May 18, 2024

The Ten Minute Question: part 2

The Ten Minute Question: part 2
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Season 1 Diatonic Harmonica Chromatic Harmonica

Episode 111 is part 2 of the ten minute question, from the remaining podcast guests up until this point.

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



Podcast website:
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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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01:05 - Tom Ball

02:40 - Jim Conway

03:42 - R J Mischo

04:13 - Mathias Heise

05:04 - Bertram Becher

06:01 - Gerhard Mueller

07:51 - Wade Schuman

09:08 - Will Wilde

10:56 - Jens Bunge

12:02 - Joe Powers

12:46 - Joel Andersson

13:58 - Jason Keene

14:54 - Cheryl Arena

15:42 - Herbert Quelle

16:48 - Ricky Cool

17:50 - Juzzie Smith

18:42 - Paul Reddick

19:47 - Adam Gussow

22:36 - Richard Hunter

24:19 - Laurent Maur

26:15 - Will Pound

26:35 - Rob Paparozzi

27:48 - Marko Jovanovich

29:14 - Rocky Lok

30:09 - Todd Parrott

32:16 - Ben Bouman

33:17 - Steve Guyger

34:57 - Annie Raines

36:06 - Hendrick Muerkens

37:10 - Ed Hopwood

37:31 - Marcus Coll

38:25 - Paul Harrington

40:05 - Jim Hughes

41:27 - Mike Stevens

42:17 - Erland Westerstrom

42:56 - Jason Ricci

43:59 - Michael Rubin

44:46 - Paddy Wells

45:23 - Vitor Lopes

46:21 - Dennis Gruenling

47:23 - Christian Marsh

49:07 - Konstantin Reinfeld

50:01 - Mike Turk

51:09 - Eddie Martin

51:59 - Yotam BenOr

52:42 - Roly Platt

54:51 - Clint Hoover

WEBVTT

00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:08.064
Welcome to episode 111, which is part 2 of the 10 minute question, from the remaining podcast guests up until this point.

00:00:09.746 --> 00:00:13.874
As per the last episode, I'll say the name of each guest before they respond to the question.

00:00:14.494 --> 00:00:18.161
If you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend that 10 minutes doing?

00:00:20.033 --> 00:00:22.559
This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.

00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:32.320
Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Seidel Harmonicas.

00:01:05.346 --> 00:01:06.707
well

00:01:06.768 --> 00:01:33.805
you know i don't practice harmonica if i want to learn something new i just go for it at a gig i do practice guitar because your motor skill you'll lose the motor skills in your fingers if you don't keep them limber but with harmonica it just doesn't seem to matter if i take a month off or you know something i don't lose any sort of motor skills or lip skills or whatever i guess if i'm learning a new song and it's a very difficult song that i might have to practice that but I don't know how to, for example, I don't overblow.

00:01:33.825 --> 00:01:38.129
I suppose if I wanted to do that, I would have to practice quite a bit to learn it.

00:01:38.349 --> 00:01:39.670
I don't really want to learn it.

00:01:40.710 --> 00:01:41.971
I'm lazy, man.

00:01:42.953 --> 00:01:46.415
What about when you were more starting out, playing along with records?

00:01:46.436 --> 00:01:48.057
Is that the main way you learned?

00:01:48.076 --> 00:01:48.677
It really was.

00:01:48.798 --> 00:01:59.727
And I think nowadays, of course, young folks who are learning have a definite advantage because there's so much material out there, so much instructional material, DVDs and books and tapes, etc.

00:01:59.787 --> 00:02:01.088
Back then, there wasn't anything.

00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:07.078
Now, I found out years later that Tony Glover had written a book on it, but I never saw that back in the day.

00:02:07.337 --> 00:02:09.662
And so the only way to learn was playing along with records.

00:02:10.082 --> 00:02:16.711
Now, fortunately for me, because I played guitar, I could differentiate what key these songs were in, and then I could figure out what key harp I would need.

00:02:16.831 --> 00:02:23.241
That's a big hurdle, I think, for beginners, because you only got a 1 in 12 chance of having the right harmonica, really, if you're playing along with the record.

00:02:23.262 --> 00:02:27.378
So by knowing what harp I needed and then trying to play along with it.

00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:29.622
I just basically stole everything I knew.

00:02:29.663 --> 00:02:32.926
And then when you steal enough stuff, you can kind of string it all together.

00:02:32.986 --> 00:02:39.155
And after a while, when you run out of stuff to steal, then that's when people say that you have a style of your own.

00:02:40.276 --> 00:02:41.157
Jim Conway.

00:02:41.177 --> 00:02:49.610
I don't know what I would do, but what I would encourage other people to do, I've always said, play the soul, not the instrument.

00:02:49.985 --> 00:02:55.431
So find what's appropriate for whatever song you want to play and stick to that.

00:02:55.731 --> 00:02:57.741
And sometimes if it's not a song...

00:02:58.114 --> 00:03:00.295
then find the essence of that song.

00:03:00.756 --> 00:03:05.520
Search deeply for that essence of whatever sound you're trying to make.

00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:18.170
I've noticed, for instance, when you're playing first position down the bottom of the harmonica, there is essentially one pathway that identifies first position down the bottom of the harmonica.

00:03:18.472 --> 00:03:24.477
And if you really listen deeply, you can hear that pathway and that'll point you in the right direction.

00:03:24.836 --> 00:03:29.062
And the same with third position and probably the same with with second position.

00:03:29.342 --> 00:03:37.616
I guess we might call those things modes or we might call them something else, but find the essence of whatever you're trying to play.

00:03:43.650 --> 00:03:46.234
Tone, you know, getting a good sound.

00:03:46.854 --> 00:03:55.307
And for me, again, it's all about the song and the music more so than the instrument.

00:03:55.687 --> 00:03:58.211
Yeah, tone and feel.

00:03:58.252 --> 00:04:08.608
You know, the listener, and that's what moves me the most too, is playing space instead of just concentrating on the notes you can play.

00:04:08.647 --> 00:04:12.073
You can also concentrate on the notes to leave

00:04:12.173 --> 00:04:12.593
out too.

00:04:13.250 --> 00:04:14.359
Matthias Heiser

00:04:14.913 --> 00:04:17.916
It kind of depends on your level, I guess.

00:04:18.158 --> 00:04:22.362
If I had 10 minutes, I would take out a jazz standard.

00:04:22.701 --> 00:04:28.168
I would apply some different improvisational concepts to the jazz standard.

00:04:28.468 --> 00:04:42.903
Also, when you're starting out, it's just very important to play your major scales, to play all 12 major scales, and to play also your chords, playing the major triads and the minor triads.

00:04:42.963 --> 00:04:44.086
You just have to...

00:04:44.545 --> 00:04:50.894
kind of massage that structure of the harmonica and of the notes into your system, into your brain.

00:04:51.175 --> 00:04:55.641
And the only way you do that is just by consistently playing those different scales.

00:04:55.942 --> 00:04:58.204
That is really the key also to playing jazz.

00:04:58.586 --> 00:05:02.250
Every time you practice your major scales, it's a huge plus.

00:05:02.571 --> 00:05:03.612
You can never go wrong with that.

00:05:03.653 --> 00:05:04.875
Bertram

00:05:04.915 --> 00:05:05.334
Basher.

00:05:05.935 --> 00:05:11.783
This is easy to answer for me because I think what is mostly missing is is rhythm skills.

00:05:13.386 --> 00:05:20.836
Practicing on the right rhythm or on syncopes or on exact, for example, if you play...

00:05:28.206 --> 00:05:32.173
These are all the right notes, but it's not at all interesting.

00:05:32.413 --> 00:05:33.394
What I'm thinking is like...

00:05:46.305 --> 00:05:57.985
Like

00:05:58.026 --> 00:06:00.750
this, you know, like funny rhythm exercises.

00:06:01.711 --> 00:06:02.814
Gerhard Muller.

00:06:03.425 --> 00:06:09.831
At this moment, I only can talk to chromatic harmonica players because I'm not that familiar with these tenor diatonic harmonica players.

00:06:09.932 --> 00:06:12.593
For chromatic harmonicas, first of all, no question.

