Beginning Blues Harp (Harmonica) Don Baker
Lora Ceasor
Hi Paolo,
the concept of positions is really just a way of describing the fact that you can play in different keys on one harmonica. In the key to which the harmonica is tuned (the key designated on the harp), all of the natural (unbent) notes belong to the major scale in that key and there is a complete major scale in holes 4-7. You can see this on the diagram of the tonal layout on a C harp shown above. Using this major scale as the basis for melodies is often referred to as playing in 1st position.
Chapter 6 looks at harp rhythms using repeat notes. The first example is I Should Have Known Better by the Beatles. Steve then covers Detroit Boogie timing and the standard cross harp Shuffle. He also keeps an eye on tone and how blues players roughen up their sound.
The Learn to Play the Blues Harmonica Book / Book & CD by Don Baker assists you in learning how to play the blues with one of the world's leading blues harmonica players, the incredible Don Baker.
Steve Baker, a bluesman born in London in 1953, is the most famous harmonica player in Germany, where he now lives. He also conducts workshops and offers online tutorials. Hohner named a specially tuned 14-hole diatonic harmonica after him (the Steve Baker Special), which allows players to play the same second-position riff in two octaves.
The Hohner 365 Steve Baker Special harmonica was developed by Steve Baker, Hohner Germany's harmonica consultant. The 14-hole tuning extends the range of bendable draw notes while retaining their familiar blues configuration. The SBS enables the first nine draw notes (over a 2-octave range) to be bent using the same method used when playing a standard-tuned harp.
Born and raised in London, England, he has for many years lived near Hamburg, Germany and has been a full time professional since 1975. Steve has developed an instantly recognizable and highly musical style which is both expressive and lyrical, charactierized by his subtle, rhythmically accented phrasing. His unique sound draws on the blues harmonica tradition and combines it with elements from country, folk, funk, soul and jazz to create an exciting and individual fusion, with an emotional intensity which finds its way straight to the hearts of his listeners.
A highly regarded author of harmonica literature, Steve has written a number of instructional books. "The Harp Handbook" (Music Sales), first published in 1990 and now in its 4th edition, is still considered the standard work on the diatonic harp and has been referred to as the "harmonica player's bible". Between 2000 and 2007 he published a three volume series "Blues Harmonica Playalongs", composing and recording a total of 34 harmonica instrumentals in a wide range of blues and related styles. He also wrote the successful beginners' book/CD package "Step By Step", which has appeared in a total of five languages.
This book shows you all the techniques, including vibrato, note-bending and cross-playing, which are necessary to become a great blues player. The companion CD demonstrates all the exercises, solos and techniques that are in the book. There is a full band backing the harmonica playing.
Steve Baker is one of today's most influential harp players and an integral part of the modern harmonica scene. He was born and raised in London, England and now lives near Hamburg, Germany, where he first came in the late 1970s with the legendary jugband "Have Mercy". Recently cited as one of the world's top ten blues harmonica stylists by no less than Detlev Hoegen of CrossCut Records, Steve has been a full-time professional for over 35 years and has earned an enviable reputation as an innovator and pioneer on this frequently under-estimated instrument.
He has developed an instantly recognizable original style which is both expressive and lyrical, but is never merely an end in itself. It puts the music first and his playing is always directed at bringing out the best in the song rather than emphasizing his undoubted virtuosity. His subtle and rhythmically accented phrasing, combined with a rich command of timbre and tone, communicates an emotional intensity and depth of feeling which is rarely heard on the harmonica. For this reason he is often regarded as one of those players who have revitalized the instrument in Europe, and as one of its leading exponents worldwide. His unique sound draws on the blues harmonica tradition and combines it with elements from country, folk, funk, soul and jazz to create an exciting and individual fusion, which transcends stylistic boundaries while sounding totally natural.
Difficult to remember, it's rather a long time ago;-). Growing up in London, I got to see Blind Faith and the Stones only a week or 2 apart in summer 1969 at the famous free concerts in Hyde Park. I used to go to gigs at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm and attended my first real blues concert at the Royal Festival Hall with the Groundhogs, John Lee Hooker and the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. I also used to spend Sunday afternoons in Studio 51 in Soho soaking up Brett Marvin & the Thunderbolts, Sam Mitchell and others. This was all around 1970. The first song I learned on harp was Country Jam from the Duster Bennett LP.
Long story. After assimilating bits of Duster Bennett, Butterfield and a couple of others and starting to learn guitar, I took my first tentative steps with other musicians, learning to play ragtime and folk blues with guitarist Dick Bird. Parallel to this, I spent the first half of the 1970s mainly listening to American West Coast music. The combination probably helped me adopt a more melodic approach to the harp than that of most blues harmonica players, a lot of whom understandably tend to model themselves on other blues harmonica players who they admire. As well as trying to imitate my harmonica heroes, I began absorbing melodic ideas from guitarists and later also from sax players, and transposing them to the harp, a process which has continued ever since. There was no plan to this, it just kind of happened because that was what I was listening to. I guess this must have helped me to eventually become a musician who plays his music on the harmonica, rather than a custodian of the blues harmonica tradition, because a lot of what I wanted to play on it wasn't originally part of that tradition.
In 1975 I joined Have Mercy, an acoustic jug band performing raucous country blues with an almost punk rock approach and energy, which brought me right back to the blues even though I didn't really know how to play it. We moved from London to Germany because we discovered that (unlike in Britain) you got paid there, and I started listening intensively to Little Walter for the first time. Like most blues harmonica players I owe a great deal to Walter, he was a huge influence and I probably absorbed more from him in terms of phrasing and swing than from any other harmonica player.
I play harp because the harmonica chose me. I started on Hohner Echo Super Vampers (at that time the English version of the classic Hohner Marine Band, the original blues harp) in summer 1969 and have stuck with Marine Bands ever since. I can only really play my music on them, no other model or brand works as well for me and no other harp has that sound. My work as a long term consultant with the Hohner company has meant that I've had the privilege of being closely involved in the development of the latest additions to the Marine Band range, the Deluxe, Crossover and Thunderbird. These are definitely my favorite out of the box harmonicas today and believe me, I've tried everything on the market.
Listener #1. Working in cotton fields in Dundy, Mississippi; King Biscuit Time and Sonny Boy Williamson beginning around 1941; Sonny Boy playing the harp (harmonica); his popularity; listening to the radio in her mother's Packard car; weekends in downtown Helena, Mississippi; Ike Turner; blues artists on the radio; Robert Nighthawk (her father-in-law) as a local DJ; listening to WDIA in Mississippi and St. Louis, Missouri; Nat D. Williams; religious life and secular life; B.B. King.
Listener #2. Her life in Mississippi and Arkansas; listening to King Biscuit Time (KAFS and KFFA); show named after King Biscuit Flour and Sonny Boy Meal; blues; Sonny Boy playing the harmonica; integration.
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