You happen to play as well? I've talked to JJ about this many times. He has used pretty much all of the major brands, Oskar, Hohner, etc... But unless anything has changed, he mainly uses Hering Harmonicas now. The Hering Blues to be exact. With songs like Junior and some of the beatings he gives his Harps, he said that he switched to Herings because they were the best bang for thier buck. The website he was buying from though recently shut down, so possibly could have changed his mind since then, but from what I've seen of the recent videos, he's still using Herings. I have quite a few Herings myself, good harp for the money. Thanks for bringing up the topic though and if you have any other questions about harmonicas and JJ playing them, let me know, hopefully I can answer them!!!
---------- Delerious Tyme
Mofro for life in Arizona The Rhythm Room is exactly that when the boys are kicking it here. "Walking on Moonlight in the Day."
Thanks DT. I wish I played well, quite the beginner actually. I wonder if just messing around with the harp is just as good as getting a "how to play" book. Any tips are appreciated! Have a Beautiful day!! ---------- "Lord feel that vibe, Lord feel that vibe....."
Anytime Sunshine, glad to hear you are an inspiring Harp player. I am as well. I picked up the Harmonica because of JJ and listening to his music. I had always heard or listened to music with the harp in it but it wasn’t until listening to JJ and seeing him play it live that I said to myself “I wanna do that, I want to play like that.” Ever since then I’ve been playing. Now when I go to see JJ play and get the chance to chat with him afterwards, I always seem to ask him a question about the harmonica. That is how I figured out what brand he plays. I’ve asked him everything from the first time meeting him when I wondered about the key of harp he plays Lochloosa in to just simply thanking him for adding it to one of my all time favorites, Dew Drops. That definitely threw me off on the new album when I knew that Dew Drops was gonna be on there along with She Don’t Know before getting the chance to hear the album itself. Because, if you listen to the live versions of both of them from the past, Dew Drops never had harp in it, but She Don’t Know always did.
As far as any tips that I have, feel free to ask me anything you want about the Harp and I will do my best to answer them. I’ve been playing for a little over 2 years now and while I feel that I’ve gotten 10 times better than the early days, I always seem to find out something new or learn something new every time I pick one up and play. I’ve used the books initially to start learning and they can be very helpful, but there are a lot of resources on the internet that are free that you can utilize to help you learn how to play. The one tip that I took to heart and you will see it throughout is to just stay with it, don’t let it get you frustrated after trying to do certain things with the harmonica. Carry one with you so you can play it whenever in your free time. The more you play and practice, the better you will get and the more you will learn. It’s not so much that you play exactly like JJ or anyone else, but that it is an emotional and expressive instrument. You can express what you want to through the harmonica and create your own sound. Once you do that everything else will fall into place.
Here is a good resource for harmonica tabs, unfortunately they don’t have any Mofro tabs, but if you want those, let me know and I will post them on here for you. www.harptabs.com
This is a great resource with a bunch of free instruction to get started. www.coast2coastmusic.com
Harp On!
---------- Delerious Tyme
Mofro for life in Arizona The Rhythm Room is exactly that when the boys are kicking it here. "Walking on Moonlight in the Day."
Very Good advice! And thanks for all the info and the open offer to toss questions your way, I am sure that I will. ---------- "Lord feel that vibe, Lord feel that vibe....."
Hey DT. Thanks for the harp tips. I've been playin the harp for a couple years, but still very much a beginner too. Never tried a Hering before, so I'll have to check one out. I think the thing that has helped me most in learning how to blow is by just playing along with the music I'm listening to. I'm too apprehensive about jammin much with my musically inclined friends, so I play along with Mofro, Black Keys, Zeppelin, or whatever else I'm feelin. Mofro is fun as hell to play along with.
DT - if you have tabs handy, I'd love to see 'em.
Sunshine - carry a harp around, but not in your back pocket. I've ruined too many that way.
Heathen, thanks for jumping in, like I posted before, harmonicas are my kinda topic and with JJ's music it doesn't get any better. Also, thanks for throwing in that advice about playing along, that was something that definitely helped me not only with the harmonica but with tabbing out the music in general. Even just listening to music with the harmonica when you can't play along helps alot too. The one thing I didn't mention was the importance of bending, but didn't want to express that right off the bat. I think alot of people give up on playing the harmonica because they get frustrated trying to figure out how to bend. To me, I think it is much easier to learn and stay interested if you master the basics before learning to bend. That's what is great about JJ's music, he doesn't use bends all that often and if he does, it can easily be done without them without changing the song or riff.
As for tabs, I pretty much have all of JJ's music tabbed both for guitar/piano (if you check the post topic mofro tabs) and for harmonica too. Any particular song or songs you were interested in? Just let me know and I'll post what I have for you.
For others like Zeppelin and alot of mainstream, that site I posted above has a ton of tabs, www.harptabs.com. Don't know about the Black Keys on there and know for a fact they don't have any of JJ's music tabbed, but it's a great resource for all sorts of music.
---------- Delerious Tyme
Mofro for life in Arizona The Rhythm Room is exactly that when the boys are kicking it here. "Walking on Moonlight in the Day."
Last Edited by on Feb 18, 2009 3:21 PM
DT - I appreciate the response and the offer. Been away from the site for a few weeks. As per your offer, I'd love to see the harp tabs you've put together. I see someone else is looking for Lochloosa tabs too.
The handful of songs I've been messin around with are: Country Ghetto (super fun to wail on) Dew Drops Everybody's How Jr. Lochloosa
I'd be stoked to see any or all harp tabs for these.
As far as playing, I'm super novice, but I have figured out bending notes, and that just may be my favorite part.
Hey, I've been away from the page for a bit, but back and good to hear from you. By being away from the page, means I've been away from the internet as well for the weekend. I also saw that Gimme a Drop was looking for harp tabs for Lochloosa as well. I have them, I just need to put them on paper, or in text in this case. I will get them out as soon as I can.
As for your harp tabs, I have them as well, I will post those too. You know the keys to play all of those in? If not, let me know and that will atleast get you started.
Good to see that you can bend, you've gotten past the hardest part of playing the harp, you should be on the easy road to playing some killer harp. It took me a while to learn how to bend and then after that to master it. Being able to bend at will is something that will turn a novice into a master of the harmonica.
---------- Delerious Tyme
Mofro for life in Arizona The Rhythm Room is exactly that when the boys are kicking it here. "Walking on Moonlight in the Day."
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