Playing Quietly

Although blues harmonica is usually thought of as a loud, raucous instrument, every player should know how to dial the volume back while keeping the soulfulness high. With Adam Gussow of Modern Blues Harmonica.
Here's that Very Modern Blues Harmonica lesson in mention in the video. Gussow swallows the bot and spits it back!
• Very Modern Blues Harm...
If you're interested in learning how to play blues harmonica, please visit Gussow's website, Modern Blues Harmonica.
www.modernblue...
www.modernblue...
www.modernblue...

[@ikust007]

We all missed you.

[@LiquidPaper4273]

Thank you so much for your legendary videos Mr. Gussow

[@waynek7154]

This man has given me the desire to practice. I cant believe all ive learned from him. Thanks

[@SwampCityRadio1974]

Was hanging out with the front porch blues video with B flat harmonica in hand and was thinking about how to reproduce the nuance and subtlety in Mr. Gussow's playing and chanced on this fresh upload. Fantastic!

[@ZaggaZow_]

Love your videos man. I use to watch your channel all the time about 6 or 7 years ago. I've been traveling alot and living on the road all around the country. Didn't spend alot of time on the internet or YT. I'm happy to find your videos again. My girlfriend bought me a harmonica for my birthday and it instantly reminded me of you and I was like wow I gotta find your channel again.

[@ChiTherapie]

Hi Adam, i started to play the harmonica a week ago. Found you on you tube, sitting in a car teaching ha ha. And now trough my vpn watching Satan & Adam. I must say : you are a special person. Love your personality. Thank you for being who you are. Your my inspiration to learn how to play at the age of 62. Love it. Dear greetings from me in Holland

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

I'm glad my videos were there for you! You will get better, day by day, if you put in at least 30 minutes a day. Record yourself today, then come back in six months and you'll be surprised by how much you've improved.

[@ZvikaDror]

Great to see and hear ya man! The most beautiful harmonica sounds come out peacefully, calmly, without stressing the reeds, so it sings. I hanged out at Ikea a couple days ago with my family, jamming ideas and melodies with a pocket harp, passed around 2000 people and no one was bothered by my constant playing, surprisingly not even my wife :) People worrying about practicing at night, can get a side-closed model, without the vents, which is really quiet, and use a lower key which responds easier and more pleasant at night. Cheers

[@ivanchavez8175]

Adam! Was great meeting you guys in Rome. Great work on the videos. I have tons of catching up.

[@mjjjf61]

Adam I saw you at Jamey's last night. You were absolutely amazing! I am proud to say I saw a Harmonica Legend. TREMENDOUS Thanks for the photo Michael Fiscaro

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

Thanks for your kind words. And thanks for coming to the show!

[@SwampCityRadio1974]

I have a friend that speaks softly, not in a way that is annoyingly quiet, or at least only a little bit, but because it has authority behind it, because his words are well chosen, it makes you lean in to hear it. Maybe there is a style of playing like that.

[@Chainsaws-backyardblues456]

What a sweet set of notes!!

[@ThomasOconnor-r6n]

Super stuff I’ve been trying to play for years you simplify it to lay man terms pal I love it well done from an elder lemon 💯👍☘️🇮🇪❤️

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

Thanks!

[@catalintzetzeradulescu568]

Thank you, Adam!

[@BOWELLSAYS]

Outstanding.6 months into playing harmonica. AI has no chance. You need soul to play harmonica which you clearly have💪

[@MessengersoftheCross]

Missed you Adam. Glad to see you.

[@jaredivey505]

I need to work on this. I recently had my breakthrough harp day at the park. Since then all I want to do is play but I live in a small apartment and I get loud. I don't like holding back when I'm all in. It'd be nice to get out of the woodshed once in awhile.

[@JB-rw9xt]

Thank you Professor Gussow!

[@Andy-der-Kritische5683]

Hear you playing is like a sunny afternoon with good Feelings. I love it. Greetings from Saxony/Germany.

[@luisdesantis6035]

I have played quietly few times, at hotels, at the doctor’s office, car wash, repair shop, etc. It can be very satisfying and I often come up with a new riff :)

[@user-et3vf4hg7t]

🎶💕✌🏽 I appreciate it. Always a good lesson American better care of America

[@nkr8894]

Id love another audiobook where you narrate for this new book.

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

Thanks. I think I'll do that.

[@CARTCURT915]

Hello Mr. Gussow, I want u to know that u inspire people even from Turkey, I am one of them, thank you.

[@heiko6983]

Thank You Adam. It feels so good to listen to You. Have a great trip!

[@pedropacheco7489]

Nice video Adam. Would like to see some more new videos with this topic. It’s amazing to hear the different notes you can get playing quietly.

[@igorgilza]

I need more Adam Gussow in my life

[@nealakagoddy7191]

I've been following you for years 😁 Always a good lesson or inspirational chat 👍 Thank you , If it's any consolation while your roasting over there , it's raining here in Cornwall 🤣 how terribly British of me to bring up the weather 😂🤣😂

[@peteaustin5327]

Nice lesson Adam. I cut my teeth playing along with J Giles albums so i really have watch myself to dial it back. Thank you !!

[@mezz8468]

BRO you are BACK after a while!!! So GLAD!!!!

[@Philharpo]

Good to see you again. Great video.

[@MaximilianoJ]

Simply and always amazing.

[@dirtworshiper2800]

The man is back in town. Spread the word around.

