I had a singer fall off the stage drunk at a fairly big gig once....I opened for Pfunk which is crazy. Pfunk guys were scary to hang around and the crowd really did not want to sit through an opener...we played our set very up tempo that night and then hung out to watch the show. I have had some wonderful night hanging out with some of the jazz greats like Art Blakey Elvin Jones Percy Heath, Johnny Griffin etc. I had an amp fall over on my guitar and pop the bridge right off and all I had left was a guitar with high action for the slide tune opener....that sucked. 

Duke, you have such a joyful expression when you play. I love that.  Now you play with your eyes cloesed a lot. Have you ever had trouble with being cued by other band members since you have your eyes closed a lot?? I play with my eyes open and have had hassles trying to cue others when they have thier eyes closed. Do you have an ideas about addressing the guy with his eyes closed....Of course musical cues fix that but that is not available in all settings.

thanks.

rob

I always wanted to learn some of the Bobby Timmons' songs that he did with Art Blakey and the messenegers. Dat Dere, Moanin and so on. 

this was Pres's last performance.....I have learned a ton of licks from trombone players like Vic and Fred Welsey. Those lines like harp lines are reasonably easy to translate to guitar. Papa Jo Jones playing hroughout this Tv special is sublime...as usual. I come from a jazz family...Grandpa led jazz bands in chicago fromt eh 20s into the 70s and the whole family plays.

I am having a good deal of difficulty producing a tight seal with mu hands around my harp.  Let me preface this by mentioning tat my finger are extremely difficult to move around, and they are very bony due to the muscle atrophication that has occured as my condition has progressed.  In a nutshell, my ulnar nerves have been damaged and they no longer tell my brain to pump blood into my hands.  My hand and finger muscles are being starved to death.

Even with the muscle loss, I can still get a reasonable acoustic seal sometimes but not consistantly.  I can't get it at all if I use the stsndsrt thumb snf index finger pinch with thumb tip and finger tip at the same place on the harp.  To get a seal on the left hand, I have to extend my index finger two full joints beyound the tip of my thumb.  Otherwise the skin flap that used to contain robust muscle just hangs open, leaving a gap about the size of a half dollar that has been cut in half.  I can seal my right and left palm edges together, and continue that around nesting my thumbs together in a parallel direction, with my right thumb protruding beyond the left so that the indentation in my right thumb id fillef with the fst psrt of my right.  The left bird finger sits behind the harp, preventing it fro moving too deep into my cup, and it provides a place for my right thumb to try and seal things up.  On my best day I get a decent wah sound opening either my right thumb or my palm clam shell.  It's never consistent.

aaputting one of Greg's hand made bullet mics into the mix makes getting a good seal impossible.  Can you offer any suggestions to help my plight?  Hands are fairly large, even with the muscle and nerve damage.  The base of my palm to the tip of my bird finger id 7.25-inches, the bird finger itself is 3.125-inches, and my palm is 4-inches wide at the base of my fingers.  Hopefully that is enought to work with.

Thanks for looking!

Robert

Even though I have been playing professionally since 1994, there areCorey Harris fans out there who have followed my music but who often get confused whenever my band is onstage with me.  Seems that they have a hard time picking me out from the other members of my (all Black) band, even though none of us look anything like the other.  A few years ago we were somewhere in America and when we all came on stage I heard somebody say, "I didn't know Corey played bass!" when they saw the bass player (who was about 15 years older than me, taller and with a lot more gray hair).  It got to the point that we would wait and see how many people mistook the keyboard player or the bassist for me.  I would let the whole band get onstage before me to see who in the audience shouted out "Hey Corey!", thinking that I was already onstage.  Mistaken identity for real!

When I was with Muddy we were playing the Bottom Line in NYC and had a sold out show. His manager told him that Bob Dylan was in the house, and wanted to join Muddy onstage. Muddy had no idea who Bob Dylan was but his manager explained that Bob Dylan was a big star and there were photographers from Rolling Stone there and that it would be good publicity for Muddy to call him up. Muddy repeated the name a couple of times and said, "Okay." 

