Category: Uncategorized

Blues Harp Turnaround

So here is the tablature for a Blues Harp Turnaround. A Turnaround is a riff to get you from the end of a song back to the beginning when you are soloing. Play this a few times at the end of a 12 bar blues song and your solos will instantly sound better!

Download (PDF, 63KB)

 

This blues harmonica tablature goes along with my YouTube video here:

Big Sale on Harmonica Lessons with Howard Levy!

For many years I’ve been a fan of harmonica great Howard Levy. Of course for his mastery at playing the harmonica but also because he is so melodic whether playing harmonica, piano, ocarina or any other of the many instruments he plays. He seems to have gone beyond the limitations of the instrument to create his music. Like his music making he is also a wonderful teacher! Howard Levy has a calm and relaxed approach to his lessons and breaks things down so that almost anyone is able to play the harmonica.

Howard levy has been teaching through a web based “school” at artistworks learning exchange

Right now Artist works is having a sale. $60 off of any 1 year subscription! There’s not much time because this sale expires on August 1st, 2016. Simply add the code”SCHOOL60″ at the checkout page to receive your discount.

After this, the prices are going up so act now! Simply click either of the ads shown here and they will take you to Howard Levy’s Harmonica School.

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

I just got back from a fantastic week at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp. SK Acoustic Kamp

This was my second year at the Kamp and it was great. Unfortunately a harmonica class is not offered…yet but you never know. Bluegrass is the focus of the week I was at the Kamp. I play several instruments including the harmonica and this year I  decided to focus on playing Dobro at the Kamp. I took my mandolin along for the elective classes and also to play at the many bluegrass jams throughout the day and late into the night.

The dobro instructors this year were none other than Curtis Burch, Jimmy Heffernan and Ivan Rosenberg. All heavy hitters and masters of the Dobro.

All of the instructors at the Kamp are the best at what they do and a great many are Winfield competition winners. In fact Steve Kaufman is the only 3 time winner of the flatpicking contest. If you haven’t heard Steve play, check him out soon.

If anyone out there is interested in some Dobro info, leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks For Stopping By

Welcome to HarmonicaJoe.com!

Many of you might have found your way here through my old harmonicasongs.net website. Since I am no longer selling harmonicas, I have decided to post everything over here. I will be updating more often and am working on some new blues harp programs that will be available as digital downloads. This is for 2 reasons. The first is that by going digital, I will be able to get new products to you much quicker and the second is it will cost a whole lot less for all of us in the end.

While I’m disappointed that I’m not able to sell harmonicas and accessories anymore, I’m excited to get started on this new venture!

Thanks for stopping by and come back often!

Don’t Let The Man Get You Down

I have written and erased this post a few times already. Everytime I start typing it comes out as a negative piece about how employers are draining the life out of the common worker by doing more with less people and blaming it on the economy. This has been on my mind since I read a newspaper article today about how companies are showing record profits and showing huge cash balances. Maybe it is true and maybe not. I happen to believe there is some truth to it.

Which leads me to what I wanted to write about and that is don’t let the “Man” suck the life out of you enjoying the good things in life. I have spent much of the last few months concentrating on my job so intensly there hasn’t been much time left over for playing music. I have a huge list of songs I want to learn and musicians I would like to play them with. There are a very small group of musicians I admire greatly because not only did they not let the “Man” keep them down, they overcame and are forging ahead releasing new music projects and looking towards the future. A couple that come to mind are my good friend Mark Taylor http://www.marktaylormusic.net/fr_home.cfm , a jazz horn player who tried many times over the past year to gain the funding needed for his new CD project. After several tries he accomplished his goal and is close to finishing his album. The other is a blues lap steel guitar player from my local area Sterling Koch who set his mind to it and managed to get Double Trouble to play on his CD project and put out a smokin’ hot blues album.

These guys didn’t let the “Man” get them down and I’m not going to either.  Let’s forge ahead and not let our lives be defined by where we work.