Teaching
Patrick teaches blues, jazz and melodic music on the diatonic and chromatic harmonica. Since 2014 he has regularly taught workshops at the Harmonica UK (HUK) Chromatic Weekend and the HUK annual festival in Solihull & to individual pupils at home or online. Isadore Bhattacharya is his most successful pupil so far as HarmonicaUK Youth champion in 2024 at the age of 10 years old. Astasr of the future maybe! Here are a few extracts from workshops . Contact Patrick for details.
Pupil News
Isadore has been learning with me for three years weekly during term time. In 2023 he was runner up in the under 11 years competition with his bluesy version of When the Saints Go Marching In and he strode onto be first in 2024 with his imaginative take on 'Campdown Races'. To celebrate we made a fundraiser Christmas video of the great Brenda Lee hit 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' with Izzy on vocals and me on harmonica. We raised £800 through 'Justgiving' for the Robes Project for the Homeless at Southwark Cathedral. Now in October 2024 Izzy is all set to travel to Trossingen to take part in the World Harmonica Federation solo Jazz competition and rub shoulders iwth the stars of the harmonica world. Take a look in the music section.
Izzy is learning both diatonic and chromatic in tandem and has learnt to read music at school. We do tab some pieces so he can quickly find the notes on the harmonica but he mainly now reads the dots directly. Just to keep himself busy he also learns the trumpet. He will be at such an advantage later over we, self taught players, who don't read that well. He is switching easily between singing and playing the same songs so he learns them inside out. It has been a tremendous pleasure to teach him and we look forward to both taking part in the World Harmonica Federation Festival and competition in Trossingen, Germany later in 2025. We can expect a lot more good harmonica news from this young man. See gallery for pics and the music section for his videos all uploaded with his and his parents express permission.
The Turnaround
Play good melodies over a famous chord sequence.
One of the most common chord sequences in pop and jazz is the I vi ii V. In the key of C this is C Am7 Dm7 G7. This sequence can from the backbone of a whole song (This Boy, Beatles; Stand by Me, Ben E King) and most famously forms the first 8 bars of George Gershwin’s ‘I Got Rhythm’ also known throughout the jazz world as part of ‘Rhythm Changes.’ In its simplest form this chord sequence is diatonic i.e. it all plays in one key signature. It makes a nice basis for less experienced players to learn to play a whole stack of nice melodic lines with good tone and rhythm, stronger players can also improvise and play at speed.
Sing and Play
Learn to use your voice to dream up nice musical phrases to play on harmonica.
More people have a voice than have a harmonica. Some say that the harmonica is the closest instrument in feel and sound to the human voice. Listen to Stevie Wonder, the great blues singers, Beatles, Marvin Gaye singing and you’ll hear that the voice is the most inventive musical resource we all have.
In this workshop no great voice skills are needed – just bring the voice you’ve got.(and a Chromatic or diatonic harmonica in C). We will learn simple but nicely rhythmic phrases on a famous minor blues in D minor by J.J. Cale, Cajun Moon and transfer them to the harmonica. I hope to show you that it is easier and quicker to think of new musical ideas by using your voice and then playing what you sang with the harmonica. It’s a great way to get in the groove. ‘Be Bop a Lula!!’
Play Blues in (nearly) All Keys on Chromatic Harmonica –
Intermediate & Advanced
In this workshop we will look at the structure of several blues songs, but with a focus on Bessies Blues by John Coltrane. Open in Spotify.
This is actually a straight-forward 12 bar blues. Don’t be put off by the challenging melody! You do not even have to play it like Coltrane does, since many simpler heads will fit the blues chords. Depending a little on the skill and enthusiasm of students we will take one or two songs through several keys and learn how the blues changes 'sit' on the chromatic.
Sing and Play – All levels
Learn to use your voice to dream up nice musical phrases to play on harmonica.
More people have a voice than have a harmonica. Some say that the harmonica is the closest instrument in feel and sound to the human voice. Listen to Stevie Wonder, the great blues singers, Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Adele or Ed Sheeran, inging and you’ll hear that the voice is the most inventive musical resource we all have.
In this workshop no great voice skills are needed – just bring the voice you’ve got (and a Chromatic in C or diatonic harmonicas in C AND Bb). We will learn simple but nicely rhythmic phrases on the famous traditional song in F ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’. My favourite version is by Eric Clapton (but the original is in E major) and transfer them to the harmonica. Open in Spotify.
I hope to show you that it is easier and quicker to think of new musical ideas by using your voice and then playing what you sang with the harmonica. It’s a great way to get in the groove. ‘Be Bop a Lula!!’
The Performance – All levels
The Show must go on! Get the best out of your performance skills.
Ducking out of the practice room and onto a stage, studio or performance area can be stimulating and fun for the budding harmonica player. It is great to hear the harmonica cutting through the band, but wait a minute… the sax is too loud or the count in was too fast and ...Oops... You did not quite learn the middle 8 properly & you missed a cue for a solo... AND... Suddenly you are tense and your mouth is dry. Luckily you wake up at that point and realise it was a bad dream and the show is not right now but later that evening. You have plenty of time to prepare and can relax. Or can you?
Paddy will be accompanied by ace jazz guitarist Ed Coma performing songs from his current set and mixing in some chat on how to prepare for performance and how you can make sure it all goes well.