Chromatic

I've been spending much of this summer practicing my chromatic. I play piano at church sometimes and have church music books at home so I've been working my way through some of those songs. I am improving slowly and am getting better at playing in different keys. I still find it very hard to judge big jumps (4ths to octaves) but that's what practice is for! Breathing can be surprisingly tricky, depending on the key, because sometimes it involves a lot of draw notes.

Also I have become pretty good at the 12 blues scales page I've been working on.

Golden Wedding Gig

Played tonight for a golden wedding anniversary. It was very odd. On the one hand the playing went really well and was huge fun. On the other hand there was random drunk woman and people from work. It all went a bit awkward for a while.

At the end a very nice man told me that he hadn't heard the harmonica played so well since the 60s (which he said was his era) and that I should be very proud of myself! Always encouraging to get a compliment. Another lady said I'd done well tonight too.

So all in all, a very weird but exciting gig.

Another gig

Just a quick update really. We played last Friday at St Nic's in Durham. We were the second of three acts and followed an amazing choir (who were an offshoot of the Sage choir). I was extremely nervous that our style of music would not go down well. I shouldn't have worried. We were greatly appreciated, people clapped along and generally had fun. Afterwards, folks were really complimentary (someone came at the end and said how much she had enjoyed my playing! How very kind!)


I've also started to try and get some new harmonicas with my piano teaching money. I wanted a few spares in the keys I play most often. So now have a new A Bb and C. All are Big Rivers so they should last a while.

Chartity Gig

Had fun tonight. I hope that it sounded as good to the audience as it did on stage. Overall there were only a few mistakes by me. The new £5 microphone is working out ok. I still haven't had the chance to use the overdrive pedal. I'm looking forward to when we can actually sound check with it.

Fun :)

Another gig

Last Friday (15th Nov) played another gig at the pub beer fest. It was the usual mix of fun and mistakes. We did get some video footage of ourselves but the quality of the sound is awful so I'd rather just remember it in my mind (where I was incredible!!!)

Gear

Due to the PA being reduced, through the exit of a band member, I have been asked to get a mike. Today I found one in cash converters for £5. It's not that bad a mike, in that it sounded reasonable when I played through it. The music shop in Consett then sold me 2 leads and I decided to get a pedal which will give me a bit of distortion for those few songs which need it. All told it came in at £42 which was far less than any proper mike. I only hope that it all works out ok for Friday's gig. I think I will pick up a small practice amp at some point.

4th and 5th position

I've been thinking about trying to learn another position on the harmonica (more from a desire to try it out than to learn it for any tunes.) Tony Glover refers to 4th position but I think he means 5th because if you track them with the cycle of fifths, then what he talks about is the 5th key you come across. Anyway 4th starts on 6 draw and is semi complete. 5th starts on 2 blow and is complete and sort of works in the upper octave but has a missing note or two. I don't know of any recorded music which uses either of these positions so it really just a novelty.

So a C harp can be used to play in (amongst others):
1st: C
2nd: G
3rd: D
4th: A
5th: E

I can't see a particular use for it unless there is a blues in an obscure key or wanting to play in A on a lower harp instead of D cross.

To play in A

1st: A
2nd: D
3rd: G
4th: C
5th: F