When the time came, Muddy shouted to the audience, "Ladies and gentleman we have a big star in the house and we're going to bring him out right now. Dylan's here - John Dylan, come out here John!"

I tried to hide my considerable amusement as John Dylan ambled onstage.

I use to work at a dance hall in the midwest called the Holleyhock ballroom. It was a time that bands played in these rural places because mtv and cable and tv were just coming into there own. Jerry lee lewis, the beach boys, red dogs and a lot more use to play in the place People even danced back then. I remmember one of the guitar players was getting into his lead playing so much. he fell off stage and landed just right that it ilooked like it was sopposed to be that way. I ask him after the dance and he said "No it was the luck of the draw. look at my nose this isnt the first time it happened. How I miss those old dances the player and the good people we use to meet....

Hi Mike,

I also wanted to mention that the future improvement you talk about above;having the ability to see the tab/chords in full screen mode would be another great enhancement.

Thanks,

Bill

Duke just has the audience right where he wants them. It's being able to create an atmosphere with the music, not just playing the notes that really defines the true masters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxYdQfm-UUc

Yet again, Iceman's take on things is essentially correct though, personally, I don't recommend tilting the harp. Whatever works though - the proof is in the sound. The basic problem is that, most likely, you don't have the harp deep enough in your mouth. When you play with pursed lips, your lips kind of keep the harp at a certain distance. Relax your mouth and put it deep enough in your mouth so that when you inhale or exhale you're hearing a full, rich 4 hole chord.

I assure you that your tongue is wide enough to cover three holes at once. Extensive scientific research has proven conclusively that this is so.

Tongue blocking is an essential technique of blues harmonica - especially the Chicago style. It's a technique that produces a certain sound, and the harmonica's capacity to make different types of sounds is one of it's great strengths. More sounds mean more choices of coloration or nuance to the way notes are played and this is valuable not only in the blues or country music but all types of music. 

Stay with it and you'll get it. Practice and patience pay off!

As usual, Iceman's comments are right on the mark. I never learned any scales, though I am not discounting their potential value. Practicing scales may help some with your facility but it's more essential to listen to classic examples of great blues and great blues harmonica to develop a feel for the music so you know what notes will sound good in what place - where to place the notes you choose. Then, if those notes are played with a good sound, you have everything you need to make good music. 

Thanks for the response Mike.

What I like about the new format is the fullscreen effect of course. I also like the looping controls. What is really nice though is that you guys have added the positions of the parts to loop on the screen. That's great! You don't have to keep trying to find the positions. You've got it all done for easy access. Very helpful!

As far as tab goes, I like to see the chords but when I use tab I prefer to load it into Guitar Pro and watch it. That way I can really see the phrasing on the notes. Otherwise, I just watch Duke play it. Having the ability to download tab in Guitar Pro format would be nice.

I really like the structure of Dukes latest Blues in E. He goes through the parts and then puts them all together in the end in a progression. It's one thing to play the parts but making a good sounding progression out of it takes some learning. I struggle with that.

He also explains exactly what he's playing in the Blues in E much more than he did with the BluesARama 1 lesson. Although, the new video format would really help those older lessons.

It's all about the music though. I love this music and it's great to have a place to learn it from one of the great ones!

Thanks Mike!

Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the thoughts.  I'm glad you like the new format.  I like it too!

To make sure I understand your perspective ... and we can build on it moving forward, what about the new format do you like?

Yes, we do want to migrate the older lessons to the new format ... and will.  But it may take some time and we want to continue to refine the new format before we migrate.  An example of a potential future improvement:  the ability to see the tab / chords in full screen mode.  I'm asking the above question to make sure we continue to improve it and don't make a change that move us backwards in some people's view.  While I'm at it ..