00:06:12.793 --> 00:06:16.778
Also, a good hint for tenor diatonic players, please warm your harmonica.

00:06:16.798 --> 00:06:20.420
The difference, cold instrument, warm air, it's too much.

00:06:20.440 --> 00:06:24.384
So please hold your harmonica for a few seconds before you start playing the instrument.

00:06:24.543 --> 00:06:31.649
As a chromatic harmonica player, I would say, yes, start in the middle position, play simple major scales, play a G major scale.

00:06:31.690 --> 00:06:33.312
So simply play scales.

00:06:33.391 --> 00:06:34.233
when doing this.

00:06:34.494 --> 00:06:47.297
And then, of course, also check out that you are, especially chromatic harmonica players, that your slide mechanism works well and also that you are able to have the correct presence exactly when you need the slider.

00:06:47.617 --> 00:06:48.980
I can just give an example.

00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:56.574
I have just some practice things which I'm doing when I have 10 minutes to start playing, performing with a bicycle.

00:07:19.874 --> 00:07:23.124
It's very simple how I start playing the harmonica, of course.

00:07:23.223 --> 00:07:26.795
Then afterwards, I also then play the songs like, for example, this one.

00:07:26.814 --> 00:07:32.651
This is a favorite tune I always play because this gives me personally a good mute to play the harmonica.

00:07:51.553 --> 00:07:52.456
Wade Schumann.

00:07:53.117 --> 00:07:54.459
So we're going back on tour.

00:07:54.678 --> 00:08:00.269
This is our first tour in three years, the longest I have not been in Europe in my entire adult life.

00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:02.973
And we have 29 shows in a month.

00:08:03.153 --> 00:08:04.875
It's kind of insane.

00:08:05.076 --> 00:08:10.625
So this time I've decided to try and bring an amp instead of using Backline.

00:08:10.786 --> 00:08:14.451
I have a modified 185, which is the Gibson.

00:08:14.552 --> 00:08:15.754
It's a Charlie Christian amp.

00:08:15.875 --> 00:08:17.918
It's literally an 80-year-old amp.

00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:25.341
So I'm trying to get that together with a pedal board that I've made myself for traveling.

00:08:25.382 --> 00:08:29.709
So at the moment, in terms of that, I'm trying to get the sound together, get everything working.

00:08:29.910 --> 00:08:31.413
I'm having trouble with the hog.

00:08:31.572 --> 00:08:33.336
I don't know why it's not working.

00:08:33.556 --> 00:08:37.503
I've also got an Ottawa pedal, which I really like.

00:08:37.803 --> 00:08:41.470
I'm just trying to get all of the gear to work together perfectly.

00:08:41.634 --> 00:08:51.443
If I had 10 minutes to practice, which I was doing today, I'm just trying to see if I can get this amp to work, how the hell I'm going to get it to Europe without it being destroyed, and how I'm going to tour with it.

00:08:51.744 --> 00:08:57.649
You know, I've kind of made my own thing, this 80-year-old amp with an auxiliary speaker that goes on top.

00:08:57.730 --> 00:09:03.655
So, you know, as usual, I'm making a synthetic mix of modern and old.

00:09:03.816 --> 00:09:08.000
Pedals are contemporary, the amp is ancient, and I'm kind of in between.

00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:08.880
Will

00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:11.100
Wilde For me, it varies.

00:09:11.201 --> 00:09:18.157
I don't really ever have like scheduled sort of routine, like planned out, you know, now I'll practice this kind of thing.

00:09:18.256 --> 00:09:25.394
It's really just if I get an idea in my head that I want to be able to do, or if I just hear something on a record, I'm like, oh, what's that?

00:09:25.794 --> 00:09:27.960
This week it was, I heard Gary Moore doing a thing.

00:09:33.250 --> 00:09:34.751
something like that on the guitar.

00:09:34.772 --> 00:09:38.195
I was like, oh, I haven't really heard someone do it quite like that on the harp before.

00:09:38.336 --> 00:09:39.917
I wonder how that would sound on the harp.

00:09:40.337 --> 00:09:42.600
So yeah, it's trying to get that up to speed and the sound right.

00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:47.505
But the main things I tell people to practice are, one, is scales.

00:09:47.865 --> 00:09:51.169
And these are all things I'm going to go into on my course when it comes out.

00:09:51.710 --> 00:09:52.431
One is scales.

00:09:52.490 --> 00:09:59.278
You know, as harmonica players, we're really just soloists, you know, especially as a blues harmonica player.

00:09:59.339 --> 00:10:02.142
It's not about learning scales.

00:10:02.370 --> 00:10:30.940
songs you know it's about improvising solos over blues songs you know and to do that you definitely need to know need no scales you don't need to know very many just the the blues scale and the major pentatonic scale that that's pretty much it you know you don't really hear anything else other than that so scales get them you know so you can move around them at speed fluently and you Then just working on your sound and all the nuances.

00:10:31.321 --> 00:10:34.785
And so it's one thing just playing the notes.

00:10:36.869 --> 00:10:55.697
But getting the vibrato and the scoops and the tone and all these little inflections that make it sound focal and soulful and interesting rather than just playing the notes.

00:10:56.802 --> 00:10:57.767
Jens Bunga.

00:10:58.337 --> 00:11:04.803
So actually, I always say you should practice the songs you want to play, you want to be able to play.

00:11:04.984 --> 00:11:07.446
Practice slowly and increase the tempo.

00:11:07.645 --> 00:11:10.688
Increase the tempo day by day or week by week.

00:11:10.969 --> 00:11:17.214
Use a metronome or play-alongs like I use with Band in a Box where you can really monitor your progress.

00:11:17.514 --> 00:11:21.357
And sometimes I even do two steps forward, one step back.

00:11:21.597 --> 00:11:24.900
Always consolidate what you already have reached.

00:11:25.181 --> 00:11:30.726
Sometimes I also say 10 minutes spent on the stuff is better than half an hour.

00:11:31.047 --> 00:11:35.270
Also, maybe split up 10 minutes into two times five minutes.

00:11:35.692 --> 00:11:37.653
Don't lose the contact with the harmonica.

00:11:37.714 --> 00:11:38.534
That's important.

00:11:38.754 --> 00:11:46.644
And the harmonica is so easy to grab and always have with you so that there should be no excuse to not to practice.

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

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

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

00:11:58.241 --> 00:12:02.755
Jaw

00:12:02.856 --> 00:12:03.279
Powers.

00:12:03.841 --> 00:12:08.946
I mean, recently I've been spending a lot of time kind of working on bebop improvisation.

00:12:09.226 --> 00:12:11.028
So that's, I mean, that's what I personally would do.

00:12:11.067 --> 00:12:18.575
I'd probably kind of work on some rhythm changes, you know, improvising over rhythm changes or some standards, some bebop stuff.

00:12:18.875 --> 00:12:19.215
Sure, yeah.

00:12:19.335 --> 00:12:21.778
So does that mean you're, you know, you're getting more into jazz?

00:12:21.798 --> 00:12:24.820
Obviously you already play jazz, yeah, but are you focusing more on jazz at the moment?

00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:28.964
I think I'm always working on improvisation because I just love it.

00:12:29.083 --> 00:12:32.407
Whenever I get a chance, I'm always working on jazz improvisation.

00:12:32.687 --> 00:12:39.802
But yeah, if I I'm on a tour playing tango music, sometimes I get pretty busy and I don't always have time to work on it.

00:12:40.565 --> 00:12:44.153
But yeah, it's always what I like to go to and work on.

00:12:44.534 --> 00:12:45.738
I just love improvising.

00:12:46.359 --> 00:12:47.140
Joel Anderson.

00:12:47.553 --> 00:12:56.910
If you're talking about me, I would be concentrating my time on repeating and trying to re-memorize tunes.

00:12:57.272 --> 00:13:05.447
Because the thing is that with Irish music, you have to learn a lot of tunes because there's no improvising in Irish music.

00:13:05.807 --> 00:13:10.458
One tune is played in one key in one kind of way and Yep, that's about it.

00:13:10.778 --> 00:13:13.501
Then you have to learn the next and the next and the next and the next.

00:13:13.923 --> 00:13:18.567
And then, of course, the problem is that you have to be able to remember all these tunes.

