3 P Blues Hard Copy new 11/10/12 This song is a study of what harp players call "third position." It is playing with hole 1, 4 & 8 inhale becoming your new "home" or "root note." Third position was first recorded by Little Walter in December, 1951 and has become a part of nearly every professional’s sound and style, being used somewhere from 10% to 25% of the time. It can become very helpful when navigating through minor key songs but as this piece shows, does not necessarily have to be used exclusively as minor. It works with all blues. Set in cludes 23 tracks and 7 pages of instruction sheets.
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4-H Blues Hard Copy This song is a melodic blues with four variations and one solo tht is a detailed study in playing all the available notes on hole 4 of your "C" and "F" harps. While many people would agree that hole 4 is the easiest to bend, my experiences is that not enough players can bend it consistently with skill and confidence. When you can play this on "C," try it on the notorious "F" harp. Please note that the individual pages are only played on the "C" harp. Instruction set includes 30 tracks and 7 instruction sheets.
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5-P Blues Hard Copy new 11/10/12 This song will help you to play in what is known to most harp players as 5th position. Instead of having the 2 hole inhale as your root, it is now your 2 hole exhale. This position is great for minor keys as the flat 3rd, flat 6th and flat 7th are readily available. While this particular arrangement will work great for "C#m," it also works just as well for the key of "C#," more commonly known as "Db." Your greatest challenge on this piece will be to avoid the "danger tones" which are 1 & 4 exhale and 5 inhale. This piece will also work without a "Quick IV."
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B. S. Blues Hard Copy This song is a study in the six not blues scale. This is one of my more difficult songs due to the exacting bends needed on hole three. If your bends here are weak or sloppy, the minor key blues will not likely work as well for you as the standard blues, which is more forgiving of sloppy bends. Being able to confidently and accurately play the blues scale will add many possiblilites to your playing, including playing over minor keys. . . .
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B1 Blues Hard Copy This study song uses a common riff based off the notes in the Major 6 chord of the chord change. Many other commom blues licks are used in the body of the piece. It is named after the famous "B1" blues room at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago.
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Bhumba Rhumba Hard Copy This song is a study in the straight eighth rumba groove which is NOT a
shuffle or swing type of groove. The rumba groove is most commonly
characterized by the riff played on page 1 and 8. This is a groove that
should be in every blues harp players repertoire. . . .
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Big Jim's Blues Lesson Hard Copy Intermediate Instruction - This lesson is a five chorus instrumental
designed for an intermediate player to help develop techniques and
abilities that can put the player on a path to better understand the
traditional blues harmonica sound. This piece is a slow, low-down, Delta
type of blues that exclusively uses the 6 note blues scale and heavily
focuses on full bends on holes number 2 and number 4.
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Boot Camp Tramp Hard Copy This song is a study of the straight eighth (NOT a shuffle) groove most
commonly known as the "Tramp" groove from the song "Tramp," popularized
by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. . .
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Buffalo Shuffle-O Hard Copy This song is a Chicago style song that uses a very common blues type of melodic head on the 1st & 6th chorus. You will hear influences by Big Walter and Little Walter. . .
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Bye Bye Byrd Lesson Hard Copy This is a beginning-intermediate, 6 chorus instrumental that focuses on the style of harp legend Rice Miller and designed to help develop techniques and abilities that can put the player on a path to better understand the blues harmonica sound.
Lesson includes the song played acoustically and played amplified in it's complete form. . . .
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Chasin' Lost Sonny Hardcopy added 11/24/24 Please note that there are two things different about this song, “Chasin' Lost Sonny.”
First, it is twice the price. That is because it was at least twice as hard to prepare as anything else here in the Filisko Store.
The second is that there is not a single defined final arrangement for the song but instead, numerous building blocks that you will need to arrange into your own version of Sonny's stylistic. If you goal is to capture his special style, you will need to do a lot of listening to the numerous versions of this type of piece that he recorded. Some of those are listed in the song notes. You will hear these building blocks and countless variations of them. Please also go back and review the song notes often and continually listen to the sample tracks on the CD.
