Thanks Liam. I’m working on your blues song studies of My Babe & Walking by Myself and since seeing Jo’s video I have introduced my version of nose dumps and it does help.

Liam's demo is downloadable in Month 3 of the Intermediate Course. Just found a backing track on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0zeTuvag0Pg?si=vZdUT-Cnf_HORuOf

Hi Michael, I took up harmonica when I retired, so my time’s my own to a certain extent. At the moment I practice twice a day (morning and evening, evening after my wife has gone to bed). My main days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Saturdays, where I might do about 3 hours in the morning (which come in useful if I’m trying to learn a new song). The other days I do about half an hour each session. Sometimes it’s a bit of a slog, I think it took me over 2 months to get up to get up to full speed with My Babe and I still have to play it several times in succession to get it to sound reasonable. I suppose the main thing is that I’m still enjoying myself. Cheers, Doug

I agree with you Michael. I usually learn one line at a time using Transcribe+ and then combine as I go along. (I did note that in one of Liam’s videos that he advocated learning the song from back to front, following advice he had from Carlos del Hunko. Once I’ve got a the song in my head, I always find little licks that I have to go back and re practice or refer to the tabs or Liam’s videos. I’ve recently been attempting to learn the solos from My Babe and Walking By Myself. One of my bugbears is that when I’m playing a song slowly I enjoy it more, because I can appreciate all the little nuances. But when I play it at full speed it’s all over in a flash!

Hi Charlie, I used to lip purse, but learnt to tongue block when I took Liams course, like you I struggled to get any tongue blocked bends. One thing that helped was to initiate the bend lip pursed the slowly slide my tongue to the left of the hole. It helped me get the hang of what shape my mouth should be in to get the bend. Then it’s just a matter of spending time practicing some simple songs. Harpsurgery has a nice section on “beefing up those bends” with some songs to play. http://www.harpsurgery.com/beefing-up-those-bends-3-draw-bends/ Cheers, Doug

Thanks for the comment Liam, I appreciate all the help you’ve given over the past couple of years. I’m still really enjoying your courses. I wasn’t going to give up right at the end, good excuse for a mid-week celebratory drink!

Thanks Liam, I've just played your demo and my submission and now understand what I've been doing wrong, so I'll spend a bit more time practicing that part of the line to get it a bit more fluid. By the way, I've been watching your posts from Australia, you look like your having a great time! Cheers, Doug

Thanks, I'm just determined to finish the course before I decided what's next!

Thanks Liam, started on Song Study 10 just after Christmas, so looking to the future, I need something else to help expand my playing abilities, and improv is an area I'm quite weak in. All the best for the New Year, I expect you've got another busy one planned!

I'm quite happy technically, but my improvisation needs a lot of work!

Thanks Michael! I appreciate your comment. Cheers, Doug

I don't know if this helps Matthias, but I bought an app called Transcribe+ for my IPhone a while while ago. You can open Liam's sound files (or any other songs) then create separate loops from each of the licks which you can slow down or speed up without distortion. I use it all the time to learn song studies and find it very useful!

That's great Liam, thanks for the comments. It makes it all worthwhile!

Have you tried Bend It Better the live online bending aid: https://www.harmonica.com/bending-tool/ I have an Iphone and use the HarpNinja Diatonic app

Thanks Liam, I'm happy to do that. I've just realised that I'm sort of slurring through the triplets and not playing them as triplets, so I'll try and rectify that and any other problems you think I might need to work on.

Thanks Liam. I've been overthinking the double stop triplet for a few weeks and trying all sorts of things. Then all of a sudden it came together at the end of last week!

Thanks, I did spend some time going through practicing my triplets. Unfortunately I only noticed you mention that the double-stop transition was a triplet when I went through the lesson, and the more I tried it, frustratingly, the harder it became! I've been busy practicing that double stop transition and the third line triplets at a lower speed. Listening back, to my recording, the -3 that follows the double stop sounds pinched. Im aiming to increase my tempo slowly this time!

Thanks for the comments Liam, are there any specific lines you think I need to concentrate on. I did have a bit of trouble transitioning from the -45 -45/ double stop to -3 so I decided to try the -3 tongue blocked. Listening again, on the next line, the first -4/ -4 -5 that follows is not good either. Any advice would be appreciated!

No worries, glad to know you think I'm progressing!

Thanks Liam, that's a relief, it was getting to be a bit disheartening to practice towards the end to be honest!