Tuesday, January 7, 2014

What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 340 #384)

Blues Harmonica Performance Class!!!

New Year's resolutions in B1 started off with a revamping of the name for the 8:00pm class. What used to be Blues Harp Level 4 is now the Blues Harmonica Performance Class and it promises to do just that, focus on blues performance at your level!

The other news out of B1 last night was that yes, despite record cold, people turned out for classes! Level 3 was well-attended and has some new people registered. The BHPC (our new nickname?) was much more sparsely attended, but there was great learning happening. Those in attendance were able to draw out their songs and practice inserting other peoples' solos. It was a great learning experience for those crazy enough to brave the cold.

And our last news item was the wonderful surprise appearance by Mr. Denis Sexton last night! It was great to see Denis again and he came bearing the news that he'd gotten married this fall. Congratulate him when you see him next.

HarpNinja!!!

B1 friend and harp teacher extraordinaire David Barrett checked in with us recently to share his thoughts on the HarpNinja app for bending:

"HarpNinja is a program for harmonica players to help them dial in their bending accuracy with real-time monitoring, using a harmonica visual model. This is the same idea as Bendometer, but in my opinion better imagery and functionality. Pitch recognition is fast, accurate and not too sensitive/jumpy. I feel strongly it's the most intuitive and accurate tool available for students working on their bends (much easier to use than a tuner). I have a lesson on how to use this for members of BluesHarmonica.com (Lesson Link)

You can purchase the program at harpninja.com"

(editor's note: It looks to us like this is available only as an iPad app at this time.)

Harmonica Hoedown!!!

The third annual Harmonica Hoedown makes its return to the Hideout on February 16, featuring Joe Filisko, James Conway, Bob Kessler and Yuri Lane. Get your tickets now!

Fare Thee Well!!!

If you're in Joe's Rhythm & Chording class, have a listen to this tune from the new Coen Brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis: Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song). Joe is planning an ensemble arrangement of the song for the Hoedown, so familiarize yourself with it!

Here's a little history on the song, courtesy of Wikipedia:

"Dink's Song" (sometimes known as "Fare Thee Well") is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Pete Seeger, Fred Neil, Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley. The song tells the story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him the most.
 
The first historical record of the song was by ethnomusicologist John Lomax in 1908, who recorded it as sung by an African American woman called Dink, as she washed her man's clothes in a tent camp of migratory levee-builders on the bank of the Brazos River, a few miles from College Station, Texas and Texas A&M College.

A different arrangement of the song was written and performed by Frank Black on his album Fast Man Raider Man. The song was also covered by Puerto Rican singer Gabriel RĂ­os and included on the limited edition 2-disc release of his album Angelhead.

Marcus Mumford and Oscar Isaac's cover of "Dink's Song" is featured on the soundtrack for Inside Llewyn Davis.

Class Notes
  • We're back!


- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew