Hi David, Thank you very much for your feedback! I am happy to hear that these lessons are really working for people. I am enjoying doing this very much and we certainly appreciater your busniess! Feel free to tell your guitar playing friends about it. All the best! Duke Robillard  

I think the best bandmate shows up on time, listens to the music and knows how to share with and support the other players.

thanks for the link.I dont know how i started Harp playing this way.About 40 years vago i picked up a Marine Band and somehow it just seemed natural.I have tried the other way but have no sucess what so ever and the odd thing is that I am right handed.

Really good job Ben! You're hearing it correctly and the bends and holes you reference are correct.The bends you play on the 3rd hole are sometimes right on pitch and othertimes only just a tiny bit off but it's no cause for concern because I can tell that you've got the right notes in your head and it's just a matter of being confident and anticipating hearing the note. With time, practice and repetition, the muscles and slight changes in embouchure that allow you to bend notes will execute them more automatically and with more precision. Even I didn't hit them 100% dead center every time in my demonstration. That first bend on the 3rd hole is especially tricky but control of the 3rd hole and the notes in it is essential. I can hear your foot tapping and you are playing on time. All of this is good and very encouraging. You've successfully made it to the starting line. You're playing the right notes in the right time sequence. Now the challenge is to make it more musical - make the notes flow and the phrases swing. Be patient. You're on the right track and doing very well.

Hi Ben ... SWEET !! I like how you are moving with the music and your low end tone.  The slide into the note around 0:33 is cool.  The more I watch Jerry, the more I realize how important tone, phrasing and timing is ... i.e. how each note is shaped.

On both your video and Jerry's lesson I really like that last riff to start the solo .... would be great to hear both of you guys improvise a chorus or two.

Great work!  I'm going to be practicing tonight!

@Mike...OK Key to the Highway.  That is a standard if there ever was one.  Haven't played it in years, but I am sure we can get to it here on Sonic Junction after awhile.  I like Brownie McGhee and SonnyTerry Version best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_xnOhXIpHg

I remember once I was playing a festival out on the West Coast somewhere.  There was a cat there, harmonica player, that I would see him at my gigs from time to time when I would travel out to California.  He obviously knew a lot about the music and loved it.  One night he showed up and just jumped up onstage.  He started playing, face all scrunched up like he was getting down all the way...except he was doing more honking than playing.  It was rough on the ears.  Ouch.  I ended the song early and told him thanks for coming up.  He tookthe cue and went into the crowd.  I think he was just happy to have been up there for a little while.  

I will put this one on the list.

@Mike...you welcome.  Music is a universal language, it's true.  I learned the wrong way too...still trying to get it right.  The more I live and play I realize that its just about the twelve notes in the scale and rhythms.  Thanks.

Hi Jerry.  Here’s my attempt at the Kidney Stew head -- from the May 17th lesson.  I’m curious to get any feedback on pitch, tone, rhythm, etc.  If my hearing is accurate, the five note riff that starts a short way into the head is: 3 draw 1^st bend -- 3 draw 2^nd bend -- 2 draw – 3 draw 2^nd bend – 2 draw.  That repeats and then the sequence ends on 2 draw then 2 blow.  I’m wondering if I’m accurate at least in my hearing of it.  My playing is another story -- I don't think I get all the bends quite right.  Would appreciate any brief thoughts you may have -- and from anyone else in the forum.  Thanks. -- Ben

I guess this is/was one of the great songs of Layla with Duane. Eric shows his grit and feel, which is about as good as it gets for me. I love Duane, mainly he did not miss a lick and was even pushing Eric. 

I have worked on this version and the crossroads one, which ard different. Plus Freddie Kings version. It just doesn't get any better. Love the blues and love the creative way that each artists can show their feel or personality. 

Thanks for your help. Good luck and keep on teachin us fella's how the great's do it and that we still each have our own feel.

