11.784 --> 00:20:14.867
The point of playing music is to communicate emotion.

00:20:15.468 --> 00:20:21.734
And so whatever tools you need to accomplish that is what you should use.

00:20:21.815 --> 00:20:24.698
And you don't need to use anything more or anything less.

00:20:25.159 --> 00:20:34.285
To me, what moves people, what moves people emotionally, what reaches them inside and stirs them, is the sound of the note.

00:20:34.845 --> 00:20:47.500
While your note selection is important because the combination of notes and where it's leading can create moods and feelings, it's the actual sound of the note that gets up in people's chest.

00:20:47.961 --> 00:20:55.308
And so the first order of business in playing music is to make a good sound come out of your instrument.

00:20:55.710 --> 00:20:56.750
That's the first thing.

00:20:57.230 --> 00:20:59.233
And then know where to put it.

00:20:59.746 --> 00:21:01.949
And that is really what music is about.

00:21:02.430 --> 00:21:05.976
Make a beautiful sound come out of your instrument and know where to place it.

00:21:06.876 --> 00:21:09.661
Just getting your note to sound good.

00:21:10.603 --> 00:21:26.326
You know, if I had 10 minutes, I'd just sit on one note and try and make it beautiful, make it sound different ways, put different vibratos on it, tongue floaters, make it sharp sounding, trebly, try and make it more bass sounding.

00:21:26.748 --> 00:21:28.150
Learn how to control that note.

00:21:28.673 --> 00:21:48.584
If you have an hour a day to practice, whatever you're going to practice, you're better off, if you have 60 minutes to devote to practicing, then you're better off bringing that up into practicing four times a day for 15 minutes or three times a day for 20 minutes, because it's all about muscle memory.

00:21:48.923 --> 00:21:56.938
And the more times you come back to reinforce it, the more effective it will be in imprinting that muscle memory.

00:21:57.317 --> 00:22:08.868
So if you've got 60 minutes, you're better off doing three sessions of 20 minutes space through the day or four sessions of 15 minutes because each time you come back, you're reinforcing that muscle memory.

00:22:08.989 --> 00:22:13.534
If you just practice once for an hour every day, I don't think you get the same result.

00:22:14.413 --> 00:22:15.335
Mickey Raphael.

00:22:15.976 --> 00:22:19.118
You know, I would put on a record.

00:22:19.199 --> 00:22:22.241
I put on Jimmy Reed the other day.

00:22:22.657 --> 00:22:56.260
or Jimmy Reed and Big Walter Horton there were a couple albums I liked and just play along because we're not playing that we're not touring right now so I've just got to keep my chops up and even though I don't play the blues in my day job you know it's a great exercise and it's great you know it's just you know fun stuff to play so those were actually the last two records that I played on oh and Traveler and the Chris Stapleton record because I've kind of you know we'll tour next year with him And I've got to kind of remember what we're doing, you know, when I played on the record.

00:22:56.577 --> 00:22:58.359
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00:23:26.544 --> 00:23:34.018
Simple, simple.

00:23:45.634 --> 00:23:46.674
Melody and breathing.

00:23:47.154 --> 00:23:52.119
I find a lot of kids, when they first start, just get shoulders too far up.

00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:53.300
They just don't relax.

00:23:53.840 --> 00:23:57.884
It's kind of counterproductive to be in that stiff mode.

00:23:58.625 --> 00:23:59.705
You can't breathe properly.

00:24:00.227 --> 00:24:05.010
You know when you go into this stress management, the thing that you have to master is breathing.

00:24:05.030 --> 00:24:12.938
I think when kids are learning, I don't actually teach, but I've actually had one student, and that was Jude Law, the actor.

00:24:13.377 --> 00:24:14.459
I went to Jude's place.

00:24:14.578 --> 00:24:15.599
I showed him what to do.

00:24:15.599 --> 00:24:22.665
Antonio Serrano

00:24:45.026 --> 00:24:52.034
Well, I try to focus on whatever I have to learn for the next gig or for the next concert or the

00:24:52.095 --> 00:24:52.454
project.

00:24:52.555 --> 00:24:57.280
I don't really have anything that I practice every day, like an exercise routine.

00:24:57.320 --> 00:25:02.887
I practice songs or pieces or I work on things that I want to play.

00:25:02.928 --> 00:25:06.932
Actually, if I only have half an hour, I definitely wouldn't spend

00:25:06.992 --> 00:25:09.976
it on playing scales and arpeggios and stuff like that.

00:25:10.016 --> 00:25:11.979
I would try to play some music.

00:25:13.840 --> 00:25:14.682
Grant Dermody.

00:25:15.233 --> 00:25:19.500
Well, I'd probably pick up a G harmonica because I love that sound.

00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:21.364
It's just got that big, deep, rich sound.

00:25:21.604 --> 00:25:25.431
And I'd probably just start with playing how I'm feeling at the moment.

00:25:25.651 --> 00:25:27.053
Just kind of see what comes.

00:25:27.534 --> 00:25:29.637
It wouldn't necessarily be somebody else's song.