00:13:19.188 --> 00:13:25.676
Human brain is somehow magical on how many tunes you actually can remember.

00:13:25.956 --> 00:13:29.179
But then, of course, some of them slips away sometimes.

00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:32.783
So it's nice to refresh the memory on them.

00:13:38.710 --> 00:13:38.750
¶¶

00:13:43.201 --> 00:13:52.538
But also practicing, again, like breathing techniques and just simple train rhythm things and stuff like that to keep the breathing techniques going.

00:13:52.577 --> 00:13:55.962
Because it's, again, doesn't matter what kind of style you're playing.

00:13:56.024 --> 00:13:57.586
It's so important.

00:13:58.206 --> 00:13:59.048
Jason Keen.

00:13:59.629 --> 00:14:04.638
Honestly, I've been married to the Jamie Aebersold band.

00:14:04.738 --> 00:14:11.844
Dominant Cycle book for like 30 years because essentially I just run the whole thing.

00:14:11.964 --> 00:14:18.070
So what they have is they have all 12 keys and each of those keys are about three minutes long.

00:14:18.230 --> 00:14:27.457
But then if you want a quick study, so to speak, that the next track after all those is basically, okay, now we're going to run all of them and we're only going to do eight bars a piece.

00:14:27.857 --> 00:14:33.722
I get a big kick out of, you know, the Dominant Cycle kind of thing is just sort of endless exploration.

00:14:33.743 --> 00:14:46.960
And then I start We'll be right back.

00:14:54.817 --> 00:14:55.859
Cheryl Arena.

00:14:56.318 --> 00:14:59.981
Basically, I tell people to practice at least 10 minutes a day.

00:15:00.643 --> 00:15:12.192
What happens there is if you practice every day, you're going to get better faster than if you practice a couple of hours once a week because it's almost like starting over again.

00:15:12.212 --> 00:15:13.614
Your muscle memory is going to forget.

00:15:13.653 --> 00:15:15.196
You have to start from the beginning.

00:15:15.275 --> 00:15:19.298
To keep that working, you should do it every day.

00:15:20.299 --> 00:15:23.643
What happens is if you pick it up for 10 minutes, it's going to go longer.

00:15:23.743 --> 00:15:26.186
I don't think I've ever practiced for 10 minutes.

00:15:26.486 --> 00:15:28.850
Once you get started, it's going to keep happening.

00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:41.830
So, but if I was absolutely limited and I couldn't, you know, for me, for myself, maybe I would tackle a lick that I was having problems with phrasing and just sit there for 10 minutes and play the same lick over and over and over and over and over again until I get it.

00:15:42.490 --> 00:15:43.312
Herbert Quelle.

00:15:43.351 --> 00:16:04.100
If I have only 10 minutes, I would still do chord and an octave playing practice or maybe playing maybe fifth practice on Irish tunes because I attended a class with Joel Anderson whom you also had on your great podcast.

00:16:04.539 --> 00:16:26.701
I just find Irish music with the accentuation, the rhythm and the melody so appealing to harmonica playing and I got some easy third tunings that I just love because this minor sounding harmonica is just fantastic.

00:16:26.841 --> 00:16:27.601
Yeah, no, it's great.

00:16:27.761 --> 00:16:31.947
Like you say, those Irish tunes and other sorts of tunes work so great in the harmonica as well.

00:16:48.448 --> 00:16:49.190
Ricky Cool.

00:16:49.697 --> 00:16:56.923
Well, if I'd only got 10 minutes to practice, I'm pretty certain part of my head would be thinking about, oh gosh, what have I got to be doing today?

00:16:57.144 --> 00:17:00.947
And all the other things I'm supposed to be doing and I can only fit 10 minutes in.

00:17:01.528 --> 00:17:15.079
So the first thing is just breathe in and out through the harmonica and work from the low end to the high end, just playing chords in and out for one minute, just to sort of settle my breathing and to settle my head.

00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:19.002
I think that's really important and it'll warm the instrument up as well.

00:17:19.584 --> 00:17:33.518
And And then I might take a particular lick that I want to sort of work on and really practice that lick or motif and then try applying it to a backing track and play along with a backing track.

00:17:33.999 --> 00:17:50.262
So yeah, if I was particularly had those Mississippi saxophone videos in mind, I would do my little breathing exercise first through the instrument just to get myself in the zone, if you like, and then work on one of those little licks and motifs and try applying it to a backing track.

00:17:50.923 --> 00:17:51.705
Josie Smith.

00:17:52.577 --> 00:18:02.952
Quite often, most of my practice is just 10 minutes because sometimes you're so busy with life and those 10-minute moments are the best ever because you just go, it's all I've got, so I'm going to just go for it.

00:18:03.433 --> 00:18:10.444
So if there's a song I'm working on, I'll just sit down, plug everything in and just work on that one song as well as I can.

00:18:10.484 --> 00:18:19.156
Or I'll just sometimes listen to a song and get an idea and then just try and work out that because then it's like you're always learning something.

00:18:19.938 --> 00:18:41.884
something new and if you learn something new it just sort of just takes your music to different directions and different ideas and you never get stale so you always feel like you're growing and it just is more exciting than ever if you just feel like you're growing musically yeah probably just set up my one man band if I had 10 minutes and just go for it just play a song that I love

00:18:42.625 --> 00:18:57.846
well you know there's certain things I tend to have my habits of course and I still enjoy the vocabulary that I have seems to express things efficiently for me and satisfyingly.

00:18:58.247 --> 00:19:10.157
But I think to work out some new melodic parts or just try to find things I haven't done before with the notes, new patterns that I could add into the existing vocabulary.

00:19:10.198 --> 00:19:16.223
So I think it would be a case of just thinking melodically as though I were playing on a piano.

00:19:16.263 --> 00:19:18.306
What if I go this note, that note?

00:19:18.657 --> 00:19:19.920
then where would we go from that?

00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:26.449
Just to expand my vocabulary that way, if it were to be something productive.

00:19:26.769 --> 00:19:45.134
The other thing I'd like to do is to just play rhythm harmonica until I've reached a meditative state from breathing that way.

00:19:47.416 --> 00:19:48.317
Adam Gussell

00:19:48.673 --> 00:19:50.415
Well, I can tell you that.

00:19:50.816 --> 00:19:55.359
I'm going to do it by taking out three harps and showing somebody what I would do.

00:19:55.760 --> 00:20:03.167
One of the things that I think you should do every day, I'm going to take an A, a C, and an E flat, just for the heck of it, is you should play the blues scale.

00:20:03.288 --> 00:20:09.493
You should play it up and down, and you should certainly make sure that that three draw, the blue third, as I call it, that you get that right.

00:20:09.534 --> 00:20:11.536
You should make that blues scale sound good.

00:20:11.736 --> 00:20:12.237
So I might...

00:20:20.289 --> 00:20:21.712
And

00:20:22.855 --> 00:20:23.896
once I can get it on the A.

00:20:33.013 --> 00:20:35.519
Just making sure that those pitches, here's an E flat.

00:20:48.961 --> 00:20:51.527
Of course, you could hear that I pulled a little vibrato in at the end.

00:20:51.666 --> 00:21:04.250
But I think, especially for developing players, it's not obvious to developing players that on each harp, the bent notes, the blue notes, or every note, it's going to require maybe a slightly different mouth shape.

00:21:04.330 --> 00:21:08.317
Just very subtle kind of movements that will give you the best sound.

00:21:08.458 --> 00:21:11.503
So like the one hole on an A harp, if you don't know that...

00:21:12.738 --> 00:21:23.192
If you do know that, so learning how to drop the job so that when you're on a gig and you change harps, every harp sounds right.

00:21:23.491 --> 00:21:26.836
So that would be something that would make sense to do every day.

00:21:26.856 --> 00:21:34.606
I also think playing harp, although I do use an occasional custom harp courtesy of Joe Spires, I play mostly stock Kona Marine bands.

00:21:34.887 --> 00:21:38.031
And I do think it's important to develop a certain amount of lip strength.

00:21:38.332 --> 00:21:40.214
So I try to do runs.

00:21:40.255 --> 00:21:40.815
I have a couple.

00:21:41.016 --> 00:21:42.637
I'll take a C harp, for example.

