Harmonica Difficulty

I know this is going to sound like a player saying it’s easy because I know how but the reason I took up the harp is because of how EASY it is to learn and play. There are 4 difficult things about playing the harmonica which I will address later. I’m going to start with why harmonica is EASY.

Yes Harmonica Is Easy!

Keys

First things first. Lets get rid of the confusion. You don’t play harmonica, you play HARMONICAS. There are 12 (More in fact) harmonicas. One for each key. While a piano or guitar plays all keys on one instrument harmonicas play one key per instrument.

What does this mean to you? Two things in fact. One is you choose which which harp to play based on the key so you don’t need to figure out which part of the instrument and which combinations to play to sound right. Second, you learn one way to play on harp and it’s good for all songs in all keys. Just switch harps when you get a new song in a different key and play the same way. nothing new to learn. No new scales, no new techniques. It’s like having 12 guitars all tuned to a different key. you just won’t need a panel truck to carry them around.

Positions

The next cool thing that makes harmonica easy is positions. Straight harp, cross harp, slant harp, or first, second and third position. there are more but I will stick with these. In a nutshell, different positions allow you to play the same harmonica in different scales. What does that mean to you? It’s a fancy way of saying start in a different spot if you are playing a different kind of song. If you are playing blues, start in second position, cross harp and if you are doing something in a minor key, start in third position, slant harp.

Why is this easy? You can cheat with your harmonica case. I set mine up so when I get told what key a song is in I find the key, move one to the left, use that harp and start on the 2 hole draw. If it’s minor key blues I find the key, move 2 to the left and start on the 4 hole blow. Doing it that way makes things much easier.

Layout

When you play the harmonica there are certain sweet spots to play in. 2 through 6 for blues and 4 through 9 for minor key blues. You can go outside those holes when you get to know your way around the harp but it’s hard to go wrong when sticking with those sweet spots. It works with nothing fancy.

What Are The Tough Things

One Hole Playing

You can play chords fairly easily but it gets kind of mushy. Learning to play one hole is the first tough thing you need to learn. It will take time to get you mouth to work right but once you get it, one hole just gets easier and easier. It takes practice. There is no way around it.

Bending

Bending is a pain to learn. you just have to mess with it and mess with it until you get it. There are cheats that make it a bit easier to figure out but in the end it is another thing you just need to work at.

Tongue Blocking

Tongue blocking allows you to do advanced chord structures and cool techniques. You need to know it. I don’t but I’m working on it. That being said, I get paid to play harmonica and I don’t know how to do it so take from that what you will.

Overblowing

You can play any song on any harmonica using overblowing and bending. It’s cool. It allows you more variability and gives you some great techniques. You can also be inducted into the Overblowing Snob club. I get it, it’s great for your bag of tricks. Build on the basics first, then expand on the basics. Then work on your style and your repertoire. Then go back to basics. Then get creative with it. Then start worrying about all the cool things you can do with overblowing. Then Buy an amp and a mic and forget you ever heard of overblowing. Then when someone talks about overblowing, pull out your chromatic that you also learned how to play while they were working on their overblowing techniques.

Get to it

Why are you sitting around reading articles on how easy it is to play? Go and practice. Give it a month. I believe anyone can Learn Harmonica In 30 Days!

So Holland K. Smith wandered in to the Caddie and I got to jam with him again.
Oh, and I did my first professional gig today.

The guitarists are all 15 I believe, the drummer was out at the jam for his 13th birthday. They are  Thomas Dawson, Brandon Katona, Alex Dowidchuk & Jonah Salen.

I have noticed a rise in traffic on my site over the past couple of years and I think this may have something to do with it.

For you harp players out there, I know there isn’t any harmonica playing in this video but you can cope. In fact, I encourage you to help a young kid take up harmonica. This band needs a harp player and you will be investing in the next generation.

Merry Christmas

Give a Kid a harmonica

In desperation I found myself wandering around Best Buy and and eyeing with greedy stares the the Same Samson Mic I bought for playing harp. I figured I could hook them up in a pair and get stereo that way. They’ve been doing that for years. Then my sickly wanting gaze fell upon the blue star… er… Samson Zoom H1.

At $99 it was within my budgetary constraints (well not quite), and it fit the bill perfectly. If it was anything like It’s big brother, the Zoom H4n I would be set. I dropped the coin and picked up the last one on the rack.

