What are the 5 steps to success?
We will hold your hand and walk you through, step by step, slowly slowly!
STEP 1. Ready Steady Go... (54321) This is where you learn the foundations. You will want to understand what your harmonica can do so you can build your higher-level skills on a solid foundation. We teach you how to hold it, how to breathe properly, how to play and use chords, how to play simple blues straight away, how and why playing in rhythm is critical, the 'groove', simple maintenance, care and repair of your harmonica.
'It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing' - we start with rhythm!
STEP 2. Game-changing baby steps:
The next step is getting single notes so you can play tunes. We teach you all the 9 ways to get single notes so you can start playing easy tunes immediately. This is where we start learning how and why and when to BEND notes. You will need note-bending skills to open up the harmonica and to play BLUES
STEP 3. Playing music with other people - how?
This is where we dig deep into the BLUES! Practising with blues backing tracks (and enjoying open mic sessions) is a great confidence booster to prepare for playing live with other people. We teach you everything you need to start having fun playing music in a live group setting.
STEP 4. Turbocharge your skills:
Next you will want to gain some higher-level skills like note bending, improvising, playing in other keys, playing different styles of music, and playing more interesting tunes. We will hold your hand all the way through!
STEP 5. Finally, you will want to think about performance and musicality. Even if you are 'just’ performing Happy Birthday, or playing at a Jam Session, you will need to know how to become confident, to stand out from the crowd, and not make a complete arse of yourself. You can do it!
An American student asked: 'Wait a minute, are you telling me you are gonna to hold my hand and kick my butt?' I said 'Yessir' he said 'Ok I'm in!'
How does it work? 3 parts:
1.Pre-recorded video lessons and some books
2.Daily Diary and Acountability for success
3.Group coaching on zoom
How do we coach/mentor our students?
3 pillars; training, feedback, live zoom sessions (blended learning)
1.Pre-recorded lessons. Study with Ben's video courses and tuition books (daily study 30 mins a day or so)
2.Daily Diary. Write a daily practice diary to get daily Support, Mentoring, Feedback, and Encouragement from Ben and fellow students
3.Group coaching on zoom. Attend Ben's Group Zoom calls/Breakout Groups (Mon 7pm/Wed 3pm/Fri 7pm UK timezone) to have 3 x 121 lessons with Ben every week in a group setting.
***BONUS access to regular Guest Masterclasses and Open Mic Sessions
If you follow the program, and do what you are told, success is inevitable.
Training Videos and Books are all included (lifetime access)
HARMONICA MASTERY TRAINING
Milestone 1 - Breathing, Chords, Rhythm, and Chugging
- HARMONICA BASICS - all you need to get started
- How to practice - here's where you build your daily routine and 5-part practice schedule - aim for 1% improvement every day
- Train sounds - breathing, chords, and rhythms in a locomotive setting
- Get Chugging - breathing, chords, and articulations in musical settings
- Get Chugging Book - This is a stand-alone version containing a 'pdf and backing tracks'
- Blues level 1 - basic blues chugging using chords in a '12 bar blues' structure/sequence. Ignore the latter part with single notes - come back to it after you've done the 'Five ways to play single notes' course
- Cleaning and maintenance - workshop with Kinya Pollard many ways to clean your harmonica
- Tone masterclass - 27 ideas to help you work on your tone
- Horn Lines for harmonica players. Audio and visual help for learning horn lines featuring Sean The Horn as a guest teacher on sax and harp.
- Where can I play my harmonica? It's a joke.
- How to play 15 tunes just using chords - this shows you how easy it is to play chordal tunes and to transition towards single note playing - on which more in Milestone 2
Milestone 2 - Single Notes (one note, one hole):
- Five ways to play single notes (we keep finding new ways - up to 8 now)
- Search for the Single Note
- 17 Simple Scales
- Blues level 2
- BLUES JAM FACTORY - BOOK 1
- Love me do
- FUNKY NURSERY - BOOK
- How to hack your harmonica using 'masking tape'
- Drum Rudiments for harmonica
- Impro from scratch
- MASTERMIX - BOOK
- Harmonica hooks and hits
• Note-bending basics - draw bending
• Tunes - learn 11 great tunes
• Basic 12 bar blues
• Sonny Terry - 19 licks
• Dummies - this is a recap of many techniques you have learned in this section
Milestone 3 - Blues focus:
• Blues chromatic (no chrom? We can send you one)
• BLUES JAM FACTORY - BOOK 2
• One harp, 2 tunes, 3 positions
• 101 BLUES RIFFS - BOOK
• Blues 12 bar bassline
• BONES OF THE BLUES - BOOK
• Bones of the Blues - the movie
• Fresh simple blues
• Blues licks 101 new riffs
• Sugar Mama - Sonnyboy 1 (John Lee)
• Spokey Dokey
• Fox Chase - Deford Bailey, Henry Witter
• Tramp groove
• Easy - Big Walter
• Trouble in Mind - Sonny Terry
• All my love in vain - Sonnyboy 2 (Rice Miller)
• My Babe - Little Walter
• Whammer Jammer
• Learning Lost John
Milestone 4- Advanced techniques:
• All the basic techniques again - a quick refresh to roar through - The original title is '30 day challenge', but for you, this is just a recap to see if you missed anything -you might pick up something new
• One harp, 2 tunes, 3 positions
• Note-bending advanced - blow bending, overblow and overdraw
• Tongue-blocking, splits, octaves, flutters, warbles
• Minor tune, major harmonica
• Just play
• Seven showstopping tricks
• Turbocharge your harmonica
• Twenty awesomely different ways to play tunes
• Seven tips on improvising
• Nine smart ways to play with a band
• Music workout
• Seven amazing new skills to learn
• 1st position
• 2nd position
• 3rd position
• Learn Harmonica Part 1 - BOOK
• Learn Harmonica Part 2 - BOOK
• Learn Harmonica Part 3 - BOOK
Milestone 5 - Repertoire, music from many genres and countries
• Yesterday
• Hallelujah
• Georgia On My Mind
• Cajun
• Country
• Celtic
• Reggae
• Rock
• Bluegrass
• Old Time
• Jazz
• Funk
• Indian Classical
• Folk
• 'World music'
Guest Masterclasses recorded live - look at all the famous names! :
- Howard Levy Masterclass
- Joe Filisko - Masterclass
- Madcat Ruth - meet Madcat!
