Playing the Blues

Playing the blues is addictive. It doesn't matter which blues instrument you play, but for me the harmonica is it. I've been working on some lessons from a Mel Bay book by David Harp. I don't have it all down yet but I'm getting there. David's lessons are for the Chromatic Harmonica though and lately I want to use my diatonic harps. Unfortunately my Golden Melody's weren't designed so much for blues playing as for single note folk songs, and don't bend notes very well. I've removed the covers from my "A" harp and opened the gap on some of the reeds a tiny bit to help with this. It still plays single notes really well but now I can bend that 3 draw a lot easier. I still need to work on it to get it right but at least it bends.

My favorite place to learn about playing the blues is from the You-tube videos of Adam Gussow. These video lessons are well done and Adam is a phenomenal blues harmonica player. He plays Hohner Marine Band harmonicas as do a lot of other blues players. I don't have any of these but have them on my list to get.

If you are interested in learning to play blues or any other style of harmonica you can find what you need just about anyplace online. If you want to know more about how harmonicas work check out this site for the diatonic harps: The Diatonic Harmonica Reference. If you're interested in everything to know about the Chromatic harp click here: Harp On! Chromatic Harmonica Reference. I visit these sites often and find them very helpful. My favorite place to get music for my harmonicas is at http://www.harptabs.com/. They have hundreds of songs available and it is very easy to search for what you want.