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I am back playing harmonica with my band after my stroke

People that don’t play harmonica think I’m great

@TimGreig

4 ай бұрын

😂

@fromthenorthwest

4 ай бұрын

Lol so true

@michaelcarlisle5403

4 ай бұрын

😂😂😂

@gumtreeterry9904

4 ай бұрын

As they are in the majority, you are!

@nothomelessonyoutube

3 ай бұрын

Because I can play half of the jeopardy theme people say I'm good

Your playing has continued to improve and sound better and better, especially the past few years!

I went around searching for Blues Harmonicas! Thank you!

You’re the best online tutor I’ve ever come across, more thanks than words can express

Tomlin, the best out there!!

❤ Go TOMLIN GO, SOUNDS REALLL GOOD ❤

Thank you Tomlin very good tips and advice you're a good teacher 💯

Great advice, many thanks. Through your lessons I’ve managed to record some convincing playing with the limited talent I have 😁

Thank you tomlin, some of the best advise yet!

This is fantastic. So glad I'm doing your course!

Very cool information you are giving us. Thank you

Good stuff. I wonder how many young players have watched videos about Larry Adler, the Harmonicats, and many, many others playing in many different musical styles. One of my favorites was Terry McMillan , RIP, protege of Chet Atkins, mostly country and gospel

I would add a seventh technique (and probably the most effective one, tone-wise): use tong blocks/slaps as much as you can. They will completely change the tone, making it fatter, dirtier and funkier. But they can be hard at first, particularly for doing bends, blow bends and overblows (which some people say are impossible to do while tongue blocking). How about doing a class focused on full time tongue blocking? Thank you so much!

@ER-me1ii

2 ай бұрын

After listening for years I can say lip pursers are every bit as good as tongue blockers.

@Quintao10033

2 ай бұрын

Totally agree!

@ER-me1ii

2 ай бұрын

@@Quintao10033 well, I just think the cat Will Wilde isn’t quite yet given the credit he deserves. Historically speaking although Butterfield may not have been purely a lip purser it’s thought he did a single hole tongue blocking technique called u blocking but it’s pretty close to lip pursing. I agree there is a depth of tone that comes from tongue blocking and there is tongue slapping and octaves that are a form of tongue blocking. People who can bend notes well tongue blocking are pretty amazing.

Excellent advice, as always.

Many thanks for the good tips, the sound is really improving a lot.

Great stuff, thanks for sharing this.

You got it so clear dude!!! What an amazing video to show hoiw to imrpove the sound on the harmonica. You got into the very needle of this matter! I enjoyed a lot watching this video. Thanks!!!

Thank you for the tips

Very explanatory Tomlin.

Great, simple techniques, thanks

As usual, excellent

Good stuff!

EXCELLENT my friend. 😅

One of these days I will try to add the harmonica to a song on guitar, but with the neck brace and both hands in the guitar, one cannot muffle or cup the harmonica. Some artists, like Neil Young, do it great. Thanks for your video.

super if only i could learn this, cheers, MINT.

Thanks!

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

Awesome, baby!

Thank you Tomlin for these reminders from Jan a former student of Tomlin's harmonica school

I'll be practicing with you 😎

Wonderful skill you've got, Tom. I am struggling hard to hit bending notes. Still no progress for d last six months.

One of the things that I feel make notes stronger are splits. Four hole ones all the way up on the blow notes and five hole ones on most of the draws. One thing I would love to see though are tips on doing these with amplified harmonica. Particularly up at the top, I find it hard to keep a good mic seal, when playing splits.

A lot of good stuff there Tomlin. I wish I could wave a magic wand and to be able to play like you…

As good as you are Tomlin, U missed something buddy. In my own development I found that the student needs to mix "Bending" notes in with his/her riffs & phrases about 10-15% of the time when starting out, maybe 2-3 mos. stage, Then 'UP It' to Bent notes about 25% of the riff/Phrase; At 6 months (afyter starting to Bend) 'Up It' to 35% of the notes U play are "Bent' = that's when U will automatically sound blusier while simultaneously mixing in Glissando's, Trills, Vibrato. Wah-Wah; That's what i found on my evolution. (*) I too was slightly miserable at not getting any of that "Bent/Bluesy Sound" the first 5 yrs. Now that I'm "Mixing UP" all of the above, I'm getting compliments frequently. It is a FANTASTIC BLAST! once U reach that Level. I have learned considerable from Tomlin, Liam Ward, Luke Clebsch, JP. Allen, David Barret, Adam Gussow, Will Wilde, Hal WAlker, Ronnie Shellist, & some others. I know I passed the 1,000 Hours of practice mark somewhere, and that's fine. Early in my Harp program I actually Quit 3 diff times, it was so hard & sounding terrible; but I kept at it. MANY THANK YOU'S FROM THE HEART! for all those Free harp lessons on KZread over the years, that's what kept me going, that & the belief in myself, Keep On practicing! & Record yourself every mo to hear the differences, You WILL get there! Jesse Holliday, Orlando, Florida

ขอบคุณครับ..

Cześć Tomlin, lepiej Ci w tej fryzurze niż w Kojaku, dzięki za lekcję. Pozdrawiam z Polski

@victormedley3873

4 ай бұрын

Jeheheieienskxhbskaikaj!!!!

