'Amazin' (dis)Grace' & other things..
11/02/11 11:49 PM Filed in: Learning harmonica
I spent about 20 minutes on a simple version of Amazing Grace...
I've flopped my (attic) studio layout to what I hope will be the final shape. The acoustics are pretty rough but, then - so's my music.
After almost two years of messing around with blues harmonica & ukulele, I've decided to get re-started by learning the fundamentals I skipped in the beginning:
1 - Tongue-Blocking
2 - Proper chord rhythms
3 - Learn some actual songs... instead of just jamming with 12-bar blues tunes.
I worked with Jerry Portnoy's Masterclass stuff plus his weekly lesson on the site HarpJunction.com; I'm trying to do 3 short (20 minutes or less) sessions each day working on the fundamentals.
In between the Portnoy training sessions, I decided that today was a good time to actually start learning some songs. I spent about 20 minutes on a simple version of Amazing Grace... finally resorting (out of pure frustration!) to singing a verse and playing a little amplified harp through my Shaker Dynamic mic & Pignose amp. Then, just before bed I tried it again with a quick uke loop to see if anything stuck.
Both the song-version and me need a lot of work... but it’s a beginning.
I'm learning, having a good time... and not getting any younger!
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