00:25:30.097 --> 00:25:32.301
It wouldn't necessarily be somebody else's groove.

00:25:32.541 --> 00:25:38.152
If I had 10 minutes, I would just sit down and play what's inside of me and just let it come out.

00:25:38.873 --> 00:25:39.473
Sugar Blue.

00:25:40.001 --> 00:25:56.692
Practice my scales, take time to listen to and play a song that I like, you know, work on a melody of a song that I like, and that would pretty much cover it.

00:25:57.674 --> 00:26:03.326
I play scales, I play slowly, and I play it off as you heard.

00:26:03.554 --> 00:26:08.625
I've written a couple of good exercise books which demonstrate a lot of things that I do.

00:26:08.665 --> 00:26:10.269
Yeah, I was going to mention those.

00:26:10.490 --> 00:26:15.801
So again, I've got those two books and I use them certainly for quite a lot of time and I do return to them periodically.

00:26:15.842 --> 00:26:22.718
So lots of great exercises around scales and I think a little bit based on Jerry Corker's famous book around patterns for jazz, isn't it?

00:26:23.105 --> 00:26:25.770
Yeah, this is a general, this is in book two.

00:26:25.811 --> 00:26:34.769
This is a general sort of standard idea of practice for jazz players, which means that whatever you do, you've got to do it in every key.

00:26:35.090 --> 00:26:44.309
And if you play an arpeggio, then play it again in another key and then in another key and keep changing key, perhaps going up one scale, down another scale.

00:26:44.834 --> 00:26:45.914
Charlie Musselwhite.

00:26:46.476 --> 00:26:49.659
You know, I really like the way Hank Crawford phrases.

00:26:50.059 --> 00:26:52.162
I would listen to him and try to play along with him.

00:26:52.201 --> 00:26:55.325
Okay, so you have tried to emulate saxophone players then.

00:26:55.546 --> 00:26:57.807
Has that been quite a key part of your learning?

00:26:58.048 --> 00:27:01.011
Well, I get a lot of ideas listening to saxophone.

00:27:01.092 --> 00:27:06.397
Also, Grant Green's guitar playing, a lot of his licks are perfect for harmonica.

00:27:06.478 --> 00:27:08.559
And these guys are all real bluesy players.

00:27:09.461 --> 00:27:10.221
Donald Black.

00:27:10.882 --> 00:27:11.542
Accuracy.

00:27:11.923 --> 00:27:14.925
Now, there's different slots in the tremolo.

00:27:15.246 --> 00:27:20.971
The apertures where the reeds go into and people blow and suck, they differ from harmonica to harmonica.

00:27:21.171 --> 00:27:23.053
So you've got to get used to it.

00:27:23.073 --> 00:27:30.519
Some of them are quite small, and the accuracy has got to be much greater for certain harmonicas than others, because you can miss it.

00:27:30.798 --> 00:27:33.000
You know, you've got to watch your land exactly on it.

00:27:33.260 --> 00:27:36.324
So accuracy and really getting...

00:27:36.364 --> 00:27:40.407
Once, you know, people learn the scales, but they've got to get some music.

00:27:40.847 --> 00:27:42.349
I'm assuming that they're starting out.

00:27:42.529 --> 00:27:45.913
Play a tune you know, not something you don't know.

00:27:46.134 --> 00:27:48.615
And play something easier, like Jingle Bells.

00:27:48.796 --> 00:27:51.859
The first six notes are the same.

00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:57.605
There's a lot of the same note there, but you're beginning to play a tune.

00:27:57.986 --> 00:28:05.473
And once you've done that, go a bit more adventurous and do exactly the same again with a slightly more difficult tune.

00:28:05.835 --> 00:28:10.920
It might be best to play a slow piece that you know and know well you

00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:25.895
know it back to front and you know if you're playing it correctly if you don't so you try and find that note that you might not be getting correctly but take the time with it and don't worry about learning the whole tune maybe there may be three or four parts to that one tune even if you can get the first

00:28:25.915 --> 00:28:35.125
few bars to start with get the first part and go over it and over it and over it and then you work on the second part and then sometimes you forget the first part and then put the two together but don't

00:28:35.165 --> 00:28:42.444
worry about the third or the fourth they'll look after themselves once you're ready and just don't be afraid to express and just see what you can do.

00:28:43.069 --> 00:28:44.157
Greg Schlapp.

00:28:44.577 --> 00:28:45.057
Yeah.

00:28:45.598 --> 00:28:55.748
First of all, I would divide the 10 minutes in two because what I think is it's quite a different thing to practice and to play.

00:28:56.067 --> 00:28:57.269
Two completely different things.

00:28:57.709 --> 00:29:07.337
So if I have 10 minutes, I would spend five minutes taking a theme, something I like with the phrase, the harmonica phrase from a song I like.

