A key of “C” Harmonica will be required for this course. Please bring one to Yellow Pine with you. If you do not have one, it is likely that a vendor will have them for sale.
Friday August 1st: (Beginner/Advanced Beginner) 9am-Noon.
Friday August 1st (Early Intermediate/intermediate) 1pm -3pm
For ages 18 and up. (Parents can also pay to bring their kiddos, if they attend with them and
they are well behaved during the workshop.)
Beginner/Advanced Beginner Harmonica Boot Camp:
Cost for this workshop is $95.00 (All proceeds from the workshop tuition go to support the Harmonica Festival.)
Students will learn:
• How to hold the harmonica, and proper breathing techniques.
• Understanding Basic Harmonica Tablature and How To read it using the numbers that are
labeled on most standard diatonic harmonicas.
• How to play a classic folk song, reading using tablature.
• How to play a basic blues riff/groove
• How to get comfortable playing in front of an audience.
• Introduction to the blues scale, Major Pentatonic and C Major Scales.
• Harmonica Tablature will be provided with all scales, songs grooves and riffs that will be taught during the workshop.
• How to play harmonica accompanied by a guitarist. (Melissa Gerard, (Idaho singer songwriter, guitarist) will be present during the workshop and the class will be able to jam with her, preparing them for their live stage performance the following day.
• Fun and friendly group atmosphere, everyone will play together throughout the workshop and break into small groups to help one another. It’s a great opportunity to meet new friends and learn from each other.
• Saturday Morning (08/02) @ 9am there will be a rehearsal held to prepare for the stage performance. This will be an opportunity to review the material learned in the workshop the previous day and get any nerves settle down prior to performing live on the big stage.
• Saturday August 2nd (time to be determined), there will be a class performance on the Big Stage in Town. Students will get a chance to showcase what they have learned during the workshop in front of their friends, family and other festival goers.
Early Intermediate/Intermediate Harmonica Boot Camp.
Cost for this workshop is $120 (All proceeds from this workshop go to support the Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival)
Students will learn:
• Bending Notes, students will learn how to bend notes more effectively.
• Tongue Blocking (licks using tongue blocking techniques will be taught.)
• Split Octave Playing (licks using split octaves will be taught)
• Riffs Built from the Major Pentatonic, Major, and Blues Scales.
• All Harmonica Tablature Will be provided.
• Students will learn how to jam with other harp players. One will lay down a groove while the other plays riffs to it. Students will have the benefit of a live guitarist being present while they play.
• Melissa Gerard (Singer, Songwriter and Guitarist) will play while students apply what they have learned during the workshop.
• Saturday morning (08/02) @ 10am there will be a rehearsal to prepare for the live stage performance.
• Saturday August 2nd (time to be determined) there will be a live stage performance on the Big Stage in Town. This will give students the opportunity to perform and play what they have learned in front of a live audience comprised of family, friends, other musicians and festival goers.
• This will be a great opportunity for people who know their way around a harmonica but haven’t really had a chance to perform for an audience on a professional level stage.
The one hour Advanced Harmonica Workshop taught by international harmonica artist, Ewald Grabher, includes Overblow, Blow Simultaneously, Bend on high notes, and Advanced Tongue Blocking.
ADVANCED HARMONICA WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR
Born and raised in Austria, he has been playing the harmonica since 1993. Now a U.S. citizen, he lives in the Hailey area and plays with several local bands. Ewald has been providing Advanced Harmonica lessons at the Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival since 2017.
His playing style on the diatonic harp is very versatile and includes blues, country, bluegrass, folk, latin, and jazz. In the past he has performed on many national and international stages all over the globe. He has performed on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and is still always invited to jam with his musician friends that live there.
Live Sessions with E.B. Davis, Johnny Neel, and other award winning performers are on his list of experience and he keeps surprising his audience with new ways on how this little instrument can be played.
BEGINNING/EARLY INTERMEDIATE HARMONICA WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR
Brent Palmatier, harmonica player and songwriter (formerly of the band “Half Fast Hillbillies”) has been attending, playing and performing at the Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival for the past 13 years. His style is a mixture of : blues, folk, blue grass, Celtic and country. Background and experience: Brent has trained in person with Harmonica players, Jason Ricci and Ronnie Shellist. He has trained on zoom with Will Wilde of the UK and Yvonnick Prene of France. He has taught workshops at Boise State University, City Hall in Boise and Albertson’s Corporate Headquarters. He has successfully taught complete beginners to play and helped early intermediate players to “level up” the harp game. Brent is very excited to teach and share his passion at the beginner/early intermediate harmonica class at the 2024 Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival.
Great Harmonica Workshop Registration
Accompanist
Melissa Gerard’s Bio for the Harmonica Workshop
Melissa Gerard is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. She is from Bellevue Idaho just 15 minutes away
from a tiny desert music mecca where traveling artists call home on road breaks. An assortment of tiny
cabins and even bigger personalities, they come together and make up the side acts of The Magic Circus.
Melissa as a solo artist is known as “Loon Cricket” and also performs as a singer and guitarist for the
Irish band Paddywagon . Melissa is well accustomed to sharing the stage with Harmonica players and is
very much looking forward to providing guitar back up for the Yellow Pine Harmonica workshop
attendees so they can practice the skills they learn during the class.
Melissa’s collaborations and achievements: Paddywagon hit the recording studio and produced a
record. The Irish band looked forward to a CD launch party on March 17, 2020 and the annual pub
performances when the world had stopped. Isolation for artists was a lonely time and to make good use
of the pandemic that reached all corners of the world Melissa picked up a dusty guitar that was gifted to
her when she started singing. She is a self-taught guitarist, influenced by members of the East Magic
community. Large performance artists took the time to come together and show her some ways of the
musical arts. As a result her solo act Loon Cricket was born and she never looked back.
With a CD for Paddywagon behind her and a guitar in her hand she started performing at open mics and
local stages as a solo act to open for friends and the opportunity to join artists such as Spike Coggins,
Metal Marty, Annie of Hurdy Gurdy Girls, Nate of Rookery 8 and ring leader of the Magic Circus . She
loves to share her music and sing for anyone that will listen. She was a backup vocalist on Metal Marty’s
Greatest Hits and joined him and Annie of the Hurdy Gurdy Girls on stages throughout central Idaho,
Wisconsin, Minnesota and The Outlaw Country Cruise on the high seas! Melissa has attended and
performed at the Yellow Pine Harmonica Festival for the past several years and will be joining friends at
the festival once again in 2024.
The Yellow Pine Music Festival is a production of The Village of Yellow Pine.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