00:21:42.721 --> 00:21:47.048
Now,

00:21:47.087 --> 00:21:47.808
I haven't warmed up.

00:21:57.843 --> 00:21:59.003
And I would start slow.

00:21:59.064 --> 00:22:02.849
Find something that will move you through the middle of the harp.

00:22:02.990 --> 00:22:04.151
I think that's a big weakness.

00:22:04.791 --> 00:22:11.902
Not only do most players not play the high notes melodically, anything that gets you doing that, even boogie-woogie...

00:22:14.657 --> 00:22:15.239
That's what I would do.

00:22:15.259 --> 00:22:26.088
I think a lot of players don't know how to move melodically through the middle, up and down with, say, the sixth blow as the note in the middle.

00:22:30.653 --> 00:22:36.199
Just learning how to move through that register, I would say that that's something every day would make sense to do.

00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:37.299
Richard

00:22:37.320 --> 00:22:37.441
Hunter.

00:22:37.461 --> 00:22:42.224
I tend to focus on one technical element in my playing that I want to improve.

00:22:42.945 --> 00:22:45.107
And I'll practice that for 10 minutes.

00:22:45.248 --> 00:22:49.471
And I do that, you know, I do 10 minutes of practice fairly frequently.

00:22:49.491 --> 00:22:51.594
You know, it's amazing.

00:22:51.634 --> 00:22:55.717
If you do 10 minutes of practice six times a day, you've got an hour of practice in.

00:22:56.238 --> 00:23:09.489
So I would, the first thing I would do is tend to focus on a particular technical issue, maybe a breathing issue, or a movement issue in a particular passage, or, you know, the head for little Walter's juke.

00:23:09.769 --> 00:23:11.851
And I just practice that for 10 minutes.

00:23:12.392 --> 00:23:22.929
And then as As I moved through the day, as I got more opportunities to put in 10 minutes, I might work on a piece of old repertoire, you know, something I've been playing for a while.

00:23:22.949 --> 00:23:29.421
And then I'll spend 10 minutes working on a new piece of repertoire and and so on and so forth.

00:23:29.701 --> 00:23:34.368
So take those 10 minute chunks and focus on one thing during each chunk.

00:23:35.105 --> 00:23:36.487
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00:23:36.928 --> 00:23:38.108
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00:24:05.071 --> 00:24:15.376
Laura Moore

00:24:21.377 --> 00:24:38.748
I think it depends on where you are in the music, because each period, each era in your musical learning is different and appeals for different types of work, of practice.

00:24:38.989 --> 00:24:46.602
So if you are a beginner, you should practice on simple things like major scale, minor scale...

00:24:46.753 --> 00:24:49.681
I mean, if you want to play jazz, it depends on what you want to play also.

00:24:49.862 --> 00:24:50.502
Yeah, sure, yeah.

00:24:50.944 --> 00:24:56.377
And rhythm, and like try to mix the work of the scale and both with the rhythm.

00:24:56.798 --> 00:25:02.192
If you do like, well, the metronome is like that, the beat is there, like that.

00:25:02.849 --> 00:25:15.520
It's cool, but rhythmically you play, which is not really fun.

00:25:15.740 --> 00:25:24.147
But if you change, if you do, you change the accent.

00:25:24.429 --> 00:25:30.973
Instead of doing the first, if you do it, it's on the beat.

00:25:31.295 --> 00:25:44.411
But if you do it after, You start to play rhythm.

00:25:44.651 --> 00:25:45.372
You play groove.

00:25:45.692 --> 00:25:51.079
So I think when you are a beginner and even an advanced player, you should practice the scale.

00:25:51.420 --> 00:25:58.670
And a good way to have fun when you practice scale is to practice it with rhythms.

00:25:59.074 --> 00:25:59.974
and good rhythms.

00:26:00.255 --> 00:26:10.248
And so when you are just practicing your basic scale, you groove, you know, and you have the body is moving and you have something is happening.

00:26:10.607 --> 00:26:14.472
And I think it's a good way to approach the basic work.

00:26:15.493 --> 00:26:15.673
I

00:26:17.355 --> 00:26:25.145
think it's about the tone for me and also not just tone, but about, you know, what music am I enjoying at that time?

00:26:25.665 --> 00:26:27.087
So what would I spend my time doing?

00:26:27.208 --> 00:26:35.019
It could be Queen of Sheba by Handel, or it could be, I don't know, I could be writing a tune, learning to play a bluegrass lick, or whatever.

00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:35.099
You

00:26:35.902 --> 00:26:36.843
know,

00:26:37.924 --> 00:26:41.671
it really, I'm not a very disciplined player, and I'm not proud of that.

00:26:41.911 --> 00:26:47.815
I wish I had had more discipline to do with some of the great jazz and classical players do.

00:26:48.055 --> 00:26:53.440
So I'll sit down and work on whatever I'm into at the time, if it's a piece of music.

00:26:53.740 --> 00:26:57.522
Matter of fact, last week, my brother moved down to North Carolina.

00:26:57.542 --> 00:26:59.065
He plays with a keyboard player down there.

00:26:59.265 --> 00:27:03.689
They sent me a track of Blue Zet, which is a famous Tootsie Tillman song, right?

00:27:04.028 --> 00:27:05.710
And they said, would you want to play on this?

00:27:05.851 --> 00:27:08.813
You know, I never really even played Blue Zet.

00:27:09.012 --> 00:27:10.374
So that's what I was working on.

00:27:10.734 --> 00:27:13.116
So I work on whatever is on the table.

00:27:13.436 --> 00:27:17.840
And if it means practicing some scales so I can jam on a tune or whatever.

00:27:18.020 --> 00:27:18.922
That's what I do.

00:27:19.143 --> 00:27:28.271
I remember when I got a call to play with the New York Philharmonic to do Henry Mancini's Breakfast at Tiffany's, I wanted to work on that classic chromatic sound.

00:27:28.452 --> 00:27:33.817
And I wanted to sound like the guy George Fields, who was a session player from California back then.

00:27:34.219 --> 00:27:45.871
And I worked on that for weeks, getting my tongue-blocking chromatic plan to try and sound less like Toots and Stevie and more like this sound that we had remembered from this movie.

00:27:46.672 --> 00:27:48.374
I just practice whatever's on the table.

00:27:49.154 --> 00:27:50.336
Marco Jovanovic.

00:27:51.439 --> 00:27:55.364
I think it's good to be aware what you're working on right now.

00:27:55.564 --> 00:28:00.111
So do I have a certain thing I want to develop, a certain technique?

00:28:00.411 --> 00:28:01.653
Do I work on a certain song?

00:28:01.972 --> 00:28:05.577
Do I work on a certain aspect in my playing?

00:28:06.138 --> 00:28:11.006
And if you have only 10 minutes, then just be aware of that 10 minutes and practice.

00:28:11.170 --> 00:28:17.481
I think it's very important to divide between the fun part.

00:28:17.761 --> 00:28:21.670
I'm just playing for having fun and whatever happens is good and I'm enjoying it.

00:28:22.230 --> 00:28:27.941
Or being aware, no, I want to use the 10 minutes of aware practicing on a certain thing.

00:28:28.221 --> 00:28:29.884
What happens very often is that you...

00:28:30.498 --> 00:29:02.388
practice this and you practice that and oh yes I forgot to practice this and then you're jumping between the topics and you end up not doing anything of this you're just wandering from one area to another and it's not a focused work I think the greatest challenge is in learning in general is to learn how to learn that is the greatest task to understand how do I function how How can I organize myself?

00:29:02.528 --> 00:29:09.567
What tricks, tools are necessary to create a structured way of my progress, of my learning?

00:29:09.727 --> 00:29:13.857
That's what we are trying to help in different kinds of ways in a school.

00:29:14.479 --> 00:29:15.300
A rocky lock.

00:29:15.809 --> 00:29:27.932
Before the practice, of course, you know, you spend some minutes in warming up your chromatics, particularly the windsavers, allowing them to gain your body temperature closer rather than just in the room temperature.

00:29:28.092 --> 00:29:29.494
That is the pre-10 minutes.

00:29:29.875 --> 00:29:32.560
And then the first 2-3 minutes must be scales.