00:29:07.538 --> 00:30:04.433
So I would spend five minutes trying to get exactly the tone, the bands, the time of the phrase that I'm hearing and there it is very important to be very accurate and to work slowly each note with the perfect sound to get as much into it as possible and then the five minutes that are left I would spend playing so then the difficulty is to forget about practice because when you play you do not practice you should not practice when you play when you play you have to be you have to listen and what comes out of you is what you already know so you must when you play you must make mistakes it is important to make mistakes and the most important is to listen so five minutes for practicing really accurately every detail and five minutes to play but let myself go and

00:30:05.234 --> 00:30:06.955
listen

00:30:07.636 --> 00:30:16.780
if you always have the number of the title on your repertoire then you practice with all four notes Errol Linton.

00:30:35.009 --> 00:30:40.820
Practice time with harmonica, I just pick it up when I get a vibe to it and play along.

00:30:41.261 --> 00:30:42.945
I mean, I did so much practicing before.

00:30:43.586 --> 00:30:47.555
When I used to go busking, that would keep your chops up because that is the hardest thing you can do.

00:30:47.595 --> 00:30:48.415
Yeah.

00:30:48.836 --> 00:30:52.022
It's easier playing whether you've got two or three or four guys behind you.

00:30:52.604 --> 00:30:57.153
When you're there on your own and you've got a thing, stamp your feet and blow that harmonica.

00:30:57.761 --> 00:31:18.023
Philip Jers.

00:31:23.586 --> 00:31:28.730
I take a harmonica and then I take a note and I really try to find the note.

00:31:29.050 --> 00:31:33.013
Inhale, exhale, really kind of which note do I resonate with today.

00:31:33.394 --> 00:31:36.457
Really try to find a nice resonance and a nice tone.

00:31:36.676 --> 00:31:38.759
And it can be a bent note or a normal note.

00:31:39.058 --> 00:31:42.643
I do that for a few minutes, just play very slowly, very meditative.

00:31:43.042 --> 00:31:53.192
And then I often either play some blues lick or like a train stuff or on chromatic I would play some jazz lines, just free improvisation, playing the note that comes.

00:31:53.432 --> 00:32:06.246
Often they say the hardest thing to play every day is the first thing that you're trying to play I'm working on that it's nice just to take a harmonica and start playing something but to answer your question fast I would improvise something for 10 minutes

00:32:06.425 --> 00:32:08.607
yeah and obviously working on your tone is important so

00:32:08.667 --> 00:32:24.965
yeah always always work on tone I mean long tones in every register and really work on that and the cool thing because with harmonica we we inhale and exhale the music so we we become the tone almost I mean we are the reason the tone is there so I think one should really Son of

00:32:26.186 --> 00:32:26.686
Dave.

00:32:27.008 --> 00:32:36.137
This is part of my problem is that I quite often sit down thinking I'm going to practice and I'm going to be a better harmonica player and a better person and I'm going to really do this.

00:32:36.557 --> 00:32:39.221
But what you ought to do is arpeggiate.

00:32:39.421 --> 00:32:55.880
So I start arpeggiating and within a very short time I find a combination of four notes that I like or something and then I'm right into the Just naturally, I start writing a tune around it, and out comes the dictaphone, and I'm writing a song.

00:32:55.960 --> 00:32:59.865
And I never end up practicing harmonic sometimes.

00:33:00.286 --> 00:33:03.009
Not never, but I usually end up...

00:33:03.128 --> 00:33:06.794
It ends up turning into a song.

00:33:06.854 --> 00:33:08.195
It just always evolves that way.

00:33:08.655 --> 00:33:09.416
Steve Baker.

00:33:10.739 --> 00:33:11.901
I think probably

00:33:12.682 --> 00:33:13.021
hand

00:33:13.082 --> 00:33:19.069
positions and tongue block rhythm, because how you hold is of...

00:33:19.329 --> 00:33:21.644
great importance to how you sound.

00:33:22.612 --> 00:33:23.941
And if I just want

00:33:23.961 --> 00:33:24.020
to

00:33:24.102 --> 00:33:26.971
play something that, is a warm-up.

00:33:27.291 --> 00:33:33.039
Then I think that playing tongue-blocked rhythms and figuring out how to enclose

00:33:33.320 --> 00:33:39.650
to get the sound where you want it is a very good way to spend your time practising.

00:33:39.970 --> 00:33:47.000
But you could equally well say you practise scales, or you play your favourite licks or

00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:47.339
whatever.

00:33:47.420 --> 00:33:48.281
I don't think it matters.

00:33:48.362 --> 00:33:49.723
I think the main thing is the play.

00:33:50.364 --> 00:33:51.365
Robert Bonfilio.

00:33:51.617 --> 00:33:52.239
minutes.

00:33:52.999 --> 00:33:58.804
I practiced maybe two to three hours for the last 40, 50 years.

00:33:58.864 --> 00:33:59.785
I don't know, 40 years.

00:34:00.266 --> 00:34:02.567
At some point, I was practicing 12 hours a day.

00:34:02.627 --> 00:34:03.888
So what would I do?

00:34:04.189 --> 00:34:05.529
This is classical, okay?

00:34:05.829 --> 00:34:08.672
I set my practice times up this way with student.

00:34:08.793 --> 00:34:11.775
You're going to practice one quarter of your time on scales and arpeggios.

