At 15, I worked as a camp counselor. My boss had a harp he let me borrow. Instead of looking at it for a minute, I went to a corner and jammed for half an hour. 6 months later I was with a friend at a bookstore. There was
Jon Gindicks' Country and Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless, a book that came with a tape and a harp for $14. My friend said, "There's something flaky you would do." I had the money, which at 15 years old was a minor miracle. "You'll never get anywhere with that," he said. The moment I played it, I knew it was my thing. I was gigging a year later.
with the bass harmonica and microphone, aka the electric ham sandwich
I was conceived in Memphis. I was born in Livingston, New Jersey on November 6th, 1969
0-8 years old West Orange, New Jersey
8-12 years old Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
12-17 years old Larkspur, Marin County, California (Home of the BLUES!)
17-21 years old Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, California with summers in the Malibu mountains
21-22 years old New Orleans, Louisiana
22-23 years old Santa Rosa, California and one half of a year busking in Europe
23-28 years old Austin, Texas
28-30 years old Houston, Texas, New Haven, Connecticut and New York, New York playing in the orchestra of a pre-Broadway and Broadway show, the Tony-nominated "The Civil War"
I listened to many recordings and live shows and played at jams and gigs. I've talked to most of the famous harp players and gotten advice, most notably from Rick Estrin, Gary Primich, Eugene Huggins, and Andy J. Forest. I've gone to a bunch of harmonica conventions, most notably The Augusta Heritage Festival Blues Week, SPAH, and the Kerrville Folk Festival. I took 3 jazz improv semesters in college, Sonoma State University, on chromatic. I took another semester's worth at Austin Community College playing one diatonic harmonica fully chromatically. In college, I also took chorus and ear training. I've taken piano, electric bass, mandolin, and vocal lessons. I have taken one or two private harp lessons from Gary Primich, Sam Barry, Adam Gussow, Paul Oscher, Dennis Gruenling, and Wim Dijkgraaf. I continue to study Pre-war style harmonica with David Kachalon and chromatic harmonica with Bill Barrett, both for many years.
Let me be clear, I do not think music is all about theory. My private students learn physical techniques, jamming, songs, and harmonica history and create a personal musical philosophy that will guide their sound and yes, theory.
When I say theory, I mean how to choose good-sounding notes.
I learned theory from playing in clubs, not from a textbook. Musicians would communicate with each other and after a while, I learned what words meant by the sounds musicians played in response to the words. Let's call it club theory. Almost every working musician knows club theory, about as much as I do. Often singer-songwriters who lead the bands do not know it, but they pay the other musicians to know it well enough to follow them.
Quite often I would be one of many teachers at a seminar or be in the audience and would experience this:
Teacher: So when the flat third raises to the major third...
Student: What is a flat third?
Teacher: Oh, that's theory. You don't need theory. So, when the flat third raises to the major third...
It really made me mad. The teacher learned club theory because he had enough raw talent to get hired for gigs and started speaking the theory language by being immersed in it. Because he understands it, he assumes it is common knowledge, but it is not. Many people do not have the raw talent necessary to get good enough to start gigging right away, at least not without lessons. The student is left in the dust because the teacher hasn't learned to explain theory. So I decided to change all that.
I am starting a theory revolution.
I want everyone who wants to understand club theory to be able to do it. I am not talking about jazz or classical theory, although if you want to understand that, I can teach you.. I am talking about enough theory to communicate during a blues, rock, folk, punk, reggae or country gig.
Many of my YouTube videos are all about theory. They are collected in order in this website.
Although other harmonica teachers explain theory, I believe I have a way of explaining that is easy to understand.
The diatonic harp (10 hole blues harp) played fully chromatically, chromatic harp, bass harp, harmonetta, chord harp, mandolin, vocals, electric bass, keyboards, melodica, kazoo, various other flutelike instruments and percussion.
What does it mean to play the diatonic harmonica fully chromatically?
Diatonic means referring to one scale. All of the notes built into a C diatonic harmonica are pooled from the C major scale, which sounds like Do re mi fa sol la ti do beginning on C. Chromatic means containing all 12 notes of the Western scale. When the diatonic harp was invented, it did not include many of the notes on the keyboard. It could be played in only a few keys and even then with limitations. Players discovered that you could lower pitches to another note. This is called bending. Bending occurs on the draw notes (inhale notes) from holes 1-6 and on the blow notes from holes 7-10. This added many notes but still many were missing. Then players discovered you could sharpen pitches to another note. This is called overblowing, which can be done on the blow notes from holes 1- 6 and the draw notes from holes 7-10. Do not be confused, if you are lowering pitches by blowing on holes 7-10 this is not overblowing, it is high-note blow bending. With bending and overblowing it is possible to play all the notes a keyboard has, therefore allowing the player to play any style in any key.
For customized harmonicas, I use Joe Spiers Stage 3 Special 20s. I use a Tom Halchak Blue Moon harp and some Greg Jones 16:23s.
My favorite out-of-the-box harmonicas are Hohner Crossovers, but I use Thunderbirds and Special 20s. I use Seydel Blues Session Steeles and 1847 Low Tones Low Bodies
I regularly use country-tuned harps for 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th positions. I have some harmonic minor harps, some natural minor harps, , some X Reeds, some XB 40s, a Trochilus Blues tuning, a Sub 30, some Gazell Tunings, a Will Wilde harp, a Power Bender, a couple of Suyash Kumar’s tuned harps, and a diminished tuning.
This is just the beginning of my collection, but these are the harps that get played.
Do you perform and record with the bass harmonica?
Yes. I highly recommend this sound for your studio recordings. To get a sense of it, I recorded a full album with The Susquehanna Hat Company, named For the Love of the River. It is streaming.
A harmonetta is a combination of an accordion and harmonica. You blow and draw to activate the reeds but push buttons with your fingers to choose what notes to play.
It allows for a great rhythm instrument for jazz music, which uses complex multi-note chords because you can play any combination of notes as long as you have
enough fingers. I was tutored at SPAH by the great Bob Herndon and practiced a lot in order to back up the jazz guys at SPAH. (SPAH is the biggest harmonica convention in North America).
I do all three. As a teacher, I will teach all three methods but not insist upon mastering all three. Having fun is the main goal. However, I will explain which sounds can only be achieved by each embouchure.
I use a boom stand, 57 or 58 vocal mic, and a PA system (you or the club provide the PA system) for my acoustic sound. Although I have many mics and highly recommend both Greg Heumann’s Blowmeawayproductions.com and Dennis Gruenling’s Badassharmonica.com I mostly use a Shure Bullet Shell from the 40s with a modern Japanese crystal element. For bigger gigs and the electric harp on my debut solo album, I’ll Worry If I Wanna I use a Gibson GA-40. For smaller gigs, I use a Supro that is so old the information has been worn off.
I play all kinds. Over the years I have performed in blues, gospel, punk, rock, reggae, country, jazz, spooky, folk, funk, classical, Broadway, opera, etc..
