Hello and welcome to this week’s lesson, where I will be talking about an important aspect of musicianship which is Stamina.
This is a lesson for all levels of player and to play along with the examples you will need a C harmonica.
Click here to download lesson resources
One of the most important things to develop as a musician is the stamina to play through an entire song. All too often as harmonica players we get hung up on just playing a solo over a 12 bar portion of a song. However, other musicians will not be impressed if that is all you do.
If you are a singer then you will be forgiven for only playing a harmonica solo but if you are not then you will be expected to do some work…
Breathing Problems
I regularly receive emails from students asking me for advice about breathing because they keep running out of air and while there are ways to fix it by improving your technique, necessity is one of the best solutions.
What do I mean by necessity?
Well, as animals we have evolved to do everything we can to keep breathing otherwise we write ourselves out of the gene pool. So, as a harmonica player you are not actually going to run out of breath. In fact, if you have to keep going your body is going to do everything in its power to keep you going. DISCLAIMER – please try not to pass out while playing harmonica…
Building up stamina
Ok so I don’t actually want you to start hyperventilating because that would be silly but I do want you to push yourself by trying to play through a whole tune.
This is a relevant exercise no matter where you are on your harmonica journey.
Some examples of good exercises to build stamina and concentration
Not only are we trying to build stamina to be able to play harmonica all night but we also want to maintain concentration. Here are some tunes which I want you to try…
Beginner – ‘I’m a man’ Riff
Practice playing this riff with the backing track below and try to play for the whole duration…
Advanced Beginner – ‘Shape Your Hips’
Practice playing this riff with the backing track below and try to play for the whole duration…
Intermediate – ‘Descending Box Shuffle’
Click here for the full lesson. Practice playing the bass line over the whole backing track.
Advanced Intermediate – ‘Country Blues’
Click here for the full lesson. Practice playing it 4 or 5 times in a row without stopping.
Click here to download lesson resources
Fighting Boredom
You are quite likely to feel bored at first because you are not taking a solo but practicing this kind of thing and making yourself play through a whole song will do amazing things for your timing and your musicianship in general.
Good luck and thank you!
Good luck with building up your stamina. If you have any questions just send me a wee email.
