Day after the gig

Didn't go very well last night. I find playing amped up really hard. Too loud/ not loud enough/ only picks up wrong notes. Reminds me a little of playing an electric keyboard. Everything seems wrong.

Oh well.

I might survive

Had a brilliant time at the pub last night. We tried 'I will Survive' it was hilarious (still not sure if it was in a good way)! Anyway it's in Am so I played my G harp in 3rd position. Cool to be able to do that and also really nice to use the G harp because there is very little blues stuff in D and I think I use it on perhaps one song in 1st position.

No two the same!

Played at the fair yesterday. Arrived late. Played about 4 songs. Great fun. I played cupping a mike to the harmonica and I think I'm getting used to it a little more.

Latest project is to try and get a bit more of the Jason Ricci slow blues learnt. It is funny to play it on the various harmonicas. Some are loads easier to pitch the flattened third then down to the major second, others I find really odd. I think the flat 3 is too flat and the second gets off even more and the whole thing is awful. Worth working on.

Golden Melody

I like it but it hasn't especially helped with the hand wahs so it looks like it is my technique which is wrong. :(

I'm going to try and keep on keeping on with this.

New harp on its way

I decided to order a new harp tonight. I wanted to try a Golden Melody because I have been wondering for a while if it may be easier to get a wah on a more air tight instrument. From the research I've done it looks like this harmonica could fit the bill. It takes my harmonica list to:

Big River: G, C, Bb
Lee Oscar: A
Blues Harp: E
Marine Band: D
Golden Melody: F

I know most of these are made by Hohner but the difference in tone and ease of playing makes them completely different instruments. I don't know if I just got a dud but I find the Marine band by far the hardest to play. If this Golden Melody works nicely, I may look to replace some of the others with this type.

I'm looking forward to finding out how it plays.

Pub Gig

Played at the pub tonight. It was great fun but I need to experience playing through an amp much more. The thing is that it sounds and feels very different holding a mike to the harmonica.

I was really pleased that the solos I had worked out sounded good. That was great, I thought the "Faith" one worked well with the rest of the band.

It is also strange how the various reeds seem to jam up when I play with a mike -am I blowing too hard?

Hmmm, lots to think about. Still a good, fun night.

Lull

I've hit one of those lulls. I just don't want to play the harp at the moment. I'm playing at the pub this Friday so I should be practising but I've got a mouth ulcer and can't face it.

I ordered a jack plug for the microphone I'm going to use. Hopefully I'll be able to borrow an amp.

Month 2

Done a fair bit of harmonicing this month.

Octaves sounding a little better (maybe??). Certainly I'm better/ quicker (although not in this example) at finding them.

New challenge: Jason Ricci's slow blues (Root notes 2). I can't get the hand effects when I play into the mic.

Here it is so far.

The Plan

seems reasonable enough. To practice specific harmonica techniques which I'm pretty useless at, record them and then to record again one month later. Hopefully, over a year, I'll be able to hear some improvement.

Things wot I wanna be able to do better:

1) Pitch the flattened 3rd more accurately (3 draw) in cross position.

2) Play faster!

3) Tongue block octaves easily.

4) Be able to play 3rd position.

5) Get a warmer sound (vibrato).

6) Incorporate some more licks into my playing. (Shellist, Gussow, Ricci ideally!)

7) Get those wide trills 4/5 draw to work quickly without missing notes.

So I'll attack the list in any order!


Octaves