Douglas Irwin

The point about listening to each other is crucial. Often, beginners are so wrapped up in their own performance that they don't listen to what's going on around them. You have to have one ear cocked to what the other guys are playing and, ideally, you play off of each other and if you like a riff or line that someone plays you might take that and put your own spin on it. It should be a mutually involving and evolving conversation.

Hey DadddyRay ... yeah, interactive listening is an important one from my perspective too.  

I use to play with a group of guys a couple years back and it was always cool during a jam when someone introduced an idea and the others built on it ... the real time creative process was just so exciting.  Totally immersive and joyful.

interactive listening.......folks that play with open ears and are trying to serve the music rather than show off.......people with proper time who create no pointless personal drama. 

I seem to remember seeing a YouTube of William Clarke, ran a search on the internet and found this link... there are a number of them:

  http://harp-l.org/pipermail/harp-l/2009-June/msg00477.html

Of the people you have played with through the years, what qualities separate the best people to play and create music with?

Duke this stuff is just what I have been looking for! I have books,DVDs,CDs but this lesson forum and the way you teach just clicks. I have been a fan for some time now and can't tell you how much these lesson's will add to my playing. Fans and bandmate's have already noticed and I have only spent a few hours on the site over the last few weeks, a year from now watch out!  

Hi Jerry,

             You knew Walter Horton, and I love the performance of, "Hoochie Coochie Man" you both played on "I'm Ready".  One of Walter's great harmonica playing attributes was his monster tone. Gary Primich once told me he thought Big Walter tongue blocked all the time, but I'd think Walter would have taken advantage lip blocking too when he thought it was the more appropriate embouchure.  Do you have any insights into what Big Walter did that helped him to create that memorable tone?   Thanks and best regards,  Allen  

Jerry is very good harmonica player and for me I would say as good as Little Walter are Big Walter, I learnt alot

from His three cds. and more from Sonic Juction.

Hi Thanks for that.Paul Butterfield is a longtime favourite.i am in exulted company.

Everyone has his personal likes and dislikes.  For me, the choice of songs for lessons has been great - Sonny Boy I, Little Walter, Sonny Boy II, a little Jimmy Reed, and so on.  There are certainly many other great songs he could teach us, but there has been a logical progression in the lessons that I have found very helpful.  Again, there is no right or wrong, but for me the sequence of lessons and choice of songs and artists has been right on.  Rich

Jerry is very good AND EXCELLENT in Teaching.I've learnt alot  on His C D S. His train song was great, and Juke very good.

But I'm not very happy in the tunes being played, There  very great tunes he could play. For me poor tunes.

I thnk I am going to get a tube amp - at this point, mainly for practice and to play at some low key jams.  I currently have a Pignose 30 which I like, but want a tube amp also.  I went to my local guitar center today and tried a couple of amps that were in my price range - $200 or less.  The one I liked the best was a used Peavey Classic 20.  It gave me what I think of being a real gritty Chicago blues sound.  It appeared to be in good condition and certainly worked well.  They want $190 for it and I put something down to hold it.  Does anyone have an opinion on this amp?  My google search seemed to indicate that a lot of people like this amp.  From what others have recommended, my other choices within my budget might be a Fender Champ 600, VHT Special 6, or Epiphone Valve Jr.  Thanks.  Rich

Hi thanks for answering.

I play the the base notes on my right hand side of my mouth.

@Corey ... Thanks!  That makes a lot of sense.  I like your analogy about not thinking about grammar or vocabulary when you speak.  

It's interesting in that the more I learn from you, Duke and Jerry ... the more convinced I am that I learned music the wrong way ... i.e. thinking of scales, tab, patterns etc.  Unfortunately, I think most people learn music the wrong way.

One thing I'm also noticiing by learning from you is that I'm starting to pick up little accents / phrasing's that you play ... which is again like language ... i.e. if I was in Ireland, Alabama, England, Boston Chicago or California ... the way I would speak English would be different.  I would be saying almost all the same words, but how I speak (my tone and phrasing) would be different.

Thanks!

@Jeff .. yeah, it's always good to know where you're going.  I need to do that more!