- Ben Bouman - lessons on TONE
- Olaf Bohme - The Big Harmonica Songbook explained
- Ernie Gordon - Tremolo Troubadour
- Rohan Singhal - Indian Classical on diatonic October 2022
- Roly Platt - playing FUNK on diatonic Sept 2022
- PT Gazell How to approach Jazz on Diatonic August 2022
- Steve Weston Canvey Island Blues Expert July 2022
- Niki - iReal Pro demonstration June 2022
- Ed Hopwood May 2022 Country Grooves and Rhythms
- Sean The Horn April 2022 Horn Line Workshop
- Gerhard Muller 37 years at HOHNER! Product manager
- Phil Henry - Folk Music and Beatboxing Tutorial
- Brendan Power Feb 2022 - the new modular system reed system
- Rob (Blues Brothers Frontman) Paparozzi Performance Masterclass
- Rachelle Plas 11.9.21 Country Music Masterclass
- Ed Hopwood 20.8.21 (132:10) Old Timey Style
- Aidan Sheehan 17.7.21 (61:36) Cajun Music on harmonica
- Paul Lennon 10.7.21 (73:04) Music Theory
- John Cook 3.7.21 (78:38) Maintenance and engineering
- Johnny Cope 26.6.21 Harmonics Jaws Harp, Throat Singing Didgeridoo
- Paul Lamb 19.6.21 (63:18) Sonny Terry Master
- Joe Filisko 12.6.21 (86:46) The Master Talks
- Jimi Lee 5.6.21 The groove master talks
- Kinya Pollard 8.5.21 (59:06) Cleaning and maintenance
- Keith Parker 27.3.21 (56:14) Blues Blues and Blues
- Will Wilde 13.3.21 (57:09) Rock Harmonica Star
- Rachelle Plas 27.2.21 (45:29) French Harp Star
- Brendan Power 13.2.21 (45:52) Celtic music, looping and music tech
- Ed Hopwood 30.1.21 (132:10) Old Timey Style
Harmonica Factory tours and chats:
- Hohner Harmonica Factory in Trossingen, Germany
- Dabell Harmonica Factory - wonderful video
- Interview with Benny Yoon - owner of Dabell Harmonica Company
- Easttop Ben's visit to Easttop and Kongsheng
- Bertram Becher Seydel Harmonica Factory in Klingenthal
Lockdown 2020 guests
- 5.4.20 Ed Hopwood, Keith Parker, Filip Jers
- 12.4.20 Will Wilde, Lars from Seydel, Richard Taylor
- 19.4.20 Joe Filisko, Jerry Fierro, Rob Paparozzi
- 26.4.20 John Cook, Roly Platt, Brendan Power
- 3.5.20 Rohan Singhal, Johnny Cope, John and Yuki Vaughan
- 10.5.20 Paul Lamb, Giles Robson, Simon Joy
- 17.5.20 Beata Kosovska, Steve Baker, Adam Gussow
- 24.5.20 Lee Oskar, Moses Concas, Steve Lockwood
- 31.5.20 David Barrett, Kinya Pollard, Greh Heuman HEUMANN
- 7.6.20 Jason Ricci, Tom Halchack, Rob Paparozzi
- 21.6.20 Rick Park, Mark Cole, Dave Walker, Jimi Lee
All Ben's 20 Books are also all included
Overview
If you would like an overview of Ben and Paul's Books, and to watch a video about each one, please visit https://harmonicaworld.net/collections/all-products. There's no need to buy them as they are all included in the Harmonica Mastery 90 Day Program.
How does this Facebook thing work?
It's a 90 day video diary challenge to help you document your success
- It's a private group - invitation only, no twits allowed
- We give you the opportunity to post a 1-minute video every day
- You get instant feedback from fellow students and our group experts
- You will be heard, listened to, congratulated and encouraged
- You might get your rear end kicked as well - but in a nice way!
- You get the chance to help your fellow students on their journey
- You will document your harmonica journey every day for 90 days
- You will want to do a farewell performance on day 90
- You make friends for life and watch their harmonica careers unfold
- After 90 days you go to the Graduate Facebook group
- You might become a group expert or get another job hosting/helping
- After that - we might invite you to do the 90 day journey again...
- It's a little bit of pressure - not too much, just enough
- Don't forget - you get lifetime access to all this
Private Facebook Group Daily Mentoring
Private Facebook Group Daily Mentoring
Practise diaries
'Want to learn harmonica? Study with Ben Hewlett' Paul Jones, Manfred Mann, BBC R2 Blues Show, President of HarmonicaUK (Ben's former line manager!)
