Tomlin’s Harmonica Podcast

Finished the curriculum and not sure what to work on next? Peter hit exactly that wall six months ago, so in this episode we build him a plan for directing his own learning.

This one matters whether or not you're anywhere near advanced intermediate, because what I want for every student is that they end up able to keep learning with or without a teacher. The big habit is transcribing - sitting down with music you love and working it out by ear. I'm wary of calling a song "within reach", because at a certain point you can have a go at almost anything, you just accept that some bits will need revisiting later.

We talk about the difference between vertical progress, where you stack skill on skill through a curriculum, and horizontal progress, where you widen the foundation by learning repertoire and actually using what you've got. Then it becomes pick your own adventure - acoustic or amplified, lip pursing or tongue blocking, whatever you genuinely enjoy. Peter picks vibrato, acoustic playing and tongue blocking, so I suggest two tunes to start with, and we talk about why progress feels slower once you're sharpening tools rather than building them.

If you're at the point where you want to choose your own next step, this one is for you.

⏱ Audio Chapters

0:00 – Peter's question: what do I work on after the curriculum?

This episode is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/4iYk0Cc

You're at a jam, you've practised all your blues licks, and then the band calls a folk tune. In this episode Hana asks what to play when it isn't a blues, and we work out a plan she can use on the spot.

Hana plays at folk and country sessions where she gets handed a solo on a song she's never heard, so we build the cheat sheet. Forget chasing the chord progression when you're thrown in cold, stay in second position because that's where all your muscle memory already lives, and start with the minor pentatonic scale - the blues scale without the four draw bend. If that doesn't quite sit, try the major pentatonic. Between those and the blues scale you'll cover most of what gets called.

From there it's about resolving your phrases to the two draw, leaning on repetition rather than trying to say a million things, and remembering that the harmonica isn't there to carry the song. Hana shares how she uses double stops and space to work around a three draw bend she's still developing, we get into a couple of useful cheap tricks, outlining chord changes with single notes, and where third and fourth position fit for minor tunes.

If you're an intermediate player who wants to feel less lost when the music isn't a 12 bar blues, this one is for you.

⏱ Audio Chapters

0:00 – Hana's question: playing non-blues at a jam

This episode is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/4iVcwQn

You find a song you love, put it on and play along, and hope it sticks. In this episode Becky asks how I actually learn a new piece of music, and I walk through my whole process step by step.

I start with a lot of listening and no harmonica anywhere near me - two or three times through just to get a feel for it. Then I count through the music, mark the bars and hear the changes between the one, four and five, and decide what I actually want out of the song. The whole thing, the head, or just one lick. After that I do a rough transcription and start with whatever is hardest, learning the solo out of order and leaving the easy bits until last.

We also talk about getting off the page as quickly as you can, drilling the transitions between licks rather than the licks themselves, and then moving the tune into new contexts - a bare backing track, a different tempo, a different key - before pulling licks out of it to build your own improvising vocabulary. Becky then asks how you capture the feel of a song, so we get into dynamics, what each technique actually feels like, and why knowing the lyrics changes how you play.

If you're an adult player who wants a proper method for learning tunes rather than just playing along, this one is for you.

⏱ Audio Chapters

0:00 – Becky's question: how do you learn a new song?

This episode is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/4iiEbup

There's a classic Little Walter lick you love, and it's miles above your level. Do you leave it alone, or do you simplify it? In this episode Pete and I work out how to do that without wrecking the tune.

Pete has been transcribing recognisable blues harmonica riffs and running into the same wall a lot of players hit - the music he wants to play sits above the skills he has right now. So we go through how to strip a lick back to something playable today. Taking the textures out first and playing the clean notes, simplifying a run of triplets down to the note that lands on the beat, and recognising that most heads are already 80% within reach with only a small section that needs a tweak.

We also talk about the fear that simplifying will burn in bad muscle memory, why picking repertoire just outside your comfort zone beats brute-forcing a tune that's years away, and the "listen once, play once" approach I got from David Barrett for when your transcription gets so detailed you've forgotten what the music sounds like. Pete shares what he's found digging into "All Night Long" by Muddy Waters, including the call and response happening between the harmonica, the guitar and the vocal.

If you're an adult player somewhere between beginner and intermediate who wants to play real blues rather than wait until you're ready, this one is for you.

