Adam Gussow Bares it All !

The ex-NYC diatonic harmonica player Adam Gussow, famous for his collaboration with guitarist Sterling McGhee in the duo Satan & Adam, has undertaken a wonderful and free series of informal tuition videos of blues harmonica on Youtube. Amplification, chording, tone, are only a fraction of the subjects broached in the first ten lessons currently available on Youtube, and Adam is adding a few each day, so you can start working on your harp playing daily with outside help !

All the videos are to be found here.

Comments

[Jp]

Awesome. Funnily enough, I was just thinking about him last night as I was listening to my collection of Satan & Adam albums for the first time in a long time. It's great to see him back on the scene again. Thanks for the links!

[Adam Gussow]

Ben:

Just wanted to thank you again for helping draw attention to my series of YouTube blues harp lessons. I've now got 1000+ subscribers to my channel. I guess you'd call that the WTF? factor.

I also wanted to let you know about the next phase of what is apparently destined to become my imperial expansion into world domination of blues harmonica teaching. (Either that, or the whole thing will come crashing down in flames, or flameouts.) It's a new website that I started about five days ago call Modern Blues Harmonica: www.modernbluesharmonica.com. What I'm offering interested students is a series of 12-bar blues "songs"--lessons, in the form of songs, really--that consist of two digital files stored at www.Tradebit.com: a QuickTime movie (10-13 minutes long; roughtly the same length as the YouTube lessons) and a PDF tab version of the song.

I've opened the store with almost nothing on the shelves: just one beginners' lesson (an adaptation of "Floyd's Hotel" by the J. Geils Band) and one advanced intermediate lesson ("John Lee Williamson's Blues," in the style of Sonny Boy I). For all the wealth of blues harmonica instructional material available these days, it's possible that this is the first time somebody has offered instantly downloadable quick-hit videos ($5 a pop, payable to PayPal) and accompanying tabs.

I hope you'll check the site out. I'm excited by the project and plan to grow the store to around 60 songs (videos + tabs) before I'm through.

--Adam

[Adam Gussow]

It just occurs to me that not everybody in the world shares my sense of irony. "World domination of blues harmonica teaching" is obviously NOT what I'm about. In fact, I've been blown away by how much good stuff is out there on the instructional side--not just my pal Jon Gidick (www.gindick.com), but David Barrett (www.harmonicamasterclass.com), Glenn Weiser (www.celticguitarmusic.com/harppage.htm), and others, including www.overblow.com. I'm simply delighted that I've found a way, through YouTube and now my own website, of helping share some useful information about the instrument.

[Ben Felten]

Don't worry Adam ! I'm sure my readers have a good dose of sense of humour. I'll be re-releasing our 1999 interview soon, to pave the way for a new one ! I'll let you know!

[tommy x]

Adam, i am a harp player and sax player.wanna talk about your whammer jammer lessons.Dick is also a god to me.and he is the reason i'm playing.i got whammer jammer down 95% dont take this personal. your a great player.your playing the begining part of whammer wrong. your adding a note that dick does note do.give me a call on my cell somtime.203 219 4683 PS I DO A J GEILS TRIBUTE BAND.called houseparty.

peace tommy x

[John Opferman]

Watched you on YouTube. Very generous of you to share your knowledge/wisdom/talent with us. I'm an old geezer......73....trying to learn to play these beautiful sounding instruments.....I just purchased a Hohner Chromatic...my youngest son " borrowed " my old harmonica........thought I'd give it another try......thanks again.

John O.