Winslow Yerxa - Blues Harmonica For Dummies

Blues Harmonica For Dummies

by Winslow Yerxa

Blues Harmonica For Dummies

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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012942049

ISBN 978-1-118-25269-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-28249-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-28451-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-28716-3 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Winslow Yerxa was bitten by the harmonica bug as a teenage musician, contracting blues virus in the process. Since then, hes become a harmonica player, performer, composer, teacher, author, journalist, and even inventor in his quest to better understand this mysterious instrument and the intuitive yet hard to explain music called the blues.

His subsequent musical journey took him to composition, music theory, and jazz arranging studies at Vancouver Community College and McGill University, and later, to writing musical arrangements for Afro-Caribbean bands in San Francisco. Meanwhile, he explored a wide variety of musical styles, including jazz, French hot-club music and musette, and Celtic fiddle tunes. Through it all, the blues has remained an old and trusted friend.

From 1992 to 1997, Winslow wrote, edited, and published the magazine HIP the Harmonica Information Publication, the most widely read harmonica periodical of its time. During that period, he transcribed John Poppers harmonica solos to musical notation and tab for the songbook to the Blues Traveler CD, four. He also authored the book and CD combination Learn Blues Harp Effects in 60 minutes and invented and marketed the Discrete Comb, a harmonica upgrade that unlocks all the note-bending capabilities of a diatonic harmonica. He also has worked with jazz harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy on his Out of the Box series of instructional DVDs and his teaching website, the Howard Levy Harmonica School.

Winslow is active in the harmonica community, helping to organize and run the annual harmonica festival staged by SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. Hes also a member of the UKs NHL (National Harmonica League) and participates in the online harmonica world through Facebook and such forums as Harp-l.org, slidemeister.com, and ModernBluesHarmonica.com.

In addition to teaching privately, Winslow is a faculty member at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, California, and has taught at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, Texas; Jon Gindicks Harmonica Jam Camp; and David Barretts Harmonica Masterclass. Hes an online expert advisor for David Barretts Bluesharmonica.com, was a regular columnist for Mel Bays HarmonicaSessions.com, and has contributed articles to Harmonica World, Harmonica Happenings, American Harmonica Newsletter, and Echos France Harmonica.

Dedication

To the memory of blues harmonica players weve lost in recent years, including Snooky Pryor, Carey Bell, Norton Buffalo, Gary Primich, Willie Big Eyes Smith, and Jerry McCain.

To Lorne, who knew how to keep things simple.

To Big Bear, for never giving up despite the odds.

To the memory of my spirit guide, Alberto Duque. I miss him and his mother very much.

Authors Acknowledgments

Id like to thank Carole Jelen and Zach Romano, my agents at Waterside Productions, for bringing me this project; Acquisitions Editor David Lutton at Wiley for shepherding it through the acquisition and early shaping processes and keeping the whole thing on track; Project Editor Tim Gallan for his tact and wisdom in producing the manuscript; and Copy Editor Todd Lothery for his eagle eye and fine sense of language. Special mention goes to Joe Filisko for bringing his deep knowledge of blues harmonica to bear as technical editor.

Id like to thank Joe Filisko (again), Clay Edwards at Hohner, Waichiro Tachikawa at Suzuki, and Rupert Oysler at Seydel USA for the harmonicas used to record the CD.

Id like to thank Greg Heumann of BlowsMeAway Productions for the great microphone and connector photos and for the Bulletizer that I used for some of the amplified recordings on the CD.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Rusty Zinn, the harmonica players blues guitarist, to craft guitar accompaniments for the CD, and with James Ward and Priscilla Rice at Live Oak Studio, who captured Rustys sound so well and within my budget and time frame. Big thanks to Tom Stryker for mastering the CD on a tight schedule.