Im trying to learn to play the diatonic harmonica. Here there is a fast recording session improvising with my C harmonica on a G blues guitar comping.

The guitar score is extracted from the site www.guitarnick.com

G Blues harmonica improvisation #1

i played this Blues with my C harmonica on second position. I upgraded my technique on the draw bendings for this song.

I hope you enjoy with this blues/jazz standard.

Saint Louis Blues

This song is a good way to play a major pentatonic scale in first position. In solo part I played on the highest octave an played the draw bendings.

Basin street blues

This song is extracted from Real book and was composed by John Coltrane.

It is a 12 bar minor blues. Usually, this song is played more faster than this, but I need time to increase my technique with the harmonica.

In the solo section I played a C minor pentatonic scale on the harmonica (3th position on Bb harp). With the guitar I started playing pentatonics scales on C-7 and F-7 chords and I played arpegios on the tournaround (A7, G7)and I finished playing with the dorain mode of C-7 and F-7.

I hope yo enjoy it!
Have a nice weekend!!!!

MR P.C.

This time I recorded a classic Jazz/Blues song with all the band!!!

I discovered this song played by Duke Ellington. The Internet explains that this song belongs to Art Blakey. Recently, I have discovered a version of Charles Mingus that is highly recommended!

The improvisations were recorded almost in the first take. When I played the harmonica I enjoyed making some overblows on the pentatonic way and adding minor natural scale on some occasions. I added a guitar solo using the same harmonica scales.

A curiosity, this song was recorded entirely in a Raspberry Pi 4.

I hope you enjoy it!! Have a nice weekend!! :)

Moanin'

I discovered the today’s song by Tito Puente’s performances. This song is considered a Latin/jazz standard and it is composed in 5/4 bars.

I've been having some troubles playing this song with the harmonica. I set a too fast tempo (150 bpm!!!). I also consider that I do not have the level to be able to play it fluently. Especially in part B, the harmonica goes slow and out of tune.

Well, I'm uploading this song to motivate myself.

Have a great weekend!!

Take Five

Today's song is taken from the Miles Davis album "A kind o blue" (1959).

As a novelty, I have played the piano to comping the melody and the solos. For me, playing the piano is a very difficult task, but I think the result it's not too bad.

In the solos, both on the guitar and harmonica, I used the Mixolydian scale on the G7 chord and the Doric scale on G-6 (it can also be understood as C7 with the Mixolydian scale of C). On the chords D7#9 and Eb7#9 I used the harmonic minor scale and the half-whole diminished scale.

However, with the C diatonic harmonica (in second position) I have lots of limitations to playing diminished scales and finally, I have played pentatonic scales.

I hope you like it.
Have a nice weekend!

All Blues

This Friday's song is a simply way to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you like it.

Merry Christmas,
And have a great weekend! :)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

I strike again with a Miles Davis song. It's a composition written by Eddie Vinson, but is traditionally credited to Miles Davis, who first recorded and popularized it. It has become a jazz standard. It appeared on the Miles Davis album Blue Haze, released in 1956.

In fact, this is an easy song, It is structured in 3 major keys (D major, C major and Bb major). Bit I think I played it too fast. I must increase my technique in this way. learn to play faster.

Also, this is the first time that I atempt to record songs seriously with the cromathic harmonica. I'm happy with this instrument and I will upload more recordings with it.

Have a nice weekend :)

Tune Up

Cantaloupe Island is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock and recorded for his 1964 album Empyrean Isles[1] during his early years as one of the members of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet. Hancock later recorded a jazz-funk fusion version of the track, as Cantalope Island, on his 1976 album Secrets. 

In this song I have played all instruments and created the drums by MIDI. This song is a good choice to enter in the world of modal jazz. There are 3 key centers: F dorian, Db mixolydian and D dorian. In fact, it only have 3 chords. Is an easy standard to play and it is funny. 

I'm improving on the chromatic harmonica. Every day I play this instrument I like it more. Furthermore, th addition of bass and piano are interesting challenges for me. Without forgetting that my main instrument is the guitar. I can say that I'm becoming a one man band xD

I hope you like it,
Have a nice weekend :)

Cantaloupe island

This is a jazz composition by Duke Ellington. He composed the piece in 1935 and recorded it with his orchestra during the same year. 

This song was one of my challenges when I started to play the harmonica. I'm very happy with this, but I think this cover is too long. It's difficult for me to play a slow tempo like this. It is a good opportunity to practice the tone with harmonica.

This song has a structure AABA, and it is in major F, in the B sections the key is Db major. The solos are a kind of variations of the lead melody. I added minor melodic scales, mixolidyan scales, dorian scales and lots of arpeggios.

I hope you liked :)

In a sentimental mood

Simply jazz/blues by Charlie Parker. I hope you liked it!

Cool blues

On this occasion I was able to record this song with the featuring of @jantgars as singer. This is a very well known song that I hope you enjoy.

Have a nice weekend

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

Interplay is a song included in an album called by the same name. It was recorded in 1962 by jazz musician Bill Evans in New York City.

I hope you liked it! ;)

Interplay

A few days ago I found a book of "etudes" by Jim Snidero (Jazz concepts), I was looking at it and I wanted to play some of his "etudes". Here goes the first one. I have taken a couple of melodic lines and the rest are improvisations with the harmonica.

In addition, I wanted to put into practice some of the advice from Howard Levy's book (Rhythms of the breath), this book explains how to gain speed playing the harmonica.

I hope you like it and have a nice weekend

Groove Blues harmonica improvisation #2

Today I uploaded a classic jazz standard. I have based my play on Chet Baker's interpretive version that he popularized and now this jazz standard is mandatory to play at some point in life.
The voice is interpreted by The Hidden Piano @the-hidden-piano

There will never be another you

Today I am publishing one of Jimmy Reed's best known songs. It's a classic blues and it's played in Bb so that the song fits with the instrumental interlude. This interlude is another blues (jazz standard) called "Blue Monk", composed by Thelonious Monk. The melody is played with the diatonic harmonica tuned in Eb and played in second position. I have worked hard on the overblows on holes 4, 5 and 6.

I hope you like it and have a nice weekend! ;)

Bright lights, big city (medley)

I'm a musician based in Sabadell (Barcelona). My main instrument is the guitar but since 2020 I'm trying to learn to play the diatonic harmonica and recently I'm playing the chromatic harmonica too. I think the best way to learn to play an instrument is learn and play songs. For this reason I created this account.  

On this channel, you will mostly discover jazz standards and blues songs. And you'll also find some songs from some movies, but even so I'm not locked into a single closed style of music. You will probably find more styles of music here. This music will always be mainly focused on harmonica and guitar.

Usually, I upload songs with duets of guitars and/or harmonicas but recently I played songs with a bigger set of instruments. Bass, pianos, drums...

All music is played and produced by Sergi Suelves (@suelves)

The Great Suelves Fake Band

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