More Adam Gussow

by Christopher Flynn — Tuesday, October 06, 2009

So I finally broke down and purchased Adam Gussow's beginner special. It has some really good fundamentals in there along with a decent song. He calls it Floyd's Hotel from the J. Geils band but it seems to be just similar to the song and not necessarily something someone who knows the song would recognize as the song.

I got some money for my birthday and I decided to check out a couple of his other paid videos. In his youtube videos he is all over the place (which is cool, as he says "all harmonica players are a little crazy) and he still is to some extent in his paid for videos but they are usually a bit longer and he does stay a little more focused. So where am I now and what did I get? Well I can play single notes most of the time. I'm also starting to bend notes, I can bend the 4 hole draw really well but the other bends are hit or miss. I can follow along on for the most part on all the lessons in the beginner special so I'm feeling pretty confident in my beginner stage.

Adam has a really good (free) tutorial on counting the 12 bar blues. The link is to youtube and it's part 1 of a 3 part series. It's a good lesson for anyone wanting to learn the blues and I can now count along for the most part to a song that's in the 12 bar blues format. I sometimes get confused and still have more to learn so I was thinking about getting Adam's Counting and Playing the 12 Bar Blues paid lesson. However I think I'll wait on that since I don't know too many songs yet and if someone asks me to play, I'd like to be able to play something other than Oh Suzanna or other simple songs and instead play a more bluesy tune.

Which song (or songs) did I get? Well he has a few in the beginner section but I decided to get Same old blues (and tab), Bittersweet Boogie (and tab) and the tab to Put on your red dress (Not Roxanne by the Rolling Stones) which you might now as the theme to Sesame Street (go listen to the preview on tradebit). I may get the video later but for now I'll just play with the tab.

Some of his other beginner songs are: Whistlin' the Blues (and tab), Mojo (and tab), Rock around the clock (in two version; tab1 and tab2). These look a little harder and I may get these after I master the songs I just bought probably in the order they are listed here.

Most of them have previews available (Bittersweet boogie doesn't but someone has their version up on youtube) so you can preview the songs. I'm also thinking of starting my own youtube lessons. From a beginner for beginners with the idea that I teach you what I'm learning. My reason for thinking about this is that there's not a lot of beginner stuff out there. A lot of what Adam does is more intermediate, especially his free stuff. I also figure if you hear how bad I start out and then improve, your playing might not sound that bad. I know I can get frustrated at times hearing Adam just play and how I'm no where near that level. If you think it's a good idea/bad idea drop me a note or leave a comment below.

If you think you want to use Adam's instruction, I recommend starting with the beginner's special and then to continue, start with Bittersweet Boogie (and tab) and then go to Same old blues (and tab). The beginners special helps teach you how to develop a rhythm with the shuffle lesson. It's good because it's all chords so if you are having problems with single notes, it's a good lesson to start with. Then the Stompin lesson takes it another step integrating single notes into the chord rhythm. Floyd's Hotel is a nice practice for those single notes but Adam also give some tips if you already have them down on adding things like glissandros. Finally there's the lesson on bending the 4 hole draw. It's probably the easiest to bend so it's a good place to start. The two song lessons I purchased help build on things already learned in the beginners special package and I highly recommend Adam's lessons.