It would seem Jason and Adam have posted their very last instructional videos onto YouTube. I'm glad they say "instructional video" because it reassures me that we will still have the opportunity to watch their performance videos way into the future.
Adam has made 193 instructional videos and Jason 60. For me, that would be at least five lifetimes worth of study so that resource will keep me busy till I'm in my box.
I can only say thank you so very much and I'm both surprised and delighted that you kept it going for as long as you have. You have certainly made your mark in Harp Blues history and hopefully the seeds you have sown, will in turn bring joy to harp blues lovers lives way into the future.
Hat off to this 2 gentlemen , I think they are right ,everything is out , the amount of info that they put out is huge , unfortunately people go watch the videos , give it a try , find out that it's kinda difficult and they move to the next video , and on and on .Watch the video , and go practice until you can do it like them , a week , a month , or 3 months, than move to next lesson .Like tooka said there's material for a life time of study . Thank you guys!!
All comments so far very well put and i can add nothing to that but my thanks for all you guys - Adam and Jason - have done in making learning possible anf furthering interest in blues and blues harp. A lot of time and effort - for free.
I've got all of Adam's 194 lessons (including this one), but I've only got 44 of Jason's. Where are the other 16 hidden?
Incidentally, normally I can only bend the 6OB on my MBD, but I picked up my standard Bb MB and was able to bend not only the 6OB but also the 7OD whilst playing along with this video, so it just goes to show that you should keep practicing and never blame the harp!
Last Edited by on Oct 03, 2009 3:20 PM
What it actually shows you is that factory adjustment of harmonica reeds is done inconsistently. If you know how to do something and it won't, particularly overbends and bent overbends, then the harp could very well be the problem.
These guys have put way more than their fair share out there. I guess at some point, somebody will step up and pick up that torch. ---------- www.elkriverharmonicas.com
Very Cool last Video! Thank you both for giving us all a great leg up on playing the harp better. I'll be working on getting up a short vid of something I learned--maybe a Back-Porch blues--still a big fav of mine. . .
My 1st post to say thank you Adam Ive been playing the harp and studying your videos for only 9 months.I purchased a couple i exspecially like the harp amp video.Im now running a dual amp setup.from what i learned from it.I was just wondering are the videos going to be available on you tube in the future.As ive only worked on about a half dozen.I try and spend a while with each one.And just got started playing a few months ago.Also is there a way to down load them?again thanks for the lessons as i am on a very tight budget and your lessons have really been a nice gift to a new harp player.Wanting to learn all i can
There was an argument back in the late 1800s to close the U.S. Patent office, because everything had already been invented. There is always more out there. Somewhere. There is always new ground to break. ---------- www.elkriverharmonicas.com
Thanks Adam and Jason! You two seriously rock. You guy's started a whole new movement. Modern Blues Harmonica. YouTube. This forum. Great music. Giving it all away.
Truly amazing.
I am so glad to have been a part of this from the first week of YouTube videos. I'm still riding the wave you started. Let's see where it takes me!
Your contribution to the community is outstanding. Through your videos you have made a big difference in my playing. I'd still be learning the basics of 2nd position if not for the two of you. Instead, I'm jammin' at the club almost every week, and playing hours everyday. I'm working out 16th note runs, chromatic scales, and going places I never would have if I'd only listened to classic Chicago blues harp. Because of the two of you I can sit in and play with almost anybody I meet. I've been a classical cat for 20 years, I've had some of the best music teachers in the country while in music school, and I've been teaching and conducting for 7 years. After all that, I can say that there has never been anyone who had as big of an influence on my musical life as the two of you. Because of you two, almost every time I play for someone who has not heard me play before, they ask "how long have you been playing?" When I respond "A year and a half" they say "Holy shit." I've even had a guy ask me to tour around with him playing country music at small clubs. Getting away from classical music and into blues and rock has been very liberating, to the point that I walk to a different beat these days. This has all happened, Adam and Jason, because of you two. Thank you both.
P.S. I'm not kidding.
P.P.S. Are you guys going to leave your videos up?
Go to real.com and download the latest RealPlayer (SP). During installation it will ask if you want to install the "download video" tab. Click YES. After installation, when you play a video the tab will pop up in the upper right corner. Click on it and the download will start in its own "window".