00:29:32.820 --> 00:29:39.814
Chromatic or diatonic scale, starting from whatever, a D, F sharp or A flat.

00:29:40.097 --> 00:29:43.902
starting with whatever scale, going up two octaves, coming down two octaves.

00:29:44.082 --> 00:29:47.205
So that is the unavoidable part of your practice.

00:29:47.566 --> 00:29:58.778
And then the remaining, you know, eight minutes could be four minutes for the fast passages, four minutes for those, you know, long notes, and, you know, the nice piece that you love most.

00:29:59.159 --> 00:30:03.123
And of course, you know, the fast pieces would be your most favorite of three.

00:30:03.502 --> 00:30:07.106
The soft pieces would be another three of your most favorite.

00:30:07.346 --> 00:30:09.549
So it is two, three, three, three, three.

00:30:09.986 --> 00:30:10.807
Todd Parrott.

00:30:11.950 --> 00:30:17.138
I've had 10 minutes to practice, which is often when I'm waiting in the car for my wife.

00:30:19.262 --> 00:30:21.606
I like to try and play in other positions.

00:30:22.008 --> 00:30:30.143
So third position major is something that I practice a lot with the backing track, just to kind of see how everything lays out.

00:30:30.163 --> 00:30:33.849
There's some really, really cool licks and things you can do in third position major.

00:30:34.657 --> 00:30:37.942
And I would say also other unusual positions.

00:30:38.482 --> 00:30:44.270
One thing that I like to do is play on country tuned harmonicas and play them in sixth position.

00:30:44.330 --> 00:30:56.646
It sounds really weird, but there's a lot of stuff you can do in sixth position just from the harp being country tuned, which is really a bad name because country tuning has nothing to do with playing country music.

00:30:57.107 --> 00:30:59.790
It just gives you the major seventh note of the scale.

00:30:59.891 --> 00:31:02.013
So your five draw is raised a half step higher.

00:31:02.114 --> 00:31:09.926
And that opens up not only second position melodies, but sixth position minor melodies.

00:31:10.268 --> 00:31:17.861
So a lot of the songs that you can play in third position, you can try them in sixth position on a country tune harmonica.

00:31:17.881 --> 00:31:26.315
And it's quite remarkable the things that you can get and the sound that you can get all the way up to hole nine on the harmonica.

00:31:26.375 --> 00:31:31.470
So that's another thing that If I have time to just sit and practice, I'm going to jam.

00:31:31.509 --> 00:31:39.421
I'm not going to really run through scales, but I'm just going to try to play something in context with the backing track.

00:31:39.500 --> 00:31:43.507
Even if I don't know the chord progression, that's kind of fun to put on a backing track.

00:31:43.547 --> 00:31:48.314
And there's several of them that are not 12 bar blues and just see what happens.

00:31:48.753 --> 00:31:50.957
Where are the juicy notes?

00:31:51.117 --> 00:31:51.898
What are the chords?

00:31:51.999 --> 00:31:54.041
Oops, I have to avoid that note.

00:31:54.221 --> 00:31:55.343
Oh, that sounded bad.

00:31:55.824 --> 00:31:57.185
I'd rather work that stuff out.

00:31:57.473 --> 00:32:01.378
Ben Bauman.

00:32:18.273 --> 00:32:24.920
If I only have 10 minutes, sometimes I just go to a harmonica case, I close my eyes and I pick up one harmonica without knowing which key.

00:32:25.259 --> 00:32:27.082
Could be a low key, could be a higher one.

00:32:27.321 --> 00:32:29.143
And I just sit down and play.

00:32:29.463 --> 00:32:31.505
It sounds simple, but that's really how I play.

00:32:31.865 --> 00:32:33.207
I hardly ever practice.

00:32:33.467 --> 00:32:36.470
I may, for the marble tones, we have a structure in the songs.

00:32:36.910 --> 00:32:39.633
Sometimes I need to open a song, then I do my opening lick.

00:32:40.073 --> 00:32:43.375
From there, every gig, every song is different when we play.

00:32:43.415 --> 00:32:45.116
And that's still how I play.

00:32:45.458 --> 00:32:47.378
When I teach, I do the opposite then.

00:32:47.398 --> 00:33:08.221
It's really about techniques that i do by that i demonstrate by using licks that will repeat and repeat and repeat until they get their breathing right their tone building right the embouchure right everything but when i play and i said it about my home recordings i just sit down and play it's it's it's not the best answer i guess but that's really how it is

00:33:17.153 --> 00:33:18.115
Steve Geiger.

00:33:18.916 --> 00:33:26.528
Very early on, and I was in college for a little bit, and we had an art teacher named Frank Miller.

00:33:27.088 --> 00:33:30.794
I didn't know Frank played flamenco guitar, and he was a monster at it.

00:33:31.355 --> 00:33:38.905
He did a seminar, and the one thing that took me out with him is he flipped the guitar the opposite direction.

00:33:39.547 --> 00:33:47.616
He taught his students, whatever you play with the neck on your left side, flip it over and play it with the neck going the opposite side.

00:33:47.938 --> 00:33:49.842
That always stuck in my head.

00:33:50.282 --> 00:33:53.710
So I said, if I want to learn something on a harmonica, flip it over.

00:33:54.171 --> 00:33:55.534
So I would play juke.

00:33:55.954 --> 00:33:59.082
I started learning juke, I guess, in the late 70s.

00:33:59.425 --> 00:34:00.468
I started getting into this.

00:34:00.888 --> 00:34:03.232
It might have even been in the 80s, but I can't remember.

00:34:03.593 --> 00:34:07.861
So I started playing the opposite direction and trying to learn how to do that stuff.

00:34:07.901 --> 00:34:09.704
Because a lot of those guys played upside down.

00:34:10.105 --> 00:34:10.925
Little Sammy played.

00:34:11.306 --> 00:34:11.887
I'm not sure.

00:34:12.268 --> 00:34:18.699
I think Jimmy Rogers, if I'm not mistaken, actually played upside down, even though he played guitar straight up.

00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:20.001
He didn't play left-handed.

00:34:20.193 --> 00:34:23.097
You know, he uses right hand for strumming and left hand for...

00:34:23.597 --> 00:34:25.059
That's the first time I've heard that, Steve.

00:34:25.079 --> 00:34:28.442
Someone's saying that they'll turn the harmonica around and play it the other way around as well.

00:34:28.802 --> 00:34:29.902
Do you think that was a...

00:34:30.163 --> 00:34:31.023
Did that teach you a lot?

00:34:31.724 --> 00:34:33.766
Yeah, it teaches you what you know.

00:34:34.367 --> 00:34:36.548
And I always thought if I ever had a stroke, I'll be one up.

00:34:36.650 --> 00:34:37.951
I won't have to stop playing.

00:34:38.851 --> 00:34:41.054
I'll be able to keep playing the opposite direction.

00:34:41.134 --> 00:34:44.097
But I haven't perfected it all the way.

00:34:44.117 --> 00:34:44.936
It does.

00:34:45.378 --> 00:34:46.518
You have to change everything.

00:34:46.778 --> 00:34:47.500
I tongue block.

00:34:47.539 --> 00:34:49.722
So laying the tongue on the aperture of the...

00:34:49.922 --> 00:34:53.409
The harmonica, you have to change that and different stuff.

00:34:53.469 --> 00:34:54.992
So it's pretty interesting.

00:34:55.391 --> 00:34:57.436
Once you start to hear, then you can go with it.

00:34:58.438 --> 00:35:00.282
When

00:35:00.322 --> 00:35:10.862
I play harmonica, when I practice, a lot of times what I'll do is I'll just pick a song out of the air, whether it's a shuffle or a rumba or some little rhythm part.

00:35:11.074 --> 00:35:14.978
And I'll just start playing a little rhythm, like the way you drum your fingers on a table almost.

00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:18.742
I'll just try doing that on harmonica, a little back and forth, blowing and drawing.

00:35:18.782 --> 00:35:22.027
Or if I hear a bass line, I'll play a bass line.

00:35:22.487 --> 00:35:28.414
So I'll start out by playing the rhythm part, and I might figure out what the bass line is to that rhythm part.

00:35:28.735 --> 00:35:30.317
These are not complicated songs.