I prayed that it wouldn’t be the disappointment the pocket memo recorder was (that’s a different story and involves the loss of some nice interviews). I pulled out some cables and my Kodak and headed to the Caddy for the jam.

The Zoom H1 has some really cool things and  some stuff that bugs me but, since I’m the kind of guy that always has a gripe (the lack of aperture control and manual zoom on my Kodak Zi8 for instance.. still love the camera) so, don’t take the negatives as hatred.

The Good

Mic quality is real good and it gets great stereo. The sound is full and cuts room noise. I recorded a band in a room full of people

and got a great recording. This is Kent Woodruff singing and playing harp in that room. It’s a tough room to mic too. The PA system is hung overhead and the band is set up with amps on the ground in behind them on the wall. The drummer isn’t mic’ed so in order to get the best audio, you have to be in the middle of the room… in the middle of the crowd. Once you get the record input set right it works like a charm. There is an issue when you hook it up to the camera but I will get to that later.

I like that it’s not just a stereo mic but also a recorder. It records in mp3 and wav format and has simple yet effective recording controls. This thing is great for recording mp3s for release. Set it up in front of you, hang a few carpets on the walls and record away. If you are shooting video, the record function gives you a great layer of redundancy. If you don’t get the video (like I did, I forgot to check my camera and it didn’t have memory in it) you still get an audio track. If there’s a problem with the audio on your video you can dub in the recording in post and save the video.

It has a headphone jack that I split and run to my camera. I can monitor with my headphones while recording direct sync to video, sweet! The one hitch is you have to control the headphone output to the camera or it might overdrive the cameras mic input and cause distortion. The first videos I shot with it had this problem. I didn’t know about it until I was back at the house checking my videos. the mp3s on the H1 were great quality so if I had really needed to, I could have dubbed in the better quality mp3 on the video.

Something to watch for is the quality you’re recording at on the H1. By default, it records at low quality so bump it up to get the best sound.

It takes 1 AA battery and gives 10 hours worth of recording time. It doesn’t have the ability to run on external power from what I can tell. I will mess with the USB and see what I can find out.

The Bad

There is a mic/line in on the side of the Zoom H1 and it overrides the input from the on board stereo mics. Unless there is a setting I missed that would allow me to mix it in. It isn’t a big gripe but I would lover to be able to mic a singer as well as record the band in stereo. It’s big brother the H4n can do this so why not this little beauty? That’s pretty much the only major gripe I have.

The Ugly

My father always said, “The problem with cheap plastic furniture is it’s cheap and plastic.” Cheap and plastic come to mind when looking at this thing. Will I overcome the pain? Yes, it is a great package and at $99. If it breaks in a drop, it won’t break the bank to replace.

It records to MicroSD. I don’t mind MicroSD but I would have preferred a standard size. Would it have given it that unsightly a bulge? Not a big deal but I like to whine.

Where To From Here?

Wireless. The 3 ways I can set this thing up are: 1) hooked to the camera 2) set up on a tripod in front of the subject with a long cable to the camera and 3) disconnected from the camera to be dubbed in in post.

If I could go wireless and be able to record directly to my camera, I would be a happy man. There was a time, before bluetooth, before wireless headphones when there were adapters you could hook to your headphones and to you home stereo. That would be perfect if I could find one.

The other idea is the mp3 player adapters that broadcast on FM. You know the ones, they allow you to use your mp3 player on your cheap old car stereo. Get one of those and a one of those little FM stereos, broadcast from the Zoom H1 and hook the FM stereo to the camera. I just don’t trust tech that super cheap. It’s worth a try I guess.

Can you guys think of anything?

I think it’s a basic that needs to be learned. The only problem is the overblow. It’s not uncommon but it’s not a beginner technique. I searched Youtube and found the video below.

Thanks to harpfriends for putting this up. Here’s the tabs for the harmonica notes he put with it:

Basic Boogie Woogie Without Overblows!