⏱ Audio Chapters

0:00 – Pete's question: can you simplify classic blues riffs?

This episode is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/4xnYev7

Triplets make sense on their own, then you drop them into a tune and your mouth ties itself in a knot. Phil has hit exactly that, so in this episode we take it right back to basics.

Phil is working through the Advanced Beginner course and can play triplets in a scale all day, but the moment they land in a musical context he panics and rushes them. When he plays for me, the first thing we spot is that what he's playing isn't actually a triplet at all - it's eighth notes, and you can hear it in where the accent falls. So we slow right down, count "one triplet, two triplet, three triplet", and strip the scale out entirely, just playing four blow, four draw, four draw with a proper triplet feel until the pulse is solid.

We also talk about how many reps something really takes to move from conscious to unconscious, why getting some movement in your body helps you lock into the beat, and one practice detail that makes a big difference - building pauses into your repetitions so you practise hitting it from the start rather than always needing a run-up.

If your timing falls apart the moment you put a technique into a tune, this one is for you.

⏱ Audio Chapters

0:00 – Phil's question: triplets fall apart in a musical context

This episode is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/4gTxSei

Second position sounding strained once you climb above hole six? In this "Ask Tomlin" episode I help student Robert smooth out his upper octave major pentatonic scale.

In this Ask Tomlin episode I sit down with student Robert, who's started exploring second position blues harmonica up in the high end - holes six through ten - and can't get his major pentatonic scale sounding as sweet as he'd like. He describes the airflow up there as a different beast entirely, and when a note doesn't come out clean it genuinely gives him a headache.

We work through why the 6 draw feels so much more strained than the 6 blow, and I explain the physics behind it - your vocal cavity needs to shrink as you climb higher, the same way you'd tune a resonating chamber. I also show Robert how switching to a lower key harmonica, like a G, makes the upper octave far easier to access while he builds confidence, before working back up through A and eventually C.

We finish on tongue blocking technique for the high end, including which side of your mouth to play from, and a simple daily practice plan for anyone finding the top of the harmonica unfamiliar territory.

⏱ Audio Chapters

This podcast is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/3RJKzA5

Struggling with the 2 draw whole step bend on your lower key harmonicas? It's not a small mouth problem and it's not a talent problem - it's completely normal.

In this coaching call I work with Patti, one of my students, on getting her 2 draw whole step bend working on the B flat and A harmonicas. We start on the C and straight away hit a useful lesson about bending apps - handy at first, but leaning on them stops you trusting your ears.

Then I explain why low key harmonicas are harder to bend: you're tuning your vocal cavity to the note you want, and the lower the harmonica, the bigger that cavity has to be. Think of the C as your easy dumbbell, the B flat as the next weight up and the A as the one you're building towards. It's not about power - it's about finding the position and getting comfortable holding it.

We finish with a simple practice plan for working down through the keys - perfect if you can bend on your C but come unstuck when you play lower harmonicas with other people.

⏱ Audio Chapters

0:00 – What we're working on in this coaching call

This podcast is brought to you by the ever-growing Tomlin Harmonica School - where you get a proper step-by-step curriculum, real feedback from real teachers on your own playing, and a genuinely warm community of fellow Harmonicats. Try it free for 7 days at https://bit.ly/4hA2CD1

► WIN one year of tuition at Tomlin Harmonica School AND a Hohner Special 20 in C https://kingsumo.com/g/1dy2e91/back-to-school-blues-harmonica-giveaway/

In the sixth (and final) episode of this series for Beginner Harmonica players, I’ll be talking about the reason that most people never learn how to play Blues harmonica despite it being the biggest selling instrument on the planet.

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► Tomlin's Free Blues Harmonica Toolkit https://tomlinharmonicaschool.com/p/blues-harmonica-toolkit

In the fifth episode of this series for Beginner Harmonica players, I’ll be telling you the 3 mistakes I see everyone making when they start learning harmonica. Avoid these mistakes and improve faster!!

There is a lot of arguing online about lip pursing vs tongue blocking on harmonica. As a beginner harmonica player I think it is really important that you understand the difference between the two and why you might want to learn both. In this episode I will explain the difference between the two, the advantages of both and how to pick which one to learn first!