00:35:30.717 --> 00:35:32.139
Oftentimes it's a one-chord jam.

00:35:32.739 --> 00:35:34.561
I'll start just breathing in rhythm.

00:35:34.849 --> 00:35:36.692
I can start embellishing on that.

00:35:36.931 --> 00:35:40.516
And once you have established a rhythm, you don't need to play it constantly.

00:35:40.795 --> 00:35:43.860
You loop that in your head and now you're accompanying yourself.

00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:50.726
Then from there, I might get an idea and I might stop and break it down and work on it if there's a tricky part or something like that.

00:35:51.146 --> 00:36:00.797
If there's a specific assignment to learn, say, a tricky part in a certain position, then I might need to just work on that till I get it, sing it to myself.

00:36:01.057 --> 00:36:01.842
or tab it out.

00:36:02.083 --> 00:36:05.382
You really want to throw everything you can against the wall and see what sticks.

00:36:07.809 --> 00:36:09.771
Well, it changed over the years.

00:36:09.811 --> 00:36:16.217
Now, if I just sit down, I just play long tones and maybe slow ballads.

00:36:16.257 --> 00:36:18.800
I just like to enjoy the sound of the instrument.

00:36:19.159 --> 00:36:26.005
If I have something challenging coming up, I will make sure that I practice fast stuff, you know, and get back in shape.

00:36:26.045 --> 00:36:28.108
But I play harmonica for the sound.

00:36:28.208 --> 00:36:30.028
So, first, I want to get the sound.

00:36:30.068 --> 00:36:37.576
So, I would probably play for 10 minutes just something nice and in the low register just to get reacquainted with the instrument.

00:36:37.655 --> 00:36:42.987
That what I do now and back in the older days I was practicing all the hard and difficult stuff.

00:36:43.547 --> 00:36:54.010
So like you said back then obviously jazz is pretty serious stuff so you know what lots of lots of scales practice and you know all the I think you were transcribing Charlie Parker solos and all that good stuff yeah?

00:36:54.273 --> 00:36:57.940
That's what I did early on in my Berkeley days when I learned the language.

00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:03.509
I did everything any other jazz musician would do, except I applied it to the harmonica.

00:37:03.568 --> 00:37:04.550
But that's what you do.

00:37:04.630 --> 00:37:07.695
You transcribe the masters and try to copy it.

00:37:07.735 --> 00:37:09.878
That's part of the learning process.

00:37:11.873 --> 00:37:17.621
Marcus Cole.

00:37:32.802 --> 00:37:41.117
Yeah, you know, now most of the time what I practice is like, for instance, they call me to record this or for this gig or whatever.

00:37:41.498 --> 00:37:44.244
And what I do is learn repertoires.

00:37:44.585 --> 00:37:48.413
Spend the time working on the repertoire that you've got to practice and perform for, yeah.

00:37:48.432 --> 00:37:50.838
80% of the time is what I do.

00:37:51.233 --> 00:37:53.456
Or trying suddenly comes an idea.

00:37:53.496 --> 00:37:58.804
Maybe first I'm not a piano player, but, you know, I have a piano at home.

00:37:58.844 --> 00:38:05.452
So maybe I played a little on the piano to see where the notes are or what position I should use more or less.

00:38:05.813 --> 00:38:06.795
And that's what I would do.

00:38:07.155 --> 00:38:12.322
But if I had the minutes, I would just play whatever I feel like playing at that moment.

00:38:12.541 --> 00:38:15.126
Probably something very rhythmic.

00:38:15.458 --> 00:38:24.909
Probably that's how I would use the harmonica, having the most fun possible, you know, because at the end, that's what music is all about, having fun and enjoying

00:38:25.230 --> 00:38:25.269
it.

00:38:25.289 --> 00:38:26.231
Paul Harrington.

00:38:27.291 --> 00:38:29.335
I like real fundamentals.

00:38:29.735 --> 00:38:35.481
I mean, you know, I like to play Don't Worry Me, Fasol, Latino in three octaves.

00:38:36.143 --> 00:38:38.985
If you can do that, you're hitting a lot of players, you know.

00:38:39.025 --> 00:38:41.128
It's not easy all the time, but...

00:38:42.690 --> 00:38:48.217
This disorder I've got is messing with my armature a little bit, but I can beat it.

00:38:48.838 --> 00:38:54.807
So I like fundamentals because I know for myself, I'm going to play the fun stuff anyway.

00:38:55.528 --> 00:38:56.731
I always play the fun stuff.

00:38:57.431 --> 00:38:58.293
Songs I love.

00:38:58.333 --> 00:39:05.324
Songs like we did to this bluesette the other day at this wedding party.

00:39:06.045 --> 00:39:07.226
Not wedding party, birthday party.

00:39:08.487 --> 00:39:15.233
Bluesette, and I had an upright bass player, and we had a Just the two of us were doing it and it worked out great.

00:39:16.034 --> 00:39:18.416
And we did it, what do you call that when it's not in time?

00:39:18.436 --> 00:39:21.820
I can't think of the word for it, but anyway, we played the song out of time.

00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:23.342
I like playing the bass.

00:39:23.541 --> 00:39:25.264
I wish I was better at it.

00:39:25.943 --> 00:39:28.847
Okay, so you practice quite a lot on scales then.

00:39:29.208 --> 00:39:29.708
I like scales.

00:39:29.768 --> 00:39:32.231
And then I'm going to, you know, I'm guilty of this.

00:39:32.331 --> 00:39:36.315
I tend to think of myself as practicing counts and not practicing doesn't count.

00:39:36.695 --> 00:39:37.657
No, you're always practicing.

00:39:37.916 --> 00:39:42.202
Whether you know it or not, you're taking information in and you're spitting it back out.

00:39:42.690 --> 00:39:43.791
And that's the best practice.

00:39:44.311 --> 00:39:53.244
So, you know, I try to play, I try to play fundamentals when I'm just rehearsing just for pure, get my face loose, you know.

00:39:53.264 --> 00:39:55.347
And the rest of it will take care of itself.

00:40:05.820 --> 00:40:06.722
Jim Hughes again.

00:40:07.777 --> 00:40:10.583
First of all, I would say practice slowly.

00:40:11.123 --> 00:40:21.239
The slower you play, it's like a magnifying glass being put onto what you do, and you're able to observe the way you move from one note to the next.

00:40:21.641 --> 00:40:23.943
Practice scales all the time.

00:40:23.963 --> 00:40:25.726
I can't stress this enough.

00:40:25.867 --> 00:40:29.273
Playing scales and arpeggios are so important.

00:40:29.954 --> 00:40:32.538
Practice in a very relaxed way.

00:40:32.557 --> 00:40:38.507
If you start to play intensely, as if you were doing a performance, you wear yourself out.

00:40:38.949 --> 00:40:45.159
I can play for hours and hours and feel absolutely fine at the end of it because I just practice very gently.

00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:56.456
See, I might have been saying that.

00:40:59.585 --> 00:41:03.510
I say I play very gently, just getting the notes in the right order.

00:41:04.112 --> 00:41:06.635
Be patient as well is my biggest advice.

00:41:07.036 --> 00:41:08.438
It's not going to happen overnight.

00:41:08.458 --> 00:41:14.766
The benefits of practice don't become manifest until a long time afterwards.

00:41:15.226 --> 00:41:19.333
I've practiced in the old days and still not been able to do something.

00:41:19.393 --> 00:41:22.597
And I think, well, I've practiced this for hours and I still can't do it.

00:41:22.918 --> 00:41:24.639
But the next day I can do it.

00:41:25.280 --> 00:41:26.983
It sort of needs to settle in, you know.

00:41:27.985 --> 00:41:28.826
Mike Stevens.

00:41:29.442 --> 00:41:38.269
Yeah, what I would do is I would try and clear my mind, pick up a harmonica and try and groove, try and connect with that.

00:41:38.434 --> 00:41:48.724
I don't want this to sound new agey because it's not how I think about it, but it's to connect with music, to connect with what's happening and, and feel and groove.

00:41:48.824 --> 00:41:54.231
And it wouldn't be about memorizing and playing certain licks or practice things or anything.