I haven't tried burning to disc yet so i don't know if it takes CD or DVD but I'm planning to try it this week.
Sorry, I was a little vague on what I was talking about. What I mean by torch passing, is the torch will go somewhere else, to another style. The most obvious direction to me is the chromatic. You ought to hear some of the stuff Kitt Gamble can do on chromatics, but in our internet world, Kitt is pretty low profile. As for blues diatonics, these guys have put it out there. At this point, it's up to a generation to absorb it, digest it and come up with something new.
When I was learning, there was nothing. There was no Internet. I had John Gindick's "Country and Blues Harmonica for the Musicially Hopeless" to get me started. Beyond that, I had to develop everything on my own, until I became aware of this wide world around me about three years ago. I actually met jason before I had ever seen one of his videos, or even really knew who he was. He was in town playing a gig, I was a newspaper reporter. So, I called up Jason's people and got an interview. We talked on the phone for a couple of hours and he invites me to hang out after the show. After the show, we go over to his hotel and hang out until 5 a.m. Jason was and is a way better player than I am... especially blues player, since I am primarily a bluegrass player. But he treated me as an equal. I don't mean patronizing, I mean the level he viewed me on was as a human being first, and as such we were equals. What really impressed me was how freely he gives away knowledge. Contrast that with players of a generation before who kept their licks as secret as possible. I learned all kinds of stuff that night, mostly about customizing harmonicas. As a newspaper reporter, I had this maxim that knowledge is best shared anyway, but Jason really inspired me to make the customizing and repair videos. Since then, Jason has been one of my closest friends. He's a good person and a good friend to have. Jason taught me how to overblow, among other things. I had struggled with it for a year, Jason said it's just like a draw bend, only you're blowing, or something like that. It was so simple and it made all the wheels come together.
The greatest contribution these men have made IMO is this spirit of openess, of a harmonica community that shares what it knows and gives people the tools they need to start their own journeys,.
I think the only thing I ever taught Jason was how to shoot a high-power rifle... I owe an unpayable debt of gratitute. Both these men have made the harmonica world far better than it was before they found it.
---------- www.elkriverharmonicas.com
Last Edited by on Oct 04, 2009 9:34 AM
Thanks for your thanks, everybody. My own playing has certainly been transformed in the past couple of years. I've started to overdraw; I've finally started to work on fast sixteenth note stuff and actually get somewhere with it; thanks for Brandon, I've remanufactured myself as a one-man band (Gussow OMB). I've learned just how much I DON'T know about how to tune and tweak a harp. I've been exposed to the playing of countless excellent players whom I'd never heard of. I've made a little money, too. I've learned a heck of a lot about how websites work, Google AdWords, SEO, etc. (If you don't know what SEO is, google it.)
Most of all, I've discovered how enjoyable it is to awaken in other players some of the same joy, ambition, curiosity, and amazement that was awakened in me by the harmonica pretty early on and then stoked by Nat Riddles and the other harp guys I learned from in New York.
There will be more videos at some point. I ain't going anywhere. But the extended outpouring, which had lately become a trickle, is over. Jason and I both felt that. It was time to make a deliberate break and move on. That way, new things can happen.
Yes, I'm certainly going to leave my videos up. Lately YouTube has been retroactively feeding them through some music-recognition software and sending me alerts--on about five videos so far, including, notably, one where I sampled Muddy's "Got My Mojo Working"--to let me know that there's a copyright infringement problem and that they won't be visible in several countries. So far, all my videos are still visible in the great majority of countries. But there was a certain gonzo element to what I did and I was aware that this sort of thing was out there waiting to pounce. I'm happy it's taken this long.
Last Edited by on Oct 04, 2009 10:08 AM
If your videos are being threatened by copyright infringement, I'm going to spend the next few weeks downloading my favorites.
I use firefox extensions like DownloadHelper to save youtube videos to my harddrive. There are many other ways to download and save youtube videos.
Maybe someone can set up a repository of them to ensure that none of this instructional goodness is lost due to overzealous copyright enforcement? I mean, which one is the greater good - the spreading of knowledge or the payment of royalties on a few sound bytes?
