Session 2 - Jan 16, 2022

Session Notes: As usual we ended up playing longer than expected! We spent a good bit more time working on breathing and getting a full sound out of the 1,2,3 hole draw chord and the 1,2,3 hole blow chords.

Some things that seemed to help were actually holding the harp with the teeth, which forces the harmonica back further in the mouth and helps widen the mouth opening. This helps get the sound out of those chords. Another tip was trying to tilt the back of the harp up slightly which can get a clearer path through to the holes.

The most important thing is to keep working on the 'harmonica breathing meditation' - through repetition and experimentation your brain will start to wire and control the lips and the mouth to control the sound.

We talked a bit about cleaning the harmonica - rinsing with water , shaking and tapping the water out of the harp and letting it dry. If you have a musty old harmonica, it might be a good idea to spray or rinse through the holes with hydrogen peroxide. Tapping the harp against the hand or leg occaisionally while playing will help keep it free of condensation.

Finally we started covering the 12 bar blues pattern. We looked at some different styles and worked a bit with the jam track for 'blow wind blow' which is linked below. We covered the I-IV-V chord blues progression - the basic building block of the blues. We spent some time just listening and identifying the chord changes. Really, you just cant do this enough! We then looked at how to apply that pattern to playing on the harmonica.

Lots of questions and discussion about mouth and tongue position , how the notes on the harmonica relate to chords and a bit of music theory. Things we didn't get to cover much were licks and riffs and exploring different kinds of music - Time flies!