@luckyman8265

4 ай бұрын

@@victormedley3873 Pocałujta wójta

Hi mate, love your work!. Just picked myself up my first harmonica. A special 20 in C. Could you please tell me the notes for all these cool licks you did in this video please? I absolutely suck haha and struggling to get clean notes. Just not used to using my mouth and breath like this. I can play a jaw harp easily but harmonica is on another level.

Ive got that stormtrooper alarm!

Well... I often complain (to myself) that I don't sound like the pros. Maybe I am hard on myself, but I think I am right when I say my sound sucks. But I can do all the things you advice. Ok, maybe I don't incorporate them as much as I should do, but is that really my problem ? I don't think so. And I have a question: I think I don't sound like the pros because I do not hear correctly what I play -what should I do about it? When I record myself, I am disappointed to see how different what I think I sound is compared to what my sound is really like. To say the truth, I could say the same thing about my voice in general. It's all better in my head than outside of it! What can I do about it? I have 3 blues songs by 3 different harmonica players I use to measure my progress over time (to tell everything: Front Porch #24 from Gussow, Hard Times by Musselwhite and Don't get Around Much Anymore by B.W Horton). I hear myself progressing from year to year, and mostly from a technical point of view. Right now, I can play those songs...and in my head it sounds just like the guys I try to imitate, only to find that it is far from it when I record... Could it be a "studio or amplification problem" ? Maybe: I do play acoustic, and record with my laptop or cellphone mic, so I can imagine pros I listen to sound better because a sound tech did some work with the proper tools, but... but the song from Gussow is also an acoustic one recorded with a cheap tool, so I may just be not good enough (right now or forever). Is it possible that the pros sound like that because they are the best at what they do? There are many things in life I touched or tried only to find that the best at those things are so because of hours of pratice but over a gifted talent to start with. Maybe to sound like the pros you need that talent. Still, of course, we can all get better at it. But it seems a very long journey for me since what I hear is not what I dare people hearing.

@JCGible

4 ай бұрын

My thoughts are that it takes time to develop. Playing a harmonica like a pro requires a lot on refinement. Your embouchure will change over time until your confidence allows you to express your feelings with command. You need to play every day consistently. If you can't do that right now, try to find a way to work that in. I use a slowdown software and HarpNinj. They both are excellent ways to get very familiar with movement.

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

Hi Kalenjinstf - I totally understand how you feel. Every player I know from amateur to pro (and I know a lot of pros) think they suck when they hear recordings of themselves. Keep recording yourself and you will start to become a better listener in real time. Just keep improving a small amount year on year and it will compound.

@pck1166

4 ай бұрын

Yes, I believe they are one of the best harmonica players. Learn from them but don't mess with them. Let me compare that with my experiences in track and field as a 32year old female ambitious amateur with the performance of high performance athletes. I was running then 800m in 2:30. After a competition my lungs burned, my muscles burned, I couldn't stand anymore and become stomach ache. But it was only the average speed of a female 10.000m runner who finished in 30 minutes. And many people just do their laps in the park, enjoy the movement and nature and don't care about their pace.

@Kalenjinstf

3 ай бұрын

That's one of my points: whataver training you can put in, if you don't have talent it won't do it. The video suggest you can do that and that, but in the end I think it may also be a question of gift... As a T&F coach for more than 20 years with pretty good caliber athletes, I can tell you that even with all the proper training, odds are low that you will ever get your 800m time under 2:00 if you are not already under 2:30 solely on pure talent. If any amount of training gets you to 2:30, what is by the way ok and not bad, there are not much chances for you to ever run under 2:10 (at least if you don't quit your job, go live in Kenya, train 15+ hours a week...) The same can be said about harmonica: you may pratice a lot, at one point your sound may just not be good as pros because they may have a natural gift. For example, have you seen Big Walter Horton's hands? How can you expect from yourself a sound like his when using your hands when he as velociraptor's ones, and you only normal hands?

Love your videos and really want to learn to play good. Newbie question. I read that a wooden comb makes a better fuller sound than the plastic /abs combs. Is this true or just preference? Thanks 😎✌️

Next time could you plz include the tabs .

What notes is he playing. Would like 2 try them.

Very informative. I've never been able do a vibrato despite decades of playing. 😔

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

This harmonica lesson will show you how to get started playing vibrato on the harmonica - kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZK5slZeAorLemNI.html

@REX-007

4 ай бұрын

Thanks Tomlin 🍻

Hi Tomlin, is that an A harp? Very bluesy.

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

It is yes :-)

My mistake is i always wanna play fast and take so many notes to play.

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

I know that feeling!

Been fooling around with some Neil Young and he uses most of this stuff, except using his hands of course. 😉

🎉❤

Excellent tutorial, Very COOL !

Your wall messes with my vision

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

I’ve noticed that too - need to get some artwork up!

The key ya playing would help

Better

Any pro comment section guys please help me with all lick names Tomlin sir used in this video.

Tone, technique, timing, taste, lot of people go right to technique, before they have good tone.

Maybe because diatonics are never meant to be pro instruments, that field is for the Chromatic.

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

This is my favourite comment ever!

Anyone can play the harmonica but not everyone can play it good

im sorry to this about this i would say it is the mike and also the backing like your coment on that regards joe

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

Don’t be sorry. That’s a great comment. Microphones etc definitely have an impact on tone BUT the majority comes from the mouth shape, breathing and hands

First of all, you don’t sound pro you’re OK , you need to listen to Little Water, Sunny Williamson practice more

Thanks!

@TomlinHarmonica

4 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!