I know you offer a few tradebit products that involve a collection of your youtube videos and related documents. Any chance of offering a comprehensive set?
I've lost several to copyright infringement BS. One was one I'd reworked and put up of Jason playing the chord. I had Jason's permission to post it and Jason had no clue what was going on. Unless somebody at Bubba cola was mad about the "Drinkify Bubba cola" promo in it. There are people whose only job is to peruse things for violations of certain copyrights. I remember back in the late 1990s, I wrote a newspaper column and was talking about freezing in "ziplock" bags. About six months later, I get a letter from Ms. Marylyn Blood explaining how I had violated their trademark, etc. That was print only, way before the internet, and just a little newspaper in West Virginia. It was about as far off the radar as you can get, and they found it. So, by all means, save a copy. You never know what will happen... these folks literally have nothing better to do. ---------- www.elkriverharmonicas.com
"The greatest contribution these men have made IMO is this spirit of openess, of a harmonica community that shares what it knows and gives people the tools they need to start their own journeys"
Couldn't agree more. Good people (you too Dave - love the Solist Pro in A).
Jason reminds me of my son. Both with creative, spirits/souls overcoming challenges in life most don't experience. Keep it going Jason.
The wealth of material they have provided on youtube and here is amazing.
Being introduced to so many incredible players/people and styles (to include other instruments - ref Adams "Classic Harmonica Blues" page for starters) is an incredible win for all.
As I write this I'm listening to Dr. Ross, "Boogie Disease" album, "Goin Back South" in particular. I never would have known about him had it not been for Adam (buy this lesson - lots of fun).
Jon Gindick taught me how to walk with his Rock 'n Blues Harmonica book when I crawled with a harmonica that hardly had my spit on it. Adam Gussow taught me how to run with that harmonica. Somewhere between the two, Grant Dermody gave me a couple hours of confirmation about all I was confused about, but it's been 190+ youtube videos and purchased lessons from the store by Adam that really helped me understand what I can do with this box of harps I have. The generosity he's shown by giving it away has given me more to work with than I can do yet. I don't discount the paid lessons of a harmonica instructor in lieu of Adam's lessons - but I'm enjoying the fact that I can learn on my own and find instuctors for further progression and experience. Discovering Jason's playing more recently has given me inspiration for what a harp can sound like, and do, beyond pure blues, with unconventional speed, technique, and phrasing. I've got miles to go yet. But the roadmap has been laid out by the experts. Perhaps one of the greatest eye-openers for me among Adam's videos were those where he explained how to transpose other instruments to harp, and how to find the key and play along with songs that you had to identify via guitar or harp. The explanation of technique has been amazing to confirm what a dry printed page wouldn't, but learning how to use the instrument with your ears was the next big jump that helped me find how to learn other harp parts by key, or match horn/music parts to a harp equivalent.
just 50 more to go ive started downloading the videos at 9:00 am yesterday morning slept 3 hours last night but other than that.Ive been downloading them it takes about 5 min a video to download.i needed to be doing this a long time ago it would have been easier.but they are worth it.im not obsessed just determined lol.
A great big thanks to Adam & jason ,your instructional materail has been more than inspiring to some one who had no musical talant ,to be able to pick up a harp and actually play alone .thanks MY HAT IS OFF TO THE BOTH OF YOU.It`s the best thing to happen to a 50yrs old @ this point in life.the frozen canuck
Adam and Jason, I started out wanting to learn harmonica and it turned out to be only a small part of what I ACTUALLY got from your great youtube posts. I have been exposed to the blues now and I'm hooked. You guys have had a profound impact on me and I thank you.
I saw someone said for free.. No one does anything for free.. Adam is a teacher and he does not do that for free..When he started this he put these lessons up on the honor system like buying tomatoes from a stand. When you took the tomatoes you paid for them. We all took the lessons.. Did you pay for them.When he got to lesson one hundred I sent him 1.00 for every lesson.I can afford it. So pay for your tomatoes in your own way. He worked for it and deserves it.That is the American way.PEACE HARP (Harmonica Assn 'Round Philly
Gussow.000: "What I've decided to do is... GIVE it all away"
I truly believe in supporting Adam and his website and I've since bought his books/music/MBH lessons, but the "tip bucket" is for appreciation not the honor system.