00:34:12.275 --> 00:34:15.237
Then you're going to practice to some kind of etude.

00:34:15.438 --> 00:34:20.402
An etude might be something like if I'm using a biting technique as an articulation.

00:34:20.603 --> 00:34:47.157
So biting is where you bring the mouth down it gives you a definite percussive sound boom when you start a note and it's using the air from the diaphragm to give you that support but it doesn't really require support it just means that you're going to force that air out all right so there's a bite sound what i might do for the second thing would be some kind of etude

00:34:51.382 --> 00:34:51.422
so

00:34:58.657 --> 00:35:01.885
All right, so that's a bite etude.

00:35:02.018 --> 00:35:07.664
So an etude, to explain, is a piece of music to practice a particular technique.

00:35:07.724 --> 00:35:08.264
Technique.

00:35:08.405 --> 00:35:12.969
So if it's a tonguing etude, you're tonguing for the one quarter of the tongue.

00:35:13.150 --> 00:35:15.572
So there are corner switch etudes.

00:35:15.753 --> 00:35:18.635
There are etudes which involve biting.

00:35:18.675 --> 00:35:24.161
There are etudes which involve some kind of octave etude or octave leap etude.

00:35:24.442 --> 00:35:26.023
You know what I mean by an octave leap.

00:35:26.364 --> 00:35:27.326
It's where you would go...

00:35:33.250 --> 00:35:34.090
That's an octave leap.

00:35:34.271 --> 00:35:35.711
And what you're doing is corner switching.

00:35:36.032 --> 00:35:40.096
And it might be the whole, you know, you might play scales in octave leaps.

00:35:40.135 --> 00:35:42.398
All right, that's an etude.

00:35:42.597 --> 00:35:46.561
So it's just involving one technique and beating it to death.

00:35:46.722 --> 00:35:47.601
That's the second thing.

00:35:47.702 --> 00:35:49.003
First, scales, arpeggios.

00:35:49.184 --> 00:35:51.206
Second thing, some kind of technical etude.

00:35:51.425 --> 00:35:52.586
Third thing, duet.

00:35:52.887 --> 00:35:57.570
A duet is a piece that you're going to play with another live musician, not with your computer.

00:35:57.650 --> 00:36:03.135
You're going to play with another live musician because live musicians, if they're really good, they use time.

00:36:03.215 --> 00:36:04.978
as a way of emotion.

00:36:05.117 --> 00:36:11.083
So they speed things up and slow it down, and you have to be able to follow them, and then they have to follow you when you speed up and slow down.

00:36:11.405 --> 00:36:14.608
So duets give you the ability to play with another person.

00:36:14.847 --> 00:36:17.411
And then the fourth thing you're going to do is work on a piece.

00:36:17.831 --> 00:36:27.942
So you split your things up into scales and arpeggios, technical etude, duet of some kind or another, so you're playing with somebody, and fourth thing is a piece.

00:36:28.322 --> 00:36:42.215
Let's say that's a harmonica concerto or a Bach piece or whatever, something that's going to require you to practice a long time, but the satisfaction will be at the end of it, you'll be playing something that you can actually play for other people.

00:36:42.556 --> 00:36:44.601
Those are the way I split four things up.

00:36:46.465 --> 00:36:51.110
I think on harmonica and any instrument, really, I'm doing it now with the saxophone.

00:36:51.369 --> 00:36:56.835
But with harmonica, the big challenge is making things fluid, legato, and sounding like they're not chopped up.

00:36:57.275 --> 00:37:02.280
I practice arpeggios a lot, up and down in all the 12 keys.

00:37:02.840 --> 00:37:03.681
Maybe you could do in 10.

00:37:03.701 --> 00:37:05.081
No, you probably couldn't do in 10 minutes.

00:37:05.543 --> 00:37:06.302
Well, let me put it this way.

00:37:06.342 --> 00:37:09.166
I've never been a very systematic practicer.

00:37:09.246 --> 00:37:19.577
So it's very nice when I have a piece of music, a jazz standard, which I need to learn, or in the case of the French, the Odysseus, piece, something like that, it's nice to have a goal.

00:37:19.677 --> 00:37:38.110
If you're just sort of between things, and one thing I do, which is kind of a warm-up, is I play an augmented scale, a whole-tone scale, that is, starting on a C and just going up, because that scale happens to be in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, right?

00:37:38.931 --> 00:37:39.914
So it gets your...

00:37:40.193 --> 00:37:50.150
your lungs moving in a controlled but very quick fluttering manner, so it kind of increases your speed and accuracy.

00:37:50.510 --> 00:37:54.797
So that's one little thing I do, for example, before I play a gig sometimes.

00:37:54.936 --> 00:37:57.922
And you can get pretty arcane on the harmonica.

00:37:58.141 --> 00:38:02.429
There's some jazz harmonica players who have taken it into pretty out-there realms.

00:38:03.090 --> 00:38:07.878
I'm more of a melodic player, so it's important for me that I can play all these...

00:38:08.418 --> 00:38:13.193
seventh chord arpeggios up and down in every key, the semblance of fluidity.

