More RP355 Loop Jams–This Time, Rock
Here are a couple of new cuts from the same sessions that produced “On the Road Again” and the funky loop jam. “Dawn Like Thunder” is a slow, peaceful piece with some beautiful counterpoint. The patch I use to play it has an LFO modulating…
“On The Road Again” with the RP355
The piece attached to this post is a segment from a performance I put together using the Digitech RP355 loaded with my patch set for Digitech RP, plus the RP355’s builtin looper. The sounds include beatboxed percussion (run through a patch with heavy vibrato and…
One more time: what’s the best choice for your first (harp) amp?
Every year around Christmas we re-publish our piece on choosing your first harp amp (and the rest of your amped setup). It’s that time again, folks. Click here to get the straight story on how to set yourself up to play harp, loud. One wickedly…
#28 Ever? We’ll Take It
I found out today that I’m listed as #28 on “The Top 100 Harmonica Players To Ever Walk The Planet” at harmonica.com. Seriously. See for yourself. I’m glad to be in the company of the kind of people that populate this list, and it made…
Why is Harmonica Not a Foundational Instrument? Because You Can’t Sing While You Play It
There are a few instruments–or roles, perhaps–that you hear in just about every band that’s playing anything related to roots or any popular style. Something is making a bass line. Something is percussively pounding out a rhythm. Something is playing chords or adding color above…
“Comin Home Baby” Live with Wim Dijkgraaf, 29 October 2014
I’ve known Dutch-born harmonica virtuoso and composer Wim Dijkgraaf since the late 1990s. Wim now lives in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and I joined up with him there at Gartner’s Symposium ITXPO conference to perform this duet on Ben Tucker’s “Comin Home Baby” in front of…
Why We Make Big Cool Sounds for Harp Players: History is On Our Side
There was a recent discussion on Harp-L of FX, which I found revealing of all sorts of things. It’s chronicled here, and be warned: gotta lotta words. (The boldface emphases I put on certain lines in that discussion were added by me, and were not…
In the Studio: Keepers of the Streak
I did a session earlier this week with Brian Keane, a composer/producer I’ve worked with on a number of occasions, for a TV movie titled “Keepers of the Streak”, which is about four photographers in their 70s/80s who’ve photographed every Superbowl from the start. (The…
Digitech RP360XP or RP500? Here’s how I make up my mind
I published most of this post in a response to a question posted in the comments here. I figured that it was worth publishing as a post in its own right. So here are a half dozen things I think about when I’m choosing between…
RP Tip #23: Use the Expression Pedal for SOMETHING
This tip’s message is simple. You’ve got an expression pedal. It makes the RP more expressive (as you might expect from a pedal whose name includes the word “expression”). So use it on every patch to express something.
