Guitar and Harmonica Method
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About this ebook
The Guitar and Harmonica Method provides aspiring musicians with the basic tools and knowledge needed to play guitar and harmonica together, to be able to perform great songs with confidence and to gain a deeper musical understanding. Guitar instruction is introduced in the first section, harmonica instruction in the second. The third section utilizes music theory to bring the instruments together. Here the student gains the understanding of how to pick the correct key harmonica depending on the chords and style of a song, as well as learning which holes on the harmonica, blow or draw, match the notes of the chord on the guitar. Diagrams, examples and practice exercises reinforce the exciting information.
George Goodman
George Goodman is a multi-instrumentalist performer, music instructor, videographer, web admin, family-man located in Qualicum Beach, British Columbia on beautiful Vancouver Island. Having grown up in a musical family and completed the Commercial Music Diploma program from Capilano College majoring on Tenor Saxophone, George continues his life-long musical passion by playing solo gigs on guitar, harmonica and vocals, as a member of a number of bands playing rock, folk and blues on saxophone, harmonica, and keyboards as well as an instructor to music students worldwide via Skype and locally in-person. George has also written and produced a growing collection of instructional videos teaching how to play classic rock, blues and folk songs on guitar and harmonica.
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Guitar and Harmonica Method - George Goodman
GUITAR AND HARMONICA METHOD
By George Goodman
Copyright 2013 George Goodman
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Visit us on the web at: http://www.georgegoodman.com
Email: contact@georgegoodman.com
Table of Contents
Preface
A Brief Introduction To Notes And Intervals
SECTION1 - RHYTHM GUITAR
Parts Of The Guitar
Choosing A Guitar
What’s The Best Way For Holding A Guitar
How To Tune The Guitar
Basic Chords And Reading A Chord Diagram
Rhythm And Counting The Beat
SECTION 2 - HARMONICA
Choosing A Harmonica
Harmonica Parts And Maintenance
How To Get The Best Sound Out Of The Harmonica
How To Play Single Notes
Vibrato
Bending Notes
Harmonica Embellishments
Harmonica Tablature
SECTION 3 - GUITAR AND HARMONICA
Music Theory Benefits
Music Theory For Guitar And Harmonica
What Key Harmonica Should I Use
Relating The Harmonica To Chords On The Guitar
How To Play Blues On Guitar And Harmonica
How To Learn Songs
Songs For Practice
8 Practice Tips To Get Good Fast
Wrap Up
About The Author
Preface
Hi, my name is George Goodman and I love music - learning, playing, recording and teaching classic rock, folk and blues songs on guitar and harmonica.
There is a great amount of materials available explaining and showing how to play guitar or how to play harmonica on their own but there is very little material that I have found that explains how to play the two together, how the harmonica relates to the guitar, what holes to play when a particular chord is played on guitar, or how to determine which harmonica to play when certain guitar chords are played.
In response to many of my guitar and harmonica song lesson videos which you can see on my website, georgegoodman.com, I have received many comments to the effect that it looks too difficult to play both instruments at the same time.
So the reason I have assembled this eBook is threefold.
1) To provide the basics to anyone who shares the same love for great songs and wants to learn to play them on guitar and harmonica.
2) To fill in the void or absence of instruction relating the two instruments together.
3) To dispel the illusion that playing guitar and harmonica at the same time is too difficult.
This book is divided into three sections. The first two sections deal with providing basic instruction for both instruments as well as a breakdown of rhythm and counting the beat.
From a rhythm perspective, I believe that people have an innate ability to keep time. When a person’s favourite song is playing, the body instinctively responds by tapping a foot to the beat of the music. The listener doesn’t need to think about keeping in time with the music. It just happens. Strumming a guitar to keep time or to play rhythm is very similar to tapping your foot in time. It is simply keeping time with a different part of the body and can be practiced and learned so that rhythm guitar playing becomes instinctual allowing more focus to be available to be directed to the harmonica playing.
Basic understanding, having a basic setup – guitar, harmonica, and holder - and a bit of practice on each instrument is all you need to get started and in the first two sections I’ll take you through what you need to know.
The third section brings the two instruments together. Basic music theory is explored to help explain which key harmonica to use depending on the chords of the song and what notes or holes to play depending on a particular chord. Practice exercises bring these concepts home, bring the two instruments together, help refine the skills you develop from the first two sections and introduce ear training to hear chord tones, scale tones, degrees of the scale, intervals and to understand what you’re hearing.
Let’s do this.
A Brief Introduction To Notes And Intervals
Music theory is explained in more depth in the ‘Music Theory for Guitar and Harmonica’ chapter but reference to notes and other musical elements is necessary when discussing any musical ideas and instruments. So to get started, I wanted to briefly introduce a couple of music concepts, notes and intervals.
The standard Western system of music is made up of 12 repeatable notes. These notes are named by letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G, plus two modifier symbols, sharp (#) and flat (b). The interval between two adjacent notes is called a semi-tone. Two semi-tones make up the interval known as a whole tone. To sharp a note is to raise the note by a semi-tone. To flat a note is to lower a note by a semi-tone.
That should cover the very basics so that I can introduce note names and intervals without having to delve right away into too much theory.
SECTION 1 – RHYTHM GUITAR
Parts Of The Guitar
Let’s get started by learning the parts of a typical steel string acoustic guitar as shown below.
1) Head – located at the end of the instrument and is outfitted with machine heads where the strings attach.
2) Nut – strip of hard material where the neck meets the head. The nut has grooves in it to guide each of the strings laterally along the length of the guitar.
3) Machine Heads or Tuning Keys – located in the head of the guitar are used to tune the guitar by changing the tension in the strings. Increasing the tension raises the pitch while decreasing the tension lowers the pitch.
4) Neck – consists of the guitar’s fretboard and frets, head and machine heads. In order for a guitar to stay in tune and produce constant pitches, the neck needs to withstand the tension of the strings without bending. This is one of the main features that separate a good guitar from a cheap guitar.
5) Fretboard or Fingerboard – lies along the flat of the neck and is divided into sections by small metal strips called frets. Pinching a string against the fretboard effectively raises the pitch of a note by shortening the vibrating length of the string. The longer the vibrating length of a string, the lower the pitch. The shorter the length, the higher the pitch.
6) Frets – are raised metal strips that are inserted perpendicularly along the fretboard to divide the neck into segments. Each fret represents a semi-tone in the standard 12 tone western system.
7) Body – The body of a guitar includes the main body cavity, the sound board, sound hole and internal bracing. In acoustic guitars, the body is a main determinant in overall sound quality. Sound vibrations are transferred to the body through the bridge and saddle via the sound board which is the top of the guitar containing the sound whole and on which the bridge and saddle are mounted. The main factors that determine sound quality are the material used to create the sound board and the shape and size of the resonant cavity of the body. The majority of the