00:38:13.474 --> 00:38:17.469
So that might be something that I would practice, yeah.

00:38:17.985 --> 00:38:50.474
5-10 minutes I would work on bends for a fair bit because it's like a muscle that needs to be constantly flexed the control of the bends and doing bends as quietly as possible but successfully so I'd spend a bit of time on a diatonic on all three just working on those bends I'd probably do a little bit of tongue blocking work just to again keep the wheels oiled with the rhythmic work and the placement of the octaves probably for like the last couple of minutes I'd just go nuts and just play around, mess around, have

00:38:50.894 --> 00:38:51.675
some fun.

00:38:52.096 --> 00:38:55.920
If I get to exploring harmonica, it's usually at least an hour.

00:38:56.300 --> 00:38:56.981
Oftentimes what

00:38:57.021 --> 00:39:22.708
I do when I rehearse is a little bit evasive of your question, but I'll find some aspect, and a lot of times it's from the little Walter mind, but sometimes it's from a big Walter or Sonny Boy, Warner Sonny Boy 2, or any of the other great harmonica players, but I'll find something I really enjoy about what they do, and I grab onto it, and I try and understand what What they're doing, I try and learn to look verbatim, and then I try and reallocate it

00:39:22.949 --> 00:39:24.771
so it has my own personality in it.

00:39:24.871 --> 00:39:27.894
And that might be just taking the intention of what they're doing.

00:39:27.914 --> 00:39:30.978
It might be taking a part of what they're doing and adding

00:39:31.018 --> 00:39:32.338
some of my own things to it.

00:39:32.739 --> 00:39:36.623
But I try and find some way that I can explore through that lens.

00:39:36.903 --> 00:39:39.967
So if I had 10 minutes, I'd probably go

00:39:40.108 --> 00:39:47.856
to the Muddy Waters, the first record I had, Muddy Waters Sail On, because every time I hear it, I hear something new in Little Walters Plain.

00:39:47.856 --> 00:39:54.985
that i'd probably take that and study that because you could never you could never learn that all the way the lessons will walter that

00:39:55.045 --> 00:40:07.820
guy was such a genius and every time you go back to that well it's a whole other thing you could study something and then go back to a year later and hear all sorts of different things a year later than you heard the first time that you're studying it so

00:40:08.181 --> 00:40:22.813
uh it's an endless journey to study harmonica and that's what makes it great is that the work is never done hey

00:40:22.833 --> 00:40:42.318
everybody you're listening to neil warren's harmonica happy hour podcast proudly sponsored by tom halcheck and blue moon harmonicas this is jason richie here telling you i love blue moon harmonicas i love the combs the covers the custom harps the refurbished pre-war marine bands and nobody's easier to work with than tom halcheck

00:40:45.601 --> 00:40:46.402
Bill Wiggins.

00:40:47.302 --> 00:41:13.505
Depending on the level, but I would say tone, getting good clear single notes on the harmonica and getting a nice kind of rich, fat tone and kind of making yourself aware of the range of tones that you can get from the harmonica by both, you know, what you're doing with your mouth and all, you know, maybe more importantly, what you're doing with your hands, like with the cupping techniques on harmonica.

00:41:13.847 --> 00:41:20.135
I mean, a lot of people, you know, I fixated on gear, like the right microphone and the right amplifier.

00:41:20.275 --> 00:41:25.744
But the sound that comes out of your harmonica begins with your own body.

00:41:26.344 --> 00:41:32.293
If that sound is no good, then when you plug it in, it's just going to be that no good sound louder.

00:41:32.494 --> 00:41:35.619
But the main thing is to realize that it's your own body.

00:41:35.699 --> 00:41:40.887
It's your own, you know, I mean, the harmonica is your own voice and it starts with what you're doing with your own body.

00:41:41.307 --> 00:41:42.429
Hermione Durlow.

00:41:42.722 --> 00:41:52.753
I would practice five minutes of scales, and I would then, you know, go over all the 12 scales, either in major or melodic minor.

00:41:53.155 --> 00:42:01.164
Although the first thing I would do is play a long note or a couple of long notes, listen to your sounds, then do the sub scales, like our old 12 scales.

00:42:01.525 --> 00:42:03.588
And then 10 minutes, I would play songs.

00:42:04.027 --> 00:42:06.791
I divide my time always in thirds.

00:42:07.112 --> 00:42:08.574
So one third is technique.

00:42:08.865 --> 00:42:22.297
one third is playing chord changes and go over new tunes with chord changes and the last third I really play a whole tune with a solo and I try to play a beautiful thing like I would be on stage

00:42:22.677 --> 00:42:24.880
yeah and you do that with backing tracks or without

00:42:25.019 --> 00:42:40.454
sometimes with backing tracks but lately I'm doing this very difficult thing like just putting on the metronome and only play with the metronome and keeping the one on the good place you know it's harsh but it's very good

00:42:41.034 --> 00:42:51.648
yeah it's a good way instead of because I practice usually songs with backing tracks and yeah you kind of rely on the backing track for your timing and things don't you when you do it with a metronome you have to be much more disciplined

00:42:52.250 --> 00:42:57.777
it's very disciplined and sometimes it's difficult and I just want to relax and I put on a nice backing

00:42:57.936 --> 00:42:58.297
track

00:42:59.500 --> 00:43:07.190
but my experience is that I moved forward by doing this with the metronome I really improved I think

00:43:08.161 --> 00:43:09.277
David Nadech.