Any requests on how we structure the lessons to make them better?

Thanks!

Hi Corey,

What's in your mind when you play?  Do you see scales, hear notes, have a feeling, totally let go?  

Thanks!

Hi Iceman ... this is perhaps one of the best post I've read in a long time.  I've never done what you suggested ... just play a note through the progression and listen to the color .. but I WILL !!   My challenge is turning the notes I play into music ... and this approach really resonates with me.  Thanks!

WOW !!  Great playing.  Really shows how you can make the harmonica sing.  It's so human .. beautiful.

For inserting the video ... sometimes YouTube puts extra information in the URL which messes up our YouTube video inserter.  I've put it on  our list to recognize and deal with it automatically.  Thanks for calling this out Rich.

What's musical moment makes you laugh the most when you look back on it?  

For me .. I use to play with a group at a friends house every Wed night.  We played mostly classic rock material ... which included Smoke on the Water.  My friend had a Spring Reverb tank plugged into a cranked amp and at the end of his solo he hit the top of it with his fist.  It created a GIANT thunder crash that distorted through the amp ... and setup this amazing feedback loop back-through his guitar, the reverb tank, the amp, the guitar.  After a couple seconds we all stopped playing and just listened to the feedback take these weird amorphic turns for about a minute.  At then end we just looked at each other and laughed for 5 minutes ...

Certainly I'd never heard of him until someone on a list sent a link to this video.  He played in the 30s -50s, and apparently most of his work is in first position in the high register.  This song, which is St. James Infirmary under another name, is in fourth position on a Bb harp. 

 (I tried to use the button to insert the video but must have done something wrong so I posted this link instead.)

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4orCmvgijn8&feature=relmfu[/video]

Hi Mike,

Is there any chance you could go back and put the older Duke lessons in the new video format? Those lessons are so good but it's just so much more user friendly using the new video format. It would be extremely appreciated!

Thanks,

Bill

thanks jerry potnoy, i guess third position is yet another nunce of the harmonica to try to learn and possibly master some day . :)

Third position fits "The Thrill is Gone" and many other B.B. King tunes. It's a very good position for songs in a minor key. Just play a harp that's tuned one whole step below the key of the song, so if the song is in the key of B you would play an A harp. If the song is in C you would play a Bb harp, etc.

i was thinking ab for Bb,,

but recently on rocksmith the thrill is gone was played in first position on the b note on the e string which tells me their version is in the key of b.

so that would mean i would need an f harp to go with b blues with the key bb is playing right ?

i can't really find an answer online  about what keys does bb play mostly in.

I guess the question is did bb king play in the standard keys of a, e, as much as b, eb, and bb?

also the thrill is gone is in bm ,, is there any good harmonica that play in bm and if so would you just buying it for that one song ?

I been watching your takes on learning the harp via aids, and your approach to the harp.

I didn't see any blues scale mentioned in the bending video, or the pursing.

did i miss it ? (if so what lesson do you recommend for it?)

quick little note here, i praticed at a band and i just did riffs, licks, and tricks like trills/tremelo and a lot of bending. i currently don't know any songs as well but everyone said i sounded awesome, and people were shocked so i was inspired and here i am.

i got the books , teach yourself blues harp, learn chicago blues, the harmonica by glenn wiser, and tom ball.

so i been praticing the blues scale for two days straight (half hour each ) on a g special 20, and blues harp d harp.

i was inspred as one of the books said that a blues songs the majority of it was in the blues scale and the rest of it was in passing tones etc.

should one keep praticing the blues scales ? I been breaking it up into the patterns taught by phil duncan in the book so i am interested to hear your take on how essential is the blues scale knowledge to a player ?.

I break the blues scales pattern up in terms of 1,3b, instead of notes and wondered why no one incorpates the 6th , (5 hold blow) into their solo that much, or is that a mistake on my thinking since it isnt' in the blue scales. ?