Wahoo, one of the many reasons that harmonica is the BEST! 🤣

Thanks for the question! It may be that you're not used to bending such big heavy reeds. The 2 draw can be notoriously difficult to bend well, especially on the lower harps. I find it helps to picture what's happening inside my mouth: for the higher bends (including blow bends) the movement is increasingly centred around the front of the mouth, just behind the teeth. As you get to the lower bends (and lower harps), the action takes place further back in the mouth. Same concept for the tongue movement but it's further back and exaggerated because you're dealing with a bigger, heavier, lower reed and trying to resonate a lower frequency. How long have you been bending the A harp? Can you get all the bends on all the other holes?

Hi Michael, this is a great question! Short answer: yes there are some predictable progressions, but no they're not anywhere neear as predictable as blues. Longer answer: blues is the most "predictable" genre in western music. The 12 bar form is by far the most common format for blues songs, and no other genre uses a repeated form so often. However country, folk and pop do have some chord progressions that you can notice in multiple songs. Even jazz - which blues guys tend to fear because of its complexity - has predictable aspects. But the truth is, none of these is anywhere near as obvious and predictable as in blues music. That's why blues is so fun and relatively easy to follow! P.S. Hopefully I can teach more about other genres in future courses. Watch this space!

Hi Robin, first off let me say what an amazing job you did with that Pink Floyd solo. I'm a big Floyd fan so that solo is very familiar to me! Did you tab it out yourself? A) Playing out of the right side allows tongue slaps and flutters which support the melody note with lower notes. If you play a reverse tongue block, those extra notes will be higher than the melody note. While there's nothing "wrong" with that, it might be distracting and therefore not giving the desired effect of supporting the melody. One way around this would be to play the harp upside down, then you can block the opposite way and still get lower notes for your slaps and flutters. But obviously that would be a big learning curve! If you don't use those extra textures much, or it doesn't bother you, then I see no problem with playing a reverse block. B) I only use jaw vib on bent notes, but I use it on lip purse and tongue block, so yes it's possible. It's really just down to practice. It does feel weird at first, but the tongue shouldn't stop you doing it.

Yes I think you're right, the transition from the double stop back to single notes is a difficult bit. You have to narrow your mouth without adding tension otherwise the single notes will sound "pinched". Not an easy task at high speed!

Good question re tickets - I have no idea! Probably worth checking with the venues 😎

Welcome, Michael! I hope you enjoy the courses. Feel free to ask any questions in the forum!

Great work, Doug! This is a really tricky solo, and you're doing well to keep up rhythmically. All I'd say is try to remain patient with this, because sometimes your embouchure is sufffering a little with the speed. It may be frustrating, but perhaps you need to slow down a little and really nail all those licks before trying this tempo again. Also, lovely to see you at the Railway. And massive thanks for the jug stickers. The band love them!

Welcome to the school, David. It's great to have you here. Mountain dulcimer is an amazing instrument! How long have you been playing harmonica? Not sure how far you are from NYC, but I have a couple of gigs with my jug band next year: SUN 16 JUN 2024 SHRINE (NEW YORK, USA) www.shrinenyc.com MON 17 JUN 2024 SILVANA (NEW YORK, USA) www.silvana-nyc.com If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the forum. We're a friendly bunch 😎

Fascinating stuff mate, keep me informed with any other tunings you come up with!

No idea who it is but it sounds great!

Hi Benjamin, sorry to hear about this. Are you still struggling? What exactly happens when you try to access the lessons? Which pages won't load or open?

The Boss TU-01 is a good option - there's a link on my Amazon store page https://www.amazon.com/shop/learntheharmonica.com/list/3H4RP688GJPV3?ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ofs_mixed_d

P.S. @Paula Braynion maybe you have some tips? You're always great at encouraging beginners 😎

Hi Karen, welcome to the forum and thanks for posting! Have you tried my single note exercises? They're great to getting used to moving around the harp and as a side effect they help you control your breathing. Here's a video intro - I think I have a PDF somewhere of a few more exercises if you want me to dig it out for you?

Hi Matthias, it's entirely up to you! The most important thing is to start experimenting because soloing is all about taking risks and trying things. Once you've learned the licks, put a backing track on and see where they fit - trust your ears, they are the most useful tool you have as a musician. Regarding memorisation, once you have successfully played a lick then you can practice it over and over on "autopilot" (i.e. without thinking too much about it) - the brain and body will work on muscle memory and soon enough you will have it memorised. If you're trying to memorise a whole solo, start by memorising the final line and work your way to the start of the song (backwards learning) so that you're always playing the "new" line first. Does that make sense?

Welcome, Michael! I hope you enjoy the course and the school. It's never too late to learn harmonica 😎 Sometimes dogs start barking when I play high notes at a gig 🤣

Robin, you're definitely a lunatic and I LOVE IT! I'm always in awe of true innovators, I'm not creative/bold enough to lead the way with these things so it impresses me very much. Have you tried creating any other Frankenstein tunings? Have you had any interaction with Brendan Power? He's half genius and half mad scientist, and I reckon he'd love this.

Hi Ilse, thanks for the feedback. The way I learned, and the way I teach, focus on using your ears, because this is the most important tool in music - especially in improvisational styles like blues. Musical scores are definitely a useful tool, but they're just not my style. I'm sorry that you're finding this limiting and I hope you can still learn from the courses.

Hi Chris, welcome to the school and to the wonderful world of harmonica! As Marc says, little and often is the most important thing. For more tips, check out this video.