00:43:09.762 --> 00:43:14.826
Well, actually, the thing that helped my playing, I'd say, more than anything is jamming with other musicians.

00:43:15.126 --> 00:43:18.088
Even better than practicing alone, I find by jamming

00:43:18.168 --> 00:43:20.391
with other musicians, you've really got to think fast.

00:43:20.630 --> 00:43:24.215
You've got to start playing tunes you've never heard before, really

00:43:24.335 --> 00:43:29.659
feel a tonal center and what you can do with it, and try to get close to the melody lines as you can.

00:43:29.980 --> 00:43:31.880
So I find that's excellent training.

00:43:32.141 --> 00:43:34.083
And if I'm going to a bluegrass

00:43:34.182 --> 00:43:38.007
jam, I might prepare myself by practicing a little some of the

00:43:38.027 --> 00:43:38.987
bluegrass standards.

00:43:39.248 --> 00:43:42.891
If I'm going to Adam Burney

00:44:02.561 --> 00:44:07.585
What I like to do for my own well-being is if I've got 10 minutes, I think, oh, I could get a Noah Lewis tune in there.

00:44:07.606 --> 00:44:09.527
I'll put that tune on, try and play along with that.

00:44:09.728 --> 00:44:12.851
I'll put a Sonny Terry one on, and then I'll probably put two Little Walter ones on.

00:44:13.030 --> 00:44:15.532
And then once I've done that, it's almost like praying, really.

00:44:15.572 --> 00:44:17.114
I've done that, and I feel good for the day.

00:44:17.135 --> 00:44:19.396
Then I can play and play and do what I like.

00:44:19.416 --> 00:44:24.900
But I like to know that I've listened to the masters and tried to learn something off them each day, really.

00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:27.003
So 10 minutes, I could get each track.

00:44:27.103 --> 00:44:30.545
Two minutes, 50, it might be a squeeze, but four classic blues songs.

00:44:30.947 --> 00:44:32.527
Yeah, so you'll play along to four.

00:44:32.527 --> 00:44:34.510
yeah four great blues songs yeah yeah

00:44:34.550 --> 00:44:34.730
yeah

00:44:34.971 --> 00:44:52.509
I think again a lot of people our generation probably did that didn't they spend a lot you know spend a lot of the time learning by playing along with records which maybe people don't do quite as much now with all the internet resources which we touched on earlier on so do you go to the trouble of you know sort of transcribing writing stuff down or do you just play along when you're

00:44:52.730 --> 00:45:15.742
doing this no I'll never do that no I'll just play along and if I miss it I think well I'll get it next time I don't get too bogged down in it you know replicating it exactly and it's not just picking up the notes it's picking up how they play the notes and the phrasing and the feeling and it's so much to absorb and you know as I've discovered the older you get you realise there's more to absorb so it's that really it's so much to take from each of those classic players

00:45:16.204 --> 00:45:20.463
Tony Ayres I guess I'd spend the 10 minutes learning a new tune.

00:45:20.844 --> 00:45:23.847
So in recent years, I've gravitated to old time music.

00:45:23.887 --> 00:45:25.568
Your strength is your repertoire.

00:45:25.789 --> 00:45:27.389
So building the repertoire.

00:45:27.451 --> 00:45:30.612
So if I had 10 minutes, I guess that's what I'd do.

00:45:30.632 --> 00:45:35.898
I guess one other thing I do, and I'm actually doing this now because I'm preparing myself to do this recording.

00:45:36.217 --> 00:45:38.960
There's a scale exercise I learned from a recorder teacher.

00:45:38.981 --> 00:45:40.121
It's called the Hans scale.

00:45:40.322 --> 00:45:42.684
It's basically a major scale exercise.

00:45:42.983 --> 00:45:45.626
And I do that, you know, to a metronome.

00:45:45.766 --> 00:45:47.568
So yeah, a scale exercise to a metronome.

00:45:47.568 --> 00:45:49.211
or learning a new tune.

00:45:49.693 --> 00:45:51.677
And how do you approach learning tunes?

00:45:52.018 --> 00:45:59.293
So for me, learning a tune is mostly playing old-time tunes now, which is sort of a particularly American music form.

00:45:59.713 --> 00:46:05.179
I would spend those 10 minutes learning how to cup more airtight.

00:46:05.659 --> 00:46:15.447
When we hear about cupping a microphone, we think about creating a seal between the back of the harmonica and the front of the microphone with our hands.

00:46:15.827 --> 00:46:18.650
And it turns out that it's really, that's part of it.

00:46:18.911 --> 00:46:29.679
But whether we're playing amplified or acoustic, what we have to come to learn is that a great deal of sound pressure escapes out the front of the harmonica tube.