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E-Z BlueZ Lesson Hard Copy (not to be confused with L II E-Z BlueS with an s) Level III Beginning-Intermediate 5-chorus melodic blues instrumental to help develop techniques and abilities that can put the player on a path to better understand the blues harmonica sound. Also a light study in the style of Walter Horton.
Lesson includes the song played acoustically and played amplified in it's complete form....
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I Need My Baby Blues Hard Copy This song is a study of the style of Walter Horton and how we would
likely play a melodic type of blues. Please pay careful attention to the
anticipated / swung notes & chords, the quarter note triplets in
the solo page and on page 7, and the consistent use of throat tremolo.
As a long term goal, please work towards incorporating the use of bright
head tones. ALWAYS be listening to Walter's recordings!!!
8 pages of instruction notations and 26 instruction tracks
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I. O. U. Blues Hard Copy This is a study in slow blues and in developing the EP (exhale push).
IOU Blues stands for Inhale Only Ultimate Blues. Most of the powerful
blues sounds come from inhaling, so it made sense to me to write an
inhaling only study song. This is much in the spirit of the slow blues
by Little Walter, but does not have the advanced bending demands on hole
3. Be sure to read up on the Breathing Guides. 5 pages and 15 tracks.
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Jail W Blues Hard Copy Level III - This is a study of the style and
techniques of John Lee Williamson (JLW) a.k.a. Sonny Boy Williamson #1. His
largely acoustic playing style may be the most imitated acoustic blues style in
the 1930's, 40's and 50's. Play all clean single notes using tongue blocking
and switch for hole #1. John Lee was the master at playing dirty with great
precision. He even applied it to the splits not shown in this study. You should
first learn this piece clean and then slowly try to incorporate in the
"dirt."
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Key to the High Weigh Hard Copy This song is a detailed study in playing over the popular 8 bar blues
associated with the song "Key to the Highway." Goals are learning to
improvise over the 8 bar form and to improvise around the melody. The
biggest challenges will be to "own" the melody, develop the technique
necessary to play the bends with precision, and become solid with the 8
bar form. Going to the "V" on bar 2 will be very challenging. You must
learn to avoid resolving on the tonic note (2 inhale) in the second bar
and fine tune your bend on hole 3. Ten Instruction pages and 24 tracks.
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Lock Jaw Blues Hard Copy new 11/10/12 This song will help you to develop stronger tongue switching and percussive vamping skills at the low end of the harp. The song's name comes from the ability to focus the needed movement on the tongue NOT THE JAW! It will be necessary to spend time monitoring yourself playing this while looking into a mirror. The temptation will indeed be great to add in the "ghost chords" in between the vamping on the downbeats. You need to resist this in order to develop the vamping as explosively as possible. Make it sound comparable on both holes 1 & 2.
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Out of the Box Hardcopy This song is a study in the "Box Shuffle." It is an instantly recognizable classic blues riff that is the same groove as the "Jimmy Reed" shuffle but tends to sound a little more modern. It should be an essential part of all harp players repertoire. While this version of the song is "bending light," it does exploit the strengths of the harmonica and is full of thythmical challenges and mainly uses notes from the blues scale. When you can perform the entire piece with attitude, you can move on to the more difficult version called "In the Box", which has more advanced bending in it.
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Pick-Up Boogie Hard Copy This song is a study in playing the very common "pick-up" lick starting
on hole three. The piece certainly has strong similarities to both of
the Walters. The phrase played over the last 4 bars are almost always
the same allowing you to become more skilled at playing quarter note
triplets. It is also a little unusual that while the band goes to the V
at the turnaround, the harmonica does not. This is a trademark of Jerry
McCain. . . .
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Q Boogie Hard Copy This song is a study in playing FAST and using musical quotes. Playing the quotes will also sharpen your bending skills . .
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