This is video from our one and only live gig, June 11 in Evanston, IL. 

The first tune, a free improvisation, starts at 8:18. I hope you all enjoy this. We made a CD of free improvs a few years ago. You can check it out here: http://balkansamba.com/recordings/first-takes/

When you play like this with the right people, some really good things can happen. I hope some of you check this out and enjoy it.

ArtistWorks instructor Howard Levy was recently interviewed on WBUR.org's "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" by guest host Jane Clayson. Check out this great clip of Howard playing blues in all 12 keys on harmonica, and listen below to the full interview from WBUR.org:

I usually encourage everyone to buy CDs, but I just found a link to this CD on youtube. It's a one-time-only recording I made in 1999 with 3 great musicians. We had never played together before, spent 9 days recording this CD at Steve Smith's home studio in the Bay Area. It's one of my favorite things that I've ever recorded. All the music is original, including a few free improvs. Steve, violinist Jerry Goodman and I played together a few times after this, but not with bassist Oteil Burbridge, I'm sorry to say. So give it a listen if you have some time on your hands. If you make it all the way to the end, you will hear the fastest harmonica solo that I've ever recorded starting around 4 minutes into the last tune. On this link this part of the tune starts around 48:20.

The diatonic harmonica poses some unique challenges to someone starting to play it. Unlike most other Western instruments, it is not designed to play all the notes. Most diatonic harmonicas are set up using what is called the Richter tuning system. Named for a 19th century German harmonica maker, this system was designed to make the instrument serve several functions. 

If you sweep over the holes blowing each one from 1 to 10 (you can get single notes by using a pucker embouchure or tongue blocking, a more complicated technique), you will get a 3 octave major arpeggio. On a harmonica in the key of C, this starts at middle C, has the notes C, E, and G, and actually has the same range as a flute. 

The diatonic harmonica poses some unique challenges to someone starting to play it. Unlike most other Western instruments, it is not designed to play all the notes. Most diatonic harmonicas are set up using what is called the Richter tuning system. Named for a 19th century German harmonica maker, this system was designed to make the instrument serve several functions. 

If you sweep over the holes blowing each one from 1 to 10 (you can get single notes by using a pucker embouchure or tongue blocking, a more complicated technique), you will get a 3 octave major arpeggio. On a harmonica in the key of C, this starts at middle C, has the notes C, E, and G, and actually has the same range as a flute.