00:41:54.692 --> 00:42:01.398
It's about trying to create a groove, something that moves me in that 10 minutes that that's exactly what I would do.

00:42:01.958 --> 00:42:02.199
Yeah.

00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:04.262
And obviously the harmonica is good at that.

00:42:04.282 --> 00:42:05.362
Yeah, sure is.

00:42:08.045 --> 00:42:08.126
Yeah.

00:42:17.090 --> 00:42:18.311
Erland Westerstrom?

00:42:18.873 --> 00:42:19.534
It depends.

00:42:19.713 --> 00:42:22.016
I would do probably one of two things.

00:42:22.418 --> 00:42:31.371
Either I would try to learn a new tune, because I think learning new tunes and songs and melodies, it really helps you.

00:42:31.391 --> 00:42:55.690
If you are always improvising, everything has to come from your own mind so to say but if you learn a tune you might have to learn something that you didn't think about so so it's always good to learn a lot of tunes and i mean 10 minutes is not so much but at least you can get started either i would do that or i would just do breathing and tone exercises i think

00:42:56.592 --> 00:42:57.693
jason richie

00:42:58.465 --> 00:43:08.239
Probably arpeggios and just taking them out of sequence or like trying to go from the third to the 10th or the two to the nine or whatever it is, you know, avoiding the root.

00:43:24.994 --> 00:43:26.014
What's happening, y'all?

00:43:26.034 --> 00:43:32.860
Jason Ritchie from Blue Moon Harmonicas, and I'm here to tell you that Blue Moon Harmonicas are the way.

00:43:33.300 --> 00:43:36.344
You can customize them yourself, or you can get Tom to do them.

00:43:36.643 --> 00:43:38.365
The website is a rabbit hole.

00:43:38.405 --> 00:43:56.762
We're talking about custom combs, custom cover plates, throwbacks, refurbished pre-wars, double re-plates, anything you can imagine, aluminum, ABS, plastic, phenolic resin, wood, any kind of comb you want, any kind of Covered Tom Halczak's your man.

00:43:57.161 --> 00:43:58.063
He's got you.

00:43:59.525 --> 00:44:00.344
Michael Rubin.

00:44:01.306 --> 00:44:11.115
Right now, what I'm focused on is if each chord has, let's say, three notes, like a C major chord is C, E, and G.

00:44:11.797 --> 00:44:16.380
I may take one of those notes, E, and find different ways to approach it.

00:44:16.762 --> 00:44:21.045
So I may get to that E from an F note or from an F sharp note.

00:44:21.250 --> 00:44:22.672
or from an E flat note.

00:44:23.132 --> 00:44:27.559
So I'm kind of surrounding the chord tone.

00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:30.623
And there's many ways to do this.

00:44:31.403 --> 00:44:38.172
So that's basically, you know, what I'm spending my hours doing is just getting real good at this method.

00:44:38.213 --> 00:44:40.235
It's called enclosures.

00:44:40.976 --> 00:44:46.204
You know, it's not like I wasn't aware of enclosures for years, but I'm getting real serious about it now.

00:44:47.206 --> 00:44:47.927
Paddy Wells.

00:44:49.007 --> 00:44:49.568
I mean, I'd like

00:44:49.608 --> 00:44:50.110
to say...

00:44:50.626 --> 00:44:57.496
that I'd be mega focused and practice skills for 10 minutes and then, you know, position work.

00:44:57.858 --> 00:44:58.579
But it doesn't really...

00:44:58.639 --> 00:45:03.427
I mean, I make myself sometimes, but I tend to be...

00:45:03.447 --> 00:45:10.016
I will try and play in a few different positions and try and play things that are just slightly different.

00:45:10.418 --> 00:45:11.920
That's what tends to happen, really.

00:45:12.201 --> 00:45:12.961
But you know what it's like.

00:45:13.021 --> 00:45:17.570
Sometimes you just pick a harp up and 10 minutes you're just playing kind of...

00:45:17.922 --> 00:45:21.400
what you feel like playing, without trying to structure your practice.

00:45:21.501 --> 00:45:22.405
That's how it is for me,

00:45:22.425 --> 00:45:24.637
anyway.

00:45:25.121 --> 00:45:25.862
Yeah.

00:45:25.882 --> 00:45:30.447
If I had 10 minutes to study, it depends on the period of the year, you see.

00:45:30.487 --> 00:45:42.556
If I had some concerts very hard, sometimes I have some pieces that I'm working on, so I would study that particular passage of that tune, for example.

00:45:43.018 --> 00:45:52.346
But if I'm just relaxed, if I'm with my family in the countryside, in holidays, in vacancies, I would just improvise.

00:45:52.485 --> 00:45:54.266
I love to improvise freely.

00:45:54.306 --> 00:46:04.760
Once thing that I love to do is starting to improvise and I start to modulate from the most crazy modulations.

00:46:04.782 --> 00:46:14.054
You see, I try to modulate a lot using all kinds of different scales, all kinds of different measures.

00:46:14.755 --> 00:46:20.362
So I really practice to be free with my harmonica all the times.

00:46:21.324 --> 00:46:22.166
Dennis Grunling.

00:46:22.561 --> 00:46:31.262
If I had 10 minutes to practice, I would probably spend five minutes listening and five minutes playing music.

00:46:31.362 --> 00:46:40.115
You know, whether it's trying to improvise or just kind of trying to duplicate something new if I was learning something new.

00:46:40.556 --> 00:46:46.666
And when I go through this with students, you know, I tell people you got five or 15 minutes a day or you have three hours a day.

00:46:46.706 --> 00:46:49.371
Either way, you can still learn a lot and progress a lot.

00:46:49.431 --> 00:46:51.375
It's all about how and what you practice.

00:46:51.856 --> 00:46:53.097
And the most important thing.

00:46:53.378 --> 00:46:56.681
is you practice what is level appropriate for you.

00:46:56.722 --> 00:47:08.376
That sometimes is hard for players and or students to figure out what do I want to do that's within my grasp, maybe not too far ahead of me, but not something that I already know where I'm not learning at all.

00:47:08.677 --> 00:47:11.599
And that I think is the key that helps people learn so much.

00:47:11.659 --> 00:47:13.722
And I've always tried to keep that due.

00:47:13.782 --> 00:47:18.829
I always have my sights a little bit ahead of where I am with what I'm learning and practicing.

00:47:19.228 --> 00:47:21.472
So I'm just reaching, you know, a few steps ahead.

00:47:21.592 --> 00:47:22.893
That's the most important thing, really.

00:47:23.362 --> 00:47:24.418
Christian Marsh.

00:47:25.250 --> 00:47:34.757
I tend to sit down and play a classical piece because with classical pieces you need to keep working on them, otherwise you lose them.

00:47:35.418 --> 00:47:40.083
And so I tend to sit down and just play one of the classical pieces that I've got up my sleeve.

00:47:40.503 --> 00:47:47.248
I would play usually a jazz tune, something that I'm aiming for.

00:47:47.349 --> 00:47:52.793
I spend time getting jazz tunes together and trying to get them working for myself.

00:47:53.134 --> 00:48:05.641
So I might spend a bit of time on working through a jazz tune, getting it sounding good.

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

00:48:07.777 --> 00:48:10.860
And

00:48:10.900 --> 00:48:14.864
then I try and do some diatonic harmonica as well.

00:48:15.445 --> 00:48:25.152
My diatonic harmonica practice revolves around a bit of scale work these days and getting the overblows really clean, getting the overdraws really clean.

00:48:25.393 --> 00:48:32.880
Because I find that if you don't play really clean overblows to the audience, it can sound like a bad note.

00:48:33.519 --> 00:48:35.222
So you've got to get them clean.

00:48:35.422 --> 00:48:47.512
And the other thing that you have to do with overblows is is that you have to get them into the melodic structure of whatever it is you're doing so that the overblow is a stepping tone to the next one.

00:48:48.032 --> 00:48:52.896
Just playing overblows and overdraws because you can, for me, doesn't work.

00:48:53.016 --> 00:48:57.981
They've got to be part of the melodic scale or the melodic idea that you're expressing.

00:48:58.302 --> 00:49:06.028
When you use them as a stepping stone in the melodic idea, they give you a much broader palette on the diatonic harmonica.

