Email to Beginners (found on Harp-L)

1. Listen to great harp players both old and new.  Some great blues harp players are  (Little & Big Walter, Sonny Boy 1&2, James Cotton, Rod Piazza, Kim Wilson, James Harmon, Junior Wells) just to name a few.

2.  Find a good instructor!  I started to teach myself for the first year and found that after finding a good instructor I was able to learn quicker and avoid potential bad habits.  I have taken lessons for the past 6 months.  Every other Wed. night.  I was very fortunate to have found a fantastic teacher who is in a working blues band and also hosts a weekly jam session. What could be better?

3. Find a local jam session and attend on a regular basis.  This was the key to my success!  You will make new friends and learn new things every single week.  You will also be able to try new ideas as well.  Our jams are every Thursday night at a local bar.  There is a sign up board  and everybody signed up for a set gets three songs  It has become so popular that the place is packed.  It's a real thrill for me to get up and perform in front of allot of people as I will probably never have a band of my own.  I was terrified the first couple of months.  Now I can't wail for jam nights.

4.  Find a small recording device and record your practice sessions and play them back so you can hear how you sound.  I just started doing this and it has made me much more aware of my tone and overall sound.  I simple use my little MP3 player with built in microphone.  Sounds good enough for practice and very easy to use.

5.  Practice every day.  If only for 10 or 15 minutes a day  practice, practice, practice.  I have developed a nightly practice routine that lasts about an hour. On the nights I can't practice that long I will at least pick up a harp and doodle for 10 or 15 minutes.

Since implementing steps 2, 3 & 4 if have grown quickly as a blues harp player. I'm now working on singing three songs with the goal of leading (vocalist calls the shots) my own own set at jam night.


Hope this helps you grow.

―Joe aka Mojo Yoder