I feel like these particular songs are especially appropriate for harmonica players to learn to play since they have such a campfire feeling. Learning to play through this collection of songs can only serve to further your progress as a student of the harmonica whether you are striving to be an improvising musician or not.
We will be using “Chromatic Harmonica Songbook” by Thomas Balinger as our text book in this video-based instruction course. No portion of the inside of the book will be visible on the screen. You will purchase the book separately and I will simply spend time with you on the video as if it was a private lesson. I will go through the entire collection of 70 songs by playing through them and discussing various ways to approach the melodies. I also will teach you to conduct a melodic analysis of each of the songs that will help you memorize them and play them in other keys. The book contains standard notation and harmonica tablature.
The focus of the course is getting you playing these songs and not on learning how to read music, however, you will learn a little bit about the notes on the staff, key signatures, rhythms, and perhaps a bit of music theory along the way.
I will tell you from personal experience playing through all these songs that:
- It will create a greater connection to your harmonica
- It will bring any of your previous study of scales and arpeggios to life
- It will get you playing in different keys
- You will find yourself spending more time on your instrument
- You will actually have songs that you can legitimately use hand vibrato on!
- You will get more comfortable playing in the middle and upper registers of your harmonica
- Because of the nature of the material you will automatically start playing with a warmer and sweeter tone
- You will have more material to perform in informal settings
This is a lot of instruction at a super bargain price! Even if you have aspirations of improving as a jazz and blues player you will find that playing these songs will improve your technique and get you flowing better on the instrument.