Bar1
-2 -3 -4 +5
Bar2
-5 +5 -4 -3
Bar 3
(repeat bar 1)
Bar 4
(repeat bar 2)
Bar 5
+4 +5 +6 +5
Bar 6
(repeat bar 5)
Bar 7
(repeat bar 1)
Bar 8
(repeat bar2)
Bar 9
-4 -4 -4 -4
Bar 10
+4 +4 +4 +4
Bar 11
-2 -3 +4 -3
Bar 12
-2 +2 -1 -1

Enjoy! It’s what I’m going to be practicing.

http://johnniered.com/

Marketing, medium and manufacturing changes are at the core. I am going to touch on how an artist can and probably should make money these days. Why the perception of the value of recorded music is fundamentally a mistake and what has changed about manufacturing to change the way we make money.

Marketing Your Music

As a musician that NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD OF, I see my primary goal as promotion. I look at my music as a marketing tool. There are 3 parts to the new music marketing system, recorded music, live music and adapted music.

Live Music

When I get up to play, I am advertising that I am a musician to the people in the room. My goal is to get them to recognize me as a musician and lock them into the next step of my marketing, making contact. I am looking to put together a band. For non-musicians, I want them signing up for my email list. If they like my performance, they might be interested in going to another one. The email performs another job, getting people to my web site. I have advertising here and I may be able to make some money that way. At the very least, they become regulars here which is cool with me I like them stopping by.

Recorded Music

Recorded music is probably the MOST CONTROVERSIAL part of my position. OOOH controversy. Recorded music is not a product but an example of an experience that they can have in person. Remember, the goal is to build a market for yourself. The market is your fans. The cost for a major band like Metallica to produce an album is the same or cheaper than the cost of a superbowl ad. Superbowl ads are given away. They are used to build brand. Major companies pay millions to produce superbowl adds so they can get their product in front of the eyes of the public. A recording does the same thing, it gets your music to the public. Recording music today costs far less than it used to and bands like Metallica spend so much money on recording because they CAN, not because they have to. Jim Morrison recorded LA Woman in a bath tub with carpet hanging from the walls. The expensive part was the specialized equipment. Equipment we no longer need. The same equipment we use to play live, we can use with a computer to record at home.

Because of this cost advantage coupled with the portability of the end product, it is ideal for promotion. Attach it to an email and send it to all those people on your email list. Offer it as a give away when they sign up for your email list. It is a small file and can be emailed, shared and reproduced easily. It is viral marketing at it’s best. You record it with a short introduction to you and the song and hope that everyone gives it to everyone else. The more it’s shared, the better. The better it is and you are, the more it spreads, the more people hear about you and like what you have to offer, the more fans and therefore potential income it can generate. You can make more money by giving away your music than by selling it.

Adapted Music

If someone likes your song and does it themselves. This is a whole different creature. This is where copyright is a good thing. If someone benefits from your original work you should get a cut. When you start out though, it might be good just to have the recognition. “This is a song by XXXXX.” can have more value than them paying you to sing your song.  Depending on your level of fame of course.

The Mistake is the Medium

Record companies are promoters. They market musicians. Their goal is to make money from musicians popularity. I won’t run down the different costs of a music CD but the Record Company makes far more than the musicians, manufacturers or anyone else involved. That is how they make their money. Musicians on the other hand, make most of their money from performing and selling other merchandise. Record Companies make their money from album sales. When people share, they don’t make money. The reason it is such a problem for them now is because it is so easy to share.

Sharing music used to mean having a recording and a tape deck that could reproduce that recording. It meant the individual needed infrastructure that was specialized in order to share. That isn’t true anymore. Even so, sharing music has been commonplace since the 70′s. Most everyone had a home made cassette recording of an album. We listened to it until it wore out or got recorded over. It’s how we decided if we wanted the album or not. We made copies of our favorite songs and shared them with friends without fear of prosecution. File sharing is the same thing

How Did the Record Companies Get So Confused?

About 100 years ago, sound recording was invented. It gave people the ability to hear performances recorded by anyone, anywhere at any time. The medium was exclusive though. It wasn’t easy to reproduce recordings. Record companies filled that niche. They recorded and mass produced copies of performances that they then distributed everywhere they could. Some performers they paid, others they didn’t. They weren’t selling the music, they were selling the medium it was recorded on. They would manufacture more of the recordings that sold well, made new recordings of the performers that people liked and searched for new performers to produce and sell. In order to make sure that no rival companies could take their market, they had performers sign exclusive contracts. Eventually, they got to the point where they controlled popular music by promoting their artists and locking out others.

They got in a lot of trouble for doing this in the 50′s.

