How can I sound like a blues player when playing harmonica.?
I absolutely love the blues harmonica, especially as played the Chicago bluesmen. I went to my music store and bought a Horner mouth organ. Despite all my musical efforts I somehow haven’t yet worked out how that wailing sound is achieved. Can anyone out there in this wonderful cyberworld tell me the secret.
it’s a question of practicing,practicing and some more preacticing.
if your talking about the distorted sound that’s so typical for chicago style that’s a case of having a good bullet microphone and a tube amp
first of all you need to play cross harp that means mainly sucking the air into the harp then it’s a case of mastering a few basic effects (slide, trill, bending,…) and a lot of practice
Categories: blues
To do blues bends, you have to learn to pull your tongue down and toward the back of your throat. You can cheat a little while you learn by tilting the harp down. Basically you are changing the stream of air to run over the reeds inside the harmonica differently. Realize that most harmonica bends are down bends which is a little different than guitar which is up bends. Usually do it on the draw on the holes toward the middle for the easiest and most dramatic effect.
Also it is pretty easy to learn a trill. Just pucker your lips so that you are drawing air through only one hole. Then slide the harmonica quickly back and forth with another hole. This is really great if you learn to bend at the same time.
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I figured out how to do this one evening and was really happy.
Check out Youtube for lessons.
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it’s a question of practicing,practicing and some more preacticing.
if your talking about the distorted sound that’s so typical for chicago style that’s a case of having a good bullet microphone and a tube amp
first of all you need to play cross harp that means mainly sucking the air into the harp then it’s a case of mastering a few basic effects (slide, trill, bending,…) and a lot of practice
References :
Great techniques above. Now practice sounding like a train. No kidding. Get that down and you just about got it!
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