00:46:29.679 --> 00:46:39.090
If you're not blocking those escape paths for sound pressure until you can get kind of a full or near full mute, you're not getting a full cup.

00:46:39.269 --> 00:46:45.516
And the problem here is that if you're not getting a full one, you don't know how far away from a full one you are.

00:46:45.536 --> 00:46:53.885
And a lot of the golden beauty in amplified playing is somewhere between like 97% and 99% airtight.

00:46:53.945 --> 00:46:55.266
You can always open up more.

00:46:55.527 --> 00:46:56.829
I have a harmonica in my hand.

00:46:56.869 --> 00:47:02.420
I don't know how well you'll hear this, but I just want to say here's how That's how most people sound when they open and close their hands.

00:47:04.969 --> 00:47:09.666
But when you get a really good airtight cup and you seal off both the rear and the front of the harp...

00:47:12.706 --> 00:47:14.307
I hope that difference comes through.

00:47:14.327 --> 00:47:15.590
It does, yeah, it does.

00:47:15.730 --> 00:47:22.458
Playing acoustically even, learning to really cup the harmonica well will give you a much deeper wah.

00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:27.606
And the trick is sealing off all of the escape paths for sound pressure.

00:47:27.646 --> 00:47:36.257
It means putting a lot of harmonica in your mouth, using tongue blocking if you can, and then sealing off the right side using a combination of your cheek and your thumb.

00:47:36.518 --> 00:47:42.525
And then being really observant, looking in a mirror, finding out where the leaks are and learning how to plug them.

00:47:43.041 --> 00:47:44.385
Jason Rosenblatt.

00:47:45.068 --> 00:47:51.688
If I only had 10 minutes, let's say, to warm up before a show, let's say, the first thing I would do, I just play through the chromatic scale.

00:47:53.454 --> 00:47:53.534
Yeah.

00:48:05.474 --> 00:48:10.896
I would just play it through the chromatic scale using a tuner or a piano as reference.

00:48:11.539 --> 00:48:12.764
And next would be arpeggios.

00:48:20.001 --> 00:48:24.248
I'm trying to go through all 12 keys and just making sure that I'm kind of in tune.

00:48:24.690 --> 00:48:27.474
For the purposes of this podcast, I'm rushing through it.

00:48:27.554 --> 00:48:28.456
I would try not to rush.

00:48:28.496 --> 00:48:31.802
I would try to play each note as clearly as possible.

00:48:32.083 --> 00:48:35.650
Finally, the last thing I would do would be what I call long tones.

00:48:35.929 --> 00:48:41.139
Focusing on a particular bend that can sometimes get a little out of tune.

00:48:41.159 --> 00:48:43.322
So for instance, I would focus on an F.

00:48:44.905 --> 00:48:47.050
F I would play without vibrato.

00:48:47.090 --> 00:48:50.057
Then with vibrato.

00:48:54.851 --> 00:48:57.277
Add vibrato, take away the vibrato, then play the F sharp.

00:49:02.818 --> 00:49:20.983
vibrato take away vibrato and just try to hold the note as long as i can 30 seconds a minute and play it with a tuner so i can see if the arrow is sticking you know perfect center am i playing it flat sharp whatever the case is and and this way i can i can really try to gain control over over those particular notes

00:49:21.965 --> 00:49:31.512
sigh leo Well, for me, if I have 10 minutes right now, I would choose to just improvise around, just create whatever they come up with in my mind right now.

00:49:31.733 --> 00:49:37.818
But if you ask this question a year ago, I would say I would go for the Bach cello suite, number one.

00:49:38.079 --> 00:49:42.443
But yeah, right now I am really indulged in jazz music.

00:49:42.463 --> 00:49:45.184
So I've been focusing a lot on improvisation.

00:49:45.224 --> 00:49:46.947
So I would definitely spend that.

00:49:47.306 --> 00:49:53.893
So when you are, you know, working on your improvisation now, are you thinking about chord sequences and playing over those?

00:49:53.992 --> 00:49:57.677
Are you playing over backing tracks to do that on your jazz practice?

00:49:57.936 --> 00:49:58.717
How do you approach that?

00:49:59.358 --> 00:50:05.885
I've always been playing along tracks since I started exploring blues and jazz music on my own.

00:50:06.246 --> 00:50:10.610
At first, I started playing with all the pop tunes that I know and then I just play along.

00:50:10.990 --> 00:50:15.496
Eventually, I stepped into jazz and I played with backing tracks on YouTube.

00:50:15.635 --> 00:50:26.592
But right now, I feel like what I was lacking in my training is to develop the independence of improvisation without anything to support or maybe just a metronome.

00:50:26.771 --> 00:50:28.215
So that's what I've been working on.

00:50:28.456 --> 00:50:36.074
I would practice with the metronome or even without and play through the changes of standards instead of having the backing track.

00:50:36.576 --> 00:50:37.398
Rory McLeod.

00:50:38.114 --> 00:50:41.817
I'd say jamming with people is great, but that's playing what you know.

00:50:41.896 --> 00:50:43.418
So I wouldn't do scales.