[@markwalters9754]

Love your videos.. thank you

[@aaaaaa-nj2wd]

oh guru, my guru! only gussow weaves uncertainty principle into a blues harmonica lesson. ❤🙌😂✌️✨️🤘

[@aaaaaa-nj2wd]

also, 'A' harp has always been my jam for lonely hearts club parking garage playing. 👍

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

Yes, and great point. I don't actually show you how to play every part of the 12-bar pattern I do here. That will infuriate some people. But it will also frustrate AI. Aha! Gussow 1, the Machine 0.

[@TommyValley-qg4vh]

Good video

[@StevenSmith-7t391]

Been wondering where you went. Great to see you back!

[@SwampCityRadio1974]

As per the video, readdressing hand position on the harmonica is actually a really good place to start in a diagnostic of improving tone and dynamic control. If you have that top finger all over the top plate, I mean, covering the hole numbers on the top cover plate, it's a physical barrier to getting a relaxed embouchure around the harmonica.

[@greggmarkowski5203]

Great lesson, thanks! Can't wait for the book. A harp was the 2nd harp I bought after a C and I've always loved it. For me, I like the rich sound of the A but I still have some dexterity on it that I don't have with harps lower than an A. For a long time I hated the G but after being forced by the songs my band plays to use it a lot I've come to appreciate it a little more, but still like the A better.

[@warwickclark2143]

Brilliant - looking forward to the book....

[@michaelcarlisle5403]

AI and other computers need electricity , a harmonica is powered by imagination!

[@DenisHarris-ix1rq]

Good one Adam.

[@klisher]

We was lucky to get to 50 degrees yesterday here in UK.

[@artanthony2941]

I have heard from other professional Harmonica players, that playing as softly as they can really improved their playing.

[@bloodshotgaming7]

Thank you for 100 of awesome video sir , Basic learning done, now using special 20 in c , and suzuki bluemaster in A coming soon,

[@cantcheatkarma3493]

I'd cancel the blues master, it's an awful harmonica, stick with the 20 or the Marine band!

[@bloodshotgaming7]

@@cantcheatkarma3493 oh really let's see

[@bloodshotgaming7]

@@cantcheatkarma3493 what you mean is that suzuki is not good then what about seydel n honher n leeoskers

[@cantcheatkarma3493]

@@bloodshotgaming7. Just personal experience, I think the blues master is an awkward shape and doesn't play the best, I'd say hohner special 20 or Marine band or Marine band deluxe is the best by a country mile, though the blues master may suit you perfectly. No malice intended by my comment by the way, just trying save you a few quid! All the best

[@bloodshotgaming7]

@@cantcheatkarma3493 thanks let seee it's my 3rd harmonica 1st is local basic, then special 20, now new let's see

[@18Yoav]

How about no sound and imagining the sound in your mind

[@nacoran]

Nice riff. :)

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

Thank ye kindly.

[@ikust007]

6:41 I am Now playing on low Harps in order to not disturb .

[@bloodshotgaming7]

After the C harmonica i bought A harmonica but A harmonica also sounds same as C harmonica nothing change , but checked notes as per blending traning app it's perfect , need help to understand the keys

[@rikard1414]

If I could play 1% of that I would be the best harmonica player in my country

[@user-lr6dz6ft2d]

Man! You’ve got such a beautiful tone. Can you, I wonder, tell who’s playing by their tone? I mean you, specifically.

[@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726]

Thanks. It's a great question. I've spoken more than once about the three-second test: if you heard some harmonica on the radio, could you tell within three seconds which player it was? Only the best players fall into that category. The thing is, tone is only a part of what lets us make that quick ID. Swing, the player's rhythmic sense, is also a part of that "voice," as are the player's note choices. Technical brilliance, too. Sugar Blue and Jason Ricci immediately come to mind. I could immediately recognize Rick Estrin, Kim Wilson, Howard Levy, Carlos del Junco, among living players. I'd like to hear from others about which living players they can immediately recognize in a blind test. Billy Branch. Dennis Gruenling? Sometimes I can't quite tell, so I keep listening. Does the player do something that ONLY that player could or would do? William Clarke, James Cotton, Sonny Boy II, and of course Big Walter Horton and Little Walter, were immediately recognizable in that way. Paul Delay, too. He does blow arpeggios in second position that no other player does. I've got a couple of distinctive overblow runs that I've been polishing for more than 30 years; I'd like to think that when I throw that sort of signature riff into a solo, it just couldn't be any other player. Check out this track where I was called in as a session player. open.spotify.com/track/44gXEkPC4bYOQDp8zVldYq?si=9114a46c77334910

[@henrykrinkle3609]

@@gussowsclassicbluesharmoni2726 I mostly agree, those are great great players, and us amateurs can only dream of playing like them! But the players that I can recognise within 3 seconds are the ones that some people think of as "second tier" I'm talking of the likes of Snooky Pryor, Big John Wrencher, and Lazy Lester, you know the ones. It would take me a solo or 2 to tell the difference between, say Dennis Gruenling and Rick Estrin, but with the others I mentioned, I'd know them instantly! I'm not saying they're better, maybe they just have a narrower range, and what they do, they do well!

[@jaciobe]

What are the tabs for yhe 1st riff you play in.this vid. The introduction part

[@kotaszdr5297]

😊👍🏆🥃

[@user-jf3hh4xr4n]

Music is a conversation. If there is nobody behind it, what's the point?

[@grahamrawlings937]

I meet up with some friends to have a jam, and we asked Ai to write a blues song that 3 middle class white guys would write from the southwest of England, and it did sadly it was actually quite good and we had fun with it.

[@user-et3vf4hg7t]

Min1920 Is your riff

[@jantonisito]

AI will never be able to play harmonica. Or jazz. NEVER. Even Irish music.