Tomlin’s Harmonica Podcast

01. Will Wilde

In the first episode of Tomlin’s Harmonica Podcast” I will be chatting to the “Hendrix of Harmonica” Will Wilde about teaching, Jason Ricci, amplified harmonica and his new album.

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02. Roly Platt

This week I am joined by the fabulous Roly Platt. With over 1800 recordings to his name, Roly is one of the most versatile and in-demand session harmonica players on the planet. He is also the inventor of the Harp Wah which has found its way into many harmonica players gig bags since he released it in 2017.

04. Lee Sankey

This week’s guest can only be described as a renaissance man. He has carried out neuroscience research about musicians, worked with Barclays as a design director and started his own product design consultancy. All of this, plus he is a world-renowned harmonica player and excellent teacher. He is Lee Sankey…

05. Liam Ward

This week’s guest is a winner of the National Harmonica League Player of the year and has been described by Adam Gussow as “A complete bluesician in every respect”. He is an excellent band leader and teacher who I have the pleasure of working with on a regular basis. He is my harmonica brother from another mother – Liam Ward

07. Joe Filisko

This week’s guest is harmonica royalty. He is a world-renowned customiser, harmonica historian, masterful teacher and incredible player specialising in pre-war blues styles . He is Joe Filisko

08. PT Gazell

This week’s guest is a true innovator of the diatonic harmonica. He has taken an alternative approach to filling in the “missing” notes on the instrument by adding valves according to his own special method. He has also recorded and performed with many great musicians over the past 40 years including Ricky Skaggs and Brendan Powers in styles ranging from Bluegrass to Jazz. He is PT Gazell.

10. Adam Gussow

When I asked my students who they wanted me to chat to on the podcast, today’s guest kept coming up. His career has seen him busking in Harlem, touring round the world, teaching thousands of harmonica students on YouTube, releasing solo records, writing books and teaching English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. On a personal note, I wouldn’t even be playing harmonica let alone teaching it if it hadn’t been for his videos. He is Adam Gussow.

11. Todd Parrott

This week’s guest takes a mixture of sweet country and gospel melodies and fuses them together with heavy blues chops to make him one of the most exciting modern harmonica players on the planet. He has a complete mastery of the overblows and overdraws and knows how to play them with extreme taste. He is Todd Parrot.

13. Shane Sager

This week’s guest is a prodigious talent on both diatonic and chromatic harmonica, he is a Berklee College of Music graduate and he is Sting’s harmonica player. He is Shane Sager

14. Winslow Yerxa

You probably know this week’s guest as the author of the best-selling instructional books “Harmonica for Dummies” and “Blues Harmonica for Dummies” but there is so much more to the story than that. He is comfortable playing diatonic and chromatic across a wide variety of genres including Blues, Jazz and French/Canadian/Scottish Folk. He has been described by Jason Ricci as a mad scientist of harmonicas and harmonica music. He is none other than Winslow Yerxa…

16. Aki Kumar

This week’s guest is a fantastic harmonica player, performer and songwriter. Having given up a career as a software engineer to become a musician he has gone on to develop a unique style blending classic West Coast Blues Harmonica with traditional Indian music. He is the inimitable Aki Kumar.

17. Practice with Vid Gobac

This week’s guest is not a harmonica teacher or player but he is a fantastic musician, teacher and composer. I thought it would be fun to pick his brains about the process of practice as a student of an instrument, how best to do it and why it is important. He is my good friend Vid Gobac.

19. Beginner’s Story: Patrick

This week’s podcast is the first in a series where I will be interviewing beginners instead of pros so that you can hear what it’s like starting out on the harmonica journey. Our first beginner guest will be Patrick who started playing about a year ago.

21. Beginner’s Story: John

This week’s podcast is part of a series where I’ll be interviewing Beginners rather than Pros so you can hear what it’s like starting out on the harmonica journey. Although this week’s guest John has been playing for 30 years, he has recently realised he needs to go back to the beginning and strengthen his foundations.

23. Beginner’s Story: Paula

This week’s podcast is part of a series where I’ll be interviewing Beginners rather than pros. Today’s guest is Paula who started playing at the start of lock down. She is already fully committed to the journey and has great goals for the future as well as some awesome tips for anyone else starting on the harmonica.

24. Beginner’s Story: Frans

This week’s podcast is part of a series where I’ll be interviewing Beginners rather than pros. Today’s guest is Frans from Sweden who started playing a few years ago and has already achieved some of his goals including playing with a band.

26. Being a One Man Band with Juzzie Smith

This week’s guest is a fantastic multi-instrumentalist from Byron Bay Australia. He plays up to six instruments simultaneously including drums, percussion, guitar and harmonica. Sometimes he even does this while juggling. He is the inimitable Juzzie Smith.

27. Harmonica Vaudeville

Today’s guest is a well-known harmonica player and teacher on YouTube. He works hard to teach harmonica in a fun and creative way. In his own words he teaches with a touch of the absurd. His name is Benjamin Tremblay Carpentier but you might know him better as Harmonica Vaudeville.

29. Elin Luffar Lo Öberg

My guest today is a versatile player and songwriter from Sweden who is passionate about combining roots music with contemporary rock and pop. She is the fantastic Elin Öberg also known as Luffar Lo.

30. Learning to Improvise with Harry Higgs

Today’s guest is one of my favourite musicians and people. He is my first-call guitarist Harry Higgs. We will be chatting about different approaches to improvisation over a nice beer.

32. Beginner’s Story: John S

This week’s podcast is part of a series where I’ll be interviewing Beginners rather than pros. Today’s guest is John who made the decision to pick up harmonica when he retired last year.

33. Beginner’s Story: Steve L

This week’s podcast is part of a series where I’ll be interviewing Beginners rather than pros. Today’s guest is Steve who got the push he needed to start learning when Covid lockdown started.

35. A harmonica lesson with Hank Shreve

Today’s episode is part of a new series where I will be getting a lesson from an awesome harmonica player/teacher. This episode’s lesson is from Hank Shreve and we will be talking about all things improvisation and he will be giving me the low-down on his approach to improv!

36. Embouchure (Tongue-Blocking, Lip Pursing and U-Blocking) with Liam Ward

Today’s episode is part of a new series where I will be discussing big topics with my good friend Liam Ward from learntheharmonica.com. Today we are chatting about Embouchure. We’ll be looking at tongue-blocking, lip pursing and u-blocking.

38. A harmonica lesson with Filip Jers

Today’s episode is part of a new series where I will be getting a lesson from an awesome harmonica player/teacher. This episode’s lesson is from Filip Jers. He will be showing me how I can bring jazz elements into my Blues playing.

39. Steve Baker

Today’s guest is one of the most influential figures in the harmonica world. He has played professionally for more than 40 years, he wrote The Harp Handbook and is a consultant for Hohner. He has been closely involved in a lot of the great developments to the instrument that we know and love. He is Steve Baker!

41. U-Blocking with Philip Jackson

In today’s episode I’m joined by Philip Jackson who is a good harmonica player who u-blocks and is also a National Harmonica League’s blues and rock contest winner. Philip is going to set the record straight about u-blocking versus puckering and tongue-blocking.

42. July Q and A with Tomlin

Today’s episode is going to be part of a semi-regular series where I answer listener questions.