00:50:43.478 --> 00:50:47.121
If there was a tune you really loved, I'd try and learn the tune, really.

00:50:47.302 --> 00:50:49.503
Try and learn the tune because, you know, tunes are lovely.

00:50:49.724 --> 00:50:55.188
You know, scales are probably really useful, I'm sure, but I'd just try and learn a tune that you like, even if it's difficult.

00:50:55.469 --> 00:50:58.612
I think if a tune is difficult, I mean, I did that on the trombone as well.

00:50:59.052 --> 00:51:08.079
You have to develop techniques to play that tune, and so that's kind of practicing and getting your breathing and the phrasing and, you know, the tone of it.

00:51:08.079 --> 00:51:47.483
practicing using the diaphragm perhaps to get the tone which you would if you were singing I mean most wind instruments you use that tone get trying to get that tone with using your muscles there you learn tunes by playing by ear yeah I do I don't read I just play by ear I play everything by ear and I arrange as I say I've arranged using my voice there's recordings in fact I even put them on the album in the end there was a whole demos of arrangements of me singing all the parts and I thought I'm going to put that on instead it's like the Mills Brothers singing all the parts but I play by ear I can't think of any other way of doing it I wish I Magic Dick

00:52:04.289 --> 00:52:06.851
Well, it depends on what I was practicing for.

00:52:07.253 --> 00:52:11.775
If it was for a gig, that would be a tough time because I get pretty nervous about all that.

00:52:12.077 --> 00:52:22.505
But if I'm just practicing without any commitments coming up, I think the thing to work on, quite frankly, is for most harp players, most harp players need music lessons.

00:52:22.905 --> 00:52:26.289
You know, I'm talking about the fundamentals of music and counting.

00:52:26.509 --> 00:52:41.605
And in terms of practice, I think it's a good idea to try to copy, to emulate as best you can those players, Richard Yems

00:52:58.306 --> 00:53:16.202
I probably would be practicing on different minor tunings, working on material for the next record I'm going to do with Tor Einar Becken, which is inspired by Norwegian and Finnish folk music, but it's mainly based on freeform improvisations.

00:53:16.442 --> 00:53:21.425
So my answer is I would work on different minor tunings and different themes.

00:53:21.525 --> 00:53:24.789
I don't work on playing scales that much.

00:53:25.048 --> 00:53:51.119
If you ask me what scale are you playing now, I probably couldn't answer, but I really like to work on different tunings to develop different harmonically ideas and to practicing on playing you know contrapuntal stuff to use octave double stop and to play around with the same minor theme in different minor tunings for example you know to see what kind of suits the songs the best and gives you most opportunities

00:53:52.061 --> 00:53:52.822
Rick Estrin

00:53:53.697 --> 00:53:54.398
Ten minutes.

00:53:55.360 --> 00:54:00.150
Spend the ten minutes listening because hopefully that would inspire you to practice more than ten

00:54:00.210 --> 00:54:00.570
minutes.

00:54:01.311 --> 00:54:01.391
Okay.

00:54:01.411 --> 00:54:03.617
Because ten minutes ain't going to do you any good.

00:54:03.677 --> 00:54:10.469
But if you spend ten minutes and you're listening to something that gets you excited and makes you want to...

00:54:10.882 --> 00:54:22.257
What I felt like when I first was playing and first was hearing that stuff is I was hearing things that made me feel ways that I wanted to try to make people feel.

00:54:22.277 --> 00:54:29.306
I wanted to be able to, what was occurring in me as I was listening, I wanted to do that to other people.

00:54:32.226 --> 00:54:37.090
Yeah, when you find a song that you really like and that you're inspired by and

00:54:37.130 --> 00:54:40.492
you just keep practicing with it until you get it, you get it.

00:54:40.512 --> 00:54:46.197
If you keep doing it, it'll come to you because the fact that you want to do it means that you can do it.

00:54:46.597 --> 00:54:48.920
So is that how you started out learning yourself?

00:54:48.960 --> 00:54:52.302
You know, you listen to records, play along to records and pick them up that way, yeah.

00:54:52.603 --> 00:54:58.528
And the fact that if you want to do something like that, that means that there's something in you that

00:54:58.728 --> 00:55:17.565
is in the person that you're listening to, like Son Once again,

00:55:17.606 --> 00:55:19.688
thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast.

00:55:19.969 --> 00:55:29.838
Be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas.

00:55:31.362 --> 00:55:33.184
Thanks to everyone I've interviewed from point one.

00:55:33.445 --> 00:55:35.449
It was great putting this compilation together.

00:55:35.469 --> 00:55:40.797
It really took me back and reminded me how much I've loved talking to each and every one of the people who appeared on the show.

00:55:40.838 --> 00:55:50.094
If you want to jump to a specific player's answer, then you can select that via the chapter markers, the three lines in a box shown on the podcast player page or the website page.

00:55:50.815 --> 00:55:54.019
The remaining 10-minute question answers will appear in episode 111.

00:55:55.233 --> 00:56:17.438
Until then, I'll leave you with one of the players from part one, the mighty Rob Piazza playing Snap, Grapple, Hop.