Over two dozen harmonica enthusiasts packed the room as Max Tinkle opened the day and introduced Harmonica Wizards Matt White and Victor Polyik. Each gave a detailed presentation, sharing their harmonica knowledge with Q and As afterward. Firstly Matt on Diatonic and then Victor on Chromatic, who was then joined by Blues artist Louis King talking on gigs, equipment and his musical life in general. Lunch was followed by PBS FM presenter Helen Jennings discussing her recent six-city tour of the USA’s blues spots. Helen also played CD examples of several up and coming harpers.
The day climaxed with The band, ‘The Max Factor’ kicking off with a few blues numbers followed by several students having their first jam in public.
How did you go the second time?
Urs
Max
Thanks Kevin I’m working on that anyway- Appreciate your comments.
Chizz
Max
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Thanks Katherina, yes the blogging is new for me this year as well.
Hang in there.
Urs
Max
Very Nice repitore of jam trkacs – they seem kinda short. Personally for practice I prefer the jam trkacs to be 4 to 6 mins long, it seems easier to stay really focused on what I’m tying to accomplish and get some serious practice in – rather then needing to restart start the track every couple of minutes and loosing my momentum. Hope it don’t sound like I’m whining?
On to crossharp. Here’s the thing, You are absolutely right that you should play a G song on a G harp. It’s called straight harp and that is how you get Go Tell Aunt Rhody She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain and all of those old folky songs. With the blues (and here’s the trick) we aren’t playing the harmonica the way it was supposed to be played. Blues is breaking the rules. We haven’t started bending notes yet. A bend is playing the harmonica the way it WASN’T INTENDED to be played. To play blues harp you have to brake the diatonic harmonica inventors rules. The note you would have to flatten on a G harp won’t do it (or wouldn’t when all this shenanigans started. Harps are much better now.) Since it wouldn’t do it, the original blues harp players had to go to second position and play a hole that could be flattened. That’s the blue note and that is why we play cross harp and that is why we play a G song on a C harp.We’re gosh darn dirty rule breakers!
Tweaking a new harmonica is quite coommn and a skill every harmonica player should eventually learn. It isn’t for beginners though. I do work on my reeds a bit to get an easier bend though. I look at it this way, If the harp sucks to play out of the box, tweak it and see if you can get it to play better. I am going to look more into customizing harmonicas this year. A lot of real good players say you can get a lot out of a little tweaking.
I seem to be picking up most of this harp binesuss fairly easily except that I am having trouble with bending in general. I can bend some but just can’t get All of the notes on every hole. I know I have to just keep trying and it will happen but I must be doing something wrong somewhere! I’ve been able to play whatever instrument I want to over the years but I have to say this is giving me fits! I think it’s my breath control or maybe I’m not getting my tounge just right or something, I really can’t place it right now but any ideas would be appreciated! Thank You!
Looks like you got something great happening! Love the website. Keep spreading the love. jon
Hi Max
Love your web-site. Its going to be a great connection point for Harp enthuisasts.
Also thanks for the kind offer to add my link to your site.
If you put the Harp Attack banner the write up could say something like….
“Harp Attack is the Australian Retailer of the awesome ”Lone Wolf Effects Pedals”.
A range of stomp-box style pedals designed for creating awesome Harp tone through a PA or amp”
Cheers
Brad Capper Harp Attack West Australia
Cheers for the material, and your website truly looks fabulous. Just what wp theme are you employing?
Hi Jeffrey,
Thanks for the feedback. The theme we are using is Alyeska.
Cheers,
Max Tinkle
Harmonica Essentials
Hi Max, Great to see this up and running.
Cheers, Pete