i first tried guitar and realized i didnt' have a ear.. but i figured if i kept at it,,i may get it.

one of the favourites movies of mine was crossroads and not soley because of the guitar duel but the harmonica playing, even last night i was listening to willie brown blues over and over.

i guess i will break this up into the music i listened firstly.

before listening to the blues,, i was listening to rythmic harmonica or so i thought in the playing of Mickey Raphael) as i used to have the highwaymen live vhs movie , and roy orbison black and white where there was some harmonica playing in it as well.  I dont' have any charlie mcoy albums so i had no idea who he was and still got no music from him..

a book mentioned little walter, and junior wells so i brought  sonny boy williamson his best by chess (i didnt' know there was two sonnyboys at the time) , howlin wolf his best by chess,  two sonny terry cds the wizard of the harmonica, and american blues legends. and problay the last cd i brought that had harmonica on it was last time around by buddy guy and junior wells

my favourite songs off these is , who's been talking, checking up on my baby, blues with a feeling, (can you believe i didnt' like juke til it was in cadillac records) . whooping the blues, and blues with a whoop by sonny terry.

I didnt' listen to a lot of muddy waters, in fact i only got one cd of his on my computer ,, the best of muddy waters 1975 , but i didnt' focus on the harmonica for i was trying to listen for the slide at the time.  i have 2 versions of caldonia of his on the computer and i didn't realize until just a month ago that it was the harmonica playing the traditional louis jordan intro/lead.  and it was played by jerry portnoy himself. (one person on the you tube video said it was paul butterfield even and argueed with a person saying it was jerry portnoy).

the books

the first harmonica book i brought was by marc and i had 2 of his vshs, then i realized why am i paying close to 40 bucks for half hour instruction  and later on started to look elsehwere. (over priced, and the book itself was only good for learning straight harp) . Marcos Habif

i used to have a book on carey bell but i didnt' even understand it at the time.

i have learn blues harp, and learn rock harp,, but they are pretty basic imo ,

i have blues harmoncia by tom ball, , i used to try to play along with the tape with it but i drove the people who i was staying nuts with it. for the size of it there really inst' that much instruction,, just some licks, that is problay where i learned bout howlin wolf, and sonny terry..

i did get the sonny terry lick book and it was interesting read, but still just full of licks.

 i have teach yourself blues harmonica by phil duncan first,, but after the third position tip by jerry i looked in it and he has a song in third position but there is no third position blues scale or anything like that. still was a good book for learning the patterns. it is the third best book that i have

the second best harmonica book i got is blues and rock harmonica by glenn wieser,, i actually had the book in the middle 90s and got it again.  he doenst teach the blues scale but instead the combined scale of minor and major pentonic scale.

the best book i have is actually david barret complete classic chicago blues harp before it was split up into twos,

it has some third position teaching in it so i am going to use that to help me.

the videos

as i mentioned before i did have two vsh movies by marcos habif on harmonica playing but it just didnt' really jive.

the next harmonica vsh movie i had the time was learn to play harmonica over night by john gindick, it was 90 minutes i think and i learned about moving from 3 , 3 draw, 4 blue,, 4 draw,, 6 blue , 6 draw .. and how to bend notes.

it was great,, i learned how to do the rythm from there..

then i found out about homespun tapes so i got the

norton buffalo , harmonica bag of tricks

norton buffalo harmonica blues techiques.

i didn't know he died though til recently ,, too bad as i liked his videos.

and the last harmonica dvd i got was madcat peter ruth the in and outs of rhythm harp.

________

however it isnt' like i studied these things religiously or i would be better then i am right now that is for sure,,

i might spend a week watching norton buffalo, vsh,, or do some teach yourself blues harp book and not touch it for a year.

for i was frustrated with the lack of my ability to pick out licks by ears, or learn anything by ear.

and i looked online there are more harmonica dvds, books , play alongs  out there..since when i brought some harmonica books 10 years ago at least.

but here we are at sonic junction,, i know some of you guys problay had the luxury of being taught the blues by an teacher, mentor or that it comes easy to you eh ?

i look forward to reading your harmonica story.

 

for me

my strong point is rhythem,, (for the longest time before i got the books and dvd, my rythm was in first position and sounded like a hunting we will go )

and bending the notes,,

when it comes to playing straight harp aka country songs,, i have a decided lack of skill in that..

and so i am working on tongue blocking, and third position :)