Latin American diatonic for the uninitiated

To witness Cuba’s musical pulse first hand and sip Mojitos in the sweat of Havana’s Bar Montserrate is privilege enough, but to sit in with the house band Sabor de Cuba, play the diatonic harmonica and get out alive? Ay Caramba! That’s the stuff of dreams.

The Montserrate is a tourist magnet for genuinely good reason. Kitsch-free, under a blanket of humidity and aromatic cigar smoke, the throb of its acoustic Latin music is quite simply mesmerising. Add a splash of Ron Cubano, a serpentine twist of Salsa dancing and you have all the ingredients of an impromptu Latin fiesta. Next time you’re in town, drop in and join the party.

During a break in the music, house vocalist Luis Franklin presented the band’s bongo drums to guests sitting at the bar. Stepping up, the Good Doctor patted a rhythm across the skins which drew a nod of approval from Luis. Followed by an offer of sale. Sadly a shortfall in funds and luggage space forestalled business and in broken Spanish the Doc explained he too was a poor musician. What do you play? Luis asked. The Doc produced a lone Lee Oskar diatonic from his bag.

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My, what a good time for an album review

Writing about Jason Ricci has been on my agenda more or less since I started blogging on the Harp Surgery. It’s odd, really, that he doesn’t get much airtime here, considering he’s one of the most phenomenal players alive AND his unsolicited praise adorns our sidebar. In fact, the first gig review Wilf ever did for this website was Jason Ricci but that was years ago. It’s high-time we checked in on him again.

So today I’m finally going to review Jason’s album, Done with the Devil. What finally got me off the couch (figuratively anyway) was the news that he’s had a bad run of luck recently. We saw reports in June, and a great deal of speculation, that there had been some reshuffles in, or departures from, his (very very good) band, New Blood – and that all engagements were on hold ‘til August. On top of that his website is down, he’s in hospital with a punctured lung and no health insurance, and a series of financial calamities seem to have come calling at just the wrong time.

And because Jason Ricci is to 21st century harmonica what sliced bread was to sandwiches, I’ll make a suggestion of what you can do to help. Read more…

How to fix a broken 4 hole harmonica

From time to time a harmonica can stop doing what it should do. Instead of playing clear notes, one reed sounds a bit strange. It may rattle, it may not play at all or, as one of our junior players recently discovered, a duck had climbed inside his harmonica. Blow hole 4 made a beautiful quack!

Since the 4 hole Hohner Speedy does not come in its own case, the problem is usually caused by a piece of dust or a small flake that has become trapped under the reed. Occasionally a reed can just get stuck. Sometimes it goes out of tune because the metal has started to fatigue – it’s too tired to carry on and it’s ready to snap off. Read more…

A guide to straight blues harping

In Part 1 we looked at an overview of first position. We considered why it may be something blues players put off till later. We noted that 1st position blues mainly comprises deep low end draw bends and confident high end blow bends, and that the middle octave has little to offer to those who cannot overbend.

We also recommended that blues players develop the ability to identify positional playing by ear. This isn’t as hard as you might believe. It’s like birdsong. You could probably recognise the call of an owl, a seagull or a finch right? Well the three principal blues harp positions also have their own signatures.

In this, the second part of our series, we look at the bottom end blues scale in 1st position and its trade licks. Meantime here’s more of our series theme tune from Nine Below Zero. The song is called Doghouse and it’s from their second album, Don’t Point Your Finger.

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As I was walking down Paradise Street

Welcome to the Toot Suite where junior harmonica players can have fun learning to play new songs, checking out top harmonica tips and sharing some crazy harmonica facts that will amaze and amuse.

Here’s another tune you may know. It’s a Sea Shanty sung by Sailors and Pirates. It only uses three holes but there is one jump to learn if you want the song to sound right. Take your time. See how clearly you can play each note.

We have chopped the tune up into small chunks to help you. Click the green button to hear each chunk.

Purple music is for four hole harmonicas. Orange music is for ten hole harmonicas. A number tells you which hole to play. D is draw (breath in). B is blow (breath out). Let’s listen to the whole tune first.

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