00:49:06.208 --> 00:49:07.469
And so I work on that stuff.

00:49:07.905 --> 00:49:09.409
Constantine Reinfeld.

00:49:10.192 --> 00:49:15.244
I feel like I would definitely focus on rhythm because that's the most important thing.

00:49:15.266 --> 00:49:19.657
Yeah, it would be very rhythmically based and very few notes.

00:49:19.737 --> 00:49:20.137
I don't know.

00:49:20.157 --> 00:49:24.068
I would just start out playing stuff with three notes and...

00:49:24.673 --> 00:49:27.998
just squeeze out all the possibilities I can get.

00:49:28.038 --> 00:49:30.260
Are you talking about chordal rhythms?

00:49:30.940 --> 00:49:35.005
I'm talking about three notes, like actually melodic stuff, yeah.

00:49:35.666 --> 00:49:45.117
And so now you've got your classical hat on as well, do you think about the rhythms as kind of written rhythms, or do you think of them more in a slightly looser jazz way?

00:49:45.739 --> 00:49:48.442
Oh yeah, definitely slightly looser jazz way.

00:50:01.666 --> 00:50:02.666
Mike Turk.

00:50:03.588 --> 00:50:28.041
If I have 10 minutes to practice, so it's virtually not enough time at all to practice anything, but I go to the piano and I practice Cherokee, the changes to Ray Noble's Cherokee in various different ways, because it helps me think about how to make all the key change transitions of which there are many in that tune.

00:50:28.514 --> 00:50:39.905
which has always been like a sharpening stone for many jazz musicians, horn players in particular, and even pianists, you know, at breakneck speed.

00:50:40.385 --> 00:50:45.010
Of course, trying to play it at breakneck speed on a harmonica can be daunting.

00:50:45.670 --> 00:50:48.052
So you're playing the chords on piano when you do that, are you?

00:50:48.653 --> 00:50:51.096
Yes, I'm practicing the harmony on it.

00:50:51.115 --> 00:50:56.862
And if I have 10 minutes more, I'll practice it on the chromatic chords.

00:50:57.025 --> 00:51:08.884
And it's nice to even try to play the thing in all 12 keys, which you can do with play-alongs and teaching aids and have that soundtrack.

00:51:11.170 --> 00:51:24.280
One of the things I like to practice at the moment is I've been playing guitar and harmonica solos, like single note solos on the guitar and doing the same notes on the harmonica for quite some time.

00:51:24.300 --> 00:51:29.186
You know, so one of the things I might practice is playing both together, just doing scales, for example.

00:51:29.565 --> 00:51:34.289
And the scales I'll do will be the blues scale, will be the Mixlodeon mode.

00:51:34.730 --> 00:51:36.172
Those are the main ones really I use.

00:51:36.411 --> 00:51:38.994
But I'm practicing harmonizing as well.

00:51:39.054 --> 00:51:44.342
So if I'm doing a single note on the harmonica, I'll play the harmonica, a third note above it.

00:51:45.563 --> 00:51:58.585
I haven't actually recorded this at all yet or even done much of it live, but that's one of my new practice goals is to be able to harmonize with myself doing simultaneous

00:51:59.728 --> 00:52:00.829
soloing.

00:52:01.601 --> 00:52:02.963
Sound, for sure.

00:52:03.003 --> 00:52:09.833
Long notes, connecting with the instrument and finding your sound on it.

00:52:09.853 --> 00:52:17.684
There's a tendency with the harmonica because it seems so easy to produce the note, the sound, you just blow.

00:52:17.983 --> 00:52:20.588
You know, every kid could do it.

00:52:21.429 --> 00:52:30.521
People that play this instrument forget about the depth of the sound, actually, and how unique it can be.

00:52:31.041 --> 00:52:36.054
like each person's sound on the instrument is unique.

00:52:37.077 --> 00:52:42.108
Yeah, for sure, if I have 10 minutes, I would turn off my phone and practice this.

00:52:43.112 --> 00:52:43.853
Rolly Platt.

00:52:44.449 --> 00:52:46.010
Jamming, just jamming.

00:52:46.291 --> 00:52:49.153
That's what I spend my 10 minutes on every day.

00:52:49.193 --> 00:52:59.362
And it's more than 10 minutes, but it's this stage for me, that's where I grow the most is when I'll put on that little Walter song.

00:52:59.402 --> 00:53:05.007
I'll put on a bluegrass tune or I'll put on a shuffle or something and I just play to the track.

00:53:05.407 --> 00:53:18.509
I turn it up, I put the headphones on or whatever method I've got to have it nice and loud and I play hard and I play as creatively and experimentally as I can possibly come up with.

00:53:19.110 --> 00:53:23.123
And that's how I find my licks and my ideas.

00:53:23.626 --> 00:53:26.574
That's the creative sandbox that I'm playing in.

00:53:27.489 --> 00:53:27.989
Yeah, great.

00:53:28.030 --> 00:53:37.478
And I think a lot of harmonica players learn in that way, but I think it sort of simulates a performance quite well, I think, doesn't it, if you're playing along like that, jamming along?

00:53:38.039 --> 00:53:38.579
Absolutely.

00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:45.746
I mean, I believe you're learning, subconsciously learning a whole bunch of things without even trying.

00:53:45.766 --> 00:53:53.813
I'm not trying to do a performance, like it's a little different when I'm doing my videos because I am trying to get one good version down.

00:53:54.333 --> 00:54:31.875
When I'm practicing, I'll do a little bit of that, but really really every other lick is if not every lick is I'm trying to step outside of my box of my comfort zone and experiment I'll go aiming at notes that I don't normally use I'll try a timing thing that I've never tried that you know I'm not thinking about but I'm just experimenting experimenting experimenting with slight variations on what I are what the collection of things that I already do but I'm also learning good time I'm also learning you know it's fine-tuning my phrasing and my syncopation in the music.

00:54:32.835 --> 00:54:37.422
That's something that I focus on a lot when I'm playing is phrasing and timing.

00:54:37.503 --> 00:54:39.746
It's all phrasing and timing as far as I'm concerned.

00:54:40.246 --> 00:54:50.943
So all those things, you know, and how to interact with other instruments and different things that are happening in the music, those are all things that take place while you're jamming, if you're doing it properly, if you're listening.

00:54:51.684 --> 00:54:52.766
Clint Hoover.

00:54:53.057 --> 00:55:02.266
probably if I have 10 minutes I would I would try to play a bebop head and then you know play it a number of times or maybe a couple of them those are such great warm-ups

00:55:02.746 --> 00:55:05.989
and that would be on the chromatic and diatonic or would you choose one

00:55:06.510 --> 00:55:31.034
yeah yeah I've got some bebop heads worked up on the diatonic in different positions and I'll do that I mean I can't do like Howard Levy does is play confirmation in all 12 keys as a warm-up I saw him do that at a at a workshop but But in a way, that's where I got inspired to do that as a quick warm-up, is just run through something like Donnelly or Confirmation as a warm-up, you know.

00:55:31.275 --> 00:55:33.699
And it gets you going, for sure.

00:55:34.159 --> 00:55:36.722
Once again, thanks to Zydle for sponsoring the podcast.

00:55:37.003 --> 00:55:46.876
Be sure to check out their great range of harmonicas and products at www.zydle1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zydle Harmonicas.

00:55:47.713 --> 00:55:50.277
Hope you've enjoyed this compilation of the 10-minute question.

00:55:50.757 --> 00:55:56.443
It really took me back as I put these two episodes together, thanks to every single person that I've interviewed so far.

00:55:56.483 --> 00:56:06.594
And remember, 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 website player page.

00:56:07.556 --> 00:56:10.159
Thanks to Nick Smee for the donation to the podcast.

00:56:10.659 --> 00:56:16.186
I'm excited about episode 112, which should be out back on the regular schedule of every two weeks.

00:56:16.833 --> 00:56:17.936
I'll leave you now with Mr.

00:56:17.996 --> 00:56:22.623
Joe Powers playing us out with some of his fine tango playing on the chromatic harmonica.

00:56:23.264 --> 00:56:33.179
This one is called La Yumba.

00:56:33.840 --> 00:56:35.101
La Yumba