This system didn’t change until the 70′s when home recording equipment began to significantly drop in price due to advancements in technology. It was all over for them even then. They just didn’t know it. They also had by this time confused the medium with the information on it. They now believed that they sold music when in fact they sold vinyl and magnetic tape. Time was against them though. It was becoming easier and cheaper to share music.

When digital recordings appeared in the 80′s it was over for them. The information had been separated from the medium, but they saw was increased profits. It was so cheap and easy to put the information on the CD. All that was left was to be able to transport the information without having to get up from the chair and the internet was just around the corner. It allowed people to share that information without having to leave your seat and you could do it with many people at once. We didn’t need a dedicated medium any more.

The record company had outlived its usefulness.

Manufacturing Technology

While Manufacturing technology has screwed the record companies it has empowered musicians. Manufacturing has changed the way we make money. It costs less to produce products and has also made it so we can produce more scalable quantities. You can produce very small quantities products to sell to clients. you can print out heat transfers and iron them on to shirts to sell at your next concert. You can make, shirts, stickers, posters and CDs in the comfort of your own home on your computer. You can set up an online store that sells them as well. If you sell anything online, you can run off a copy and ship it in an afternoon. That’s good when you have 10 people a gig buying your stuff but what about if you get popular and have 50 a gig buying? Mass manufacturing is cheaper and more scalable too. At 10 a night, you can produce shirts at home for about $5 an item. When you have 50 a night, outsource to a silkscreener for about $5 a shirt. It’s true across the merchandising board. What’s really nice about it is there are lots of guys out there who have low cost setups that would be happy to do it for you for a cut of the profits so you don’t have to worry about it yourself.

Fans

Music should be free. You can’t stop it from being given away and why would you want to. It costs very little to produce and the benefits gained far outway the costs. It probably costs less then those little advertising cards you put on car windshields to promote your concerts. The best way to build success as a musician is to build a community of fans. Fans will come back over and over again and provide help and support over and above the money they spend on your merchandise. They promote you in ways you never could. These are people that care about you and what you love to do. Give them the tools to spread the word about you. Reward them for being your fans. They will reward you many times over for it.

I sound a little like an infomercial. The Danelectro Honeytone N-10 Guitar Mini Amp. I stumbled on it as I was surfing around the intertubes. It’s a little belt clip guitar amp that runs on a 9 volt battery.

Is it sturdy?  No

Does is feedback easy? yes

Is it loud? kinda

Is it compact? yup

Does it look good? hell yeah

Is it cheap? HELL YES

At $20, I’ve used pay toilets that cost more.

Look, the truth is, if you’re at an open mic night or blues jam, sometimes they amplify. Sometimes there are 3 people singing and you can’t  get a mic that’s hooked up to a PA. If you’re like me, 2 big reasons you got into playing harmonica, were cheap and compact. This amp fits the criteria. If you kill it, buy a new one. They don’t have the best sound but that gives your harp playing a bluesy edge. It will give you that little extra punch to be heard without counting on someone elses equipment.

So, what am I plugging into my new little amp? The Shure 57? The 58? The Green Bullet? Nope I went on the cheap for that too. I picked up a Samson R31S Hyper-cardioid  Dynamic Mic. Yup, I went cheap on that too. $20-$30 anywhere you go. I bought mine off the shelf at Best Buy. It’s a pretty good mic for $25. It comes with its own cable that plugs in to it. The mic has the standard 3 prong XLR mic connector on the end so it takes the standard mic cable. the cable that comes with it has that on one side and a 1/4 inch phone jack on the other end so right out of the box it hooks up to an amp. The Samson and the Honeytone sound pretty good together and pump out the sound when I’m walking around the house. I’ll give It a proper try tonight night at open Mic.

I will say this, $50 for both mic and amp sure beats the hell out of  $119 for a Green Bullet and $80 for the Fender Champion 30. This does NOT mean I won’t be blowing $200 some odd bucks on the Green Bullet/ Champ Combo at some point. I just don’t think the expense is warranted for my skill level. I just want autonomous amplification sometimes.

One more thing, I would have put a package deal together fo both of them but you can only get the amps at music stores and no self respecting music store, online or otherwise will stock anything Samson. It might be that Samson doesn’t sell to them… I don’t know.

But I’m rambling. Here’s the video.