A phone call
Where you're at, what you've been playing, where it stopped moving. It's as much me working out whether I'm the right person for it as the other way round.
For players who already know their way around a harp
Blues Harmonica Lessons for Stuck Players
I played for years before I went back to the scales. That's what opened it up. If you've been at this a while and hit a wall — or you put the harp down and never quite picked it back up — that's the work I want to do with you.
The wall
Nearly everybody stops in the same place
You learn some licks. You get decent. You can hold your own on a shuffle and nobody asks you to stop.
And then it quits moving. Everything that comes out is built from the same handful of shapes you already had five years ago. You can hear that there's more in there — you just can't get at it.
Some people push through. Most people put the harp in a drawer, and not because they weren't good enough. Nobody ever told them what the next thing was.
Where to start
The 30-Day Harmonica Scale Challenge
This challenge is an invitation to rekindle that relationship.
Using seven carefully chosen scales in 1st, 2nd and 3rd position, we'll spend a few minutes every day getting reacquainted with the instrument — playing slowly, listening closely, developing great tone, and building real control.
Short lessons can produce long results.
Why scales
Scales aren't just exercises. They're the territory where music lives.
The notes you learn in the major scale begin showing up again when we move toward blues, different positions, melodies and improvisation. Instead of memorizing a bunch of disconnected licks, you're learning where the notes live and how they relate to one another.
I played for years before I went back to the scales. That's what opened it up. Here's how that works.
Who I'm looking to work with
I've got limited room for private students, so I'd rather be straight about it.
- You play regularly and you've stopped getting better
- You played years ago and let it go
- That harp has been sitting in a drawer waiting for you
- Everything you play comes out of the same handful of licks
- You're willing to do work that isn't flashy
- Absolute beginnersNothing wrong with starting out — it just isn't what this is for. Start in a group. Camps and workshops.
- Anyone who needs one song for a wedding next monthThat's a job for a tab sheet and two weeks, not for lessons.
- Anyone after a library of licks to copyThere's a lot of that online already, and it's the thing that got you stuck.
Hear him play
Before you read another word — this is the sound behind the teaching.
He’s right up there with the other famous guys like Charlie Musselwhite, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson… He could play every style that morphed out of the eras and locations of blues.
Debra Eloise, Anderson Valley Advertiser, March 11, 2020
How we start
A phone call first — not a lesson.
We find the wall
Every stuck player is stuck somewhere specific. First job is naming it, because most people have never had it named.
The work
Unglamorous, and it moves. In person here in Sonoma County, or on Zoom from anywhere.
Questions
How do I know if I'm far enough along for this?
If you can get around the harp and you've stopped getting better, you're far enough along. That's the whole entry requirement. You don't need to be good — you need to have some road behind you and want more.
I haven't picked it up in years. Is that a problem?
No. That's the most common story I hear, and it's usually the same reason every time — you got to a wall, nobody showed you the way past it, and it stopped being fun. The playing comes back faster than you'd think.
Isn't blues supposed to be about feel, not theory?
Feel is the entire point. Scales aren't the opposite of feel — they're how you end up with more to feel with. Right now you're choosing between the licks you happen to know. The work widens what you're choosing from.
Do you teach beginners at all?
Yes — in groups, at music camps and festivals. Private lessons are the ones I keep for players with some road behind them.
Do you teach online?
Yes, over Zoom, and most of my students learn that way now. I need to hear your tone and see your hands, and a laptop camera gives me both. More on that.
What does it cost?
We talk about it on the call. I'd rather find out what you're trying to do first and tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.
Been stuck a while?
Send me a note about where you're at and what stopped working. We'll set up a time to talk.