What Would You Like to See?

A space for players interested in my specialist harmonicas, alternate tunings, instructional material, recordings etc to ask questions and share information, experiences, videos etc.
Sachlaw
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by Sachlaw » Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:02 pm

rishio wrote:
Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:13 am

So just saying that I vote for more Powerbender stuff.
I will ditto this one.


@ poster:
I moved over to powerbender myself this year.
If you have not already, order that PowerBender book. The book is great, and the audio files will be invaluable. After you walk through the written lesson in the book, you can just use the audio file without continuing to reference the paper book. He does all the licks/scales for you in gross detail and there is stuff to jam with. I think when you order the book, you get the audio and a pdf to download (on 6th position I believe, I may be wrong), but in any event, you get something to immediately start working with. Brendan is playing the licks, so it is great ear training also.

The second position will come along before you know it. Frankly, I table that one for practice so I can focus on the positions and or modes that I typically don't play in. 6th position is crazy fun and sounds fantastic on the PB.

rishio
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by rishio » Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:37 am

Brendan wrote:
Sat Jul 15, 2017 6:33 am
I do have an instructional book/CD for PowerBender already, in case you hadn't seen it:
Actually, I did buy this book and it's the first one I learned from. That's how I started learning about the 7 pentatonic scales in the 1st,2nd Maj/Min,3rd,4th,5th and 12th which was my main focus in practicing at the time. I will go through the book again and think I will get more out of it the second time around since my skill level feels more appropriate for it at this point in time.

Which gives me feedback I'd like to give you on the book. Everything was great, but I think the final "Eleven Key Song" (track 85) is to advanced for this book. I would have preferred if the final song was just covering the pentatonic scales like the 7 I mentioned above. I also would have liked an introduction to the blues scale in second position, which took me a year to discover when some random person who played guitar knew it and told me the scale.

Oh yes, one more thing. I wish there was a PDF of the book and downloadable audio files. I took a picture every every page so I can have the book with me on my iphone ( luckily before the physical book was destroyed from falling into a river in my travels). I still wish there were a PDF I could download - but I'll manage with the pictures.

So that gives me 2 ideas for the Powerbender youtube videos:
1. A piece talking about the 7 pentatonic scales and a back-track song where the viewer can jam like in your book.
2. A piece on the blues scale in 2nd position with a back-track song. I think this would be especially cool because we can do the blues scale in 2nd position all the way up and down the harp with only draw bends. I believe it's more difficult in Richter.

Anyway, those are my long-winded 2 cents...

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Brendan
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by Brendan » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:36 am

Thanks Rishio for your feedback and suggestions. I'll try and incorporate some in the next PowerBender videos I do.

Boris_Plotnikov
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by Boris_Plotnikov » Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:44 am

I want to see your approach to business. I wondered how much cool geek things you are doing and as I also sell harmonicas I know how small harmonica market and how harmonica players in most cases are not intended to spend much money on harmonica related items. Most of gigging harmonica players I know even don't have all twelve keys. How do you make living doing such great things?
borisplotnikov.ru

harpguy
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by harpguy » Fri Aug 25, 2017 5:03 am

Hi Brendan:

I would like to buy your instructional book and accompanying CDs for the powerbender harp but I already own a Sydel power bender harp key of A. Is this possible? and if so what is the price?

Regards,

harpguy (Mike)

rishio
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by rishio » Fri Aug 25, 2017 6:24 am

From his website:
>>
POWERBENDER Book/CD Only
44 Page Instructional Book with 86 Track CD: £27.50
You will also receive a download link with all instructional tracks as MP3 files.

International Postage is included in the price.
NOTE: if you buy the book and my own-brand PowerBender, they will arrive in separate packages.
<<

http://www.brendan-power.com/harmonicas-10hole.php

I'm not religious but it's the Powerbender Bible. It's a really helpful book without the fluff and I'm still using it after 1.5 years. Luckily I digitalized it for myself because it would have never lasted!
harpguy wrote:
Fri Aug 25, 2017 5:03 am
Hi Brendan:

I would like to buy your instructional book and accompanying CDs for the powerbender harp but I already own a Sydel power bender harp key of A. Is this possible? and if so what is the price?

Regards,

harpguy (Mike)

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Brendan
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Re: What Would You Like to See?

Post by Brendan » Mon Aug 28, 2017 9:06 am

Thanks for the question Boris - apologies for the slow reply.

I think the simple answer is to create stuff that people want! Preferably NEW stuff, that pushes the boundaries and gets players excited about the extended possibilities of what they could achieve if they own it.

If they feel that urge, they will find the money somehow -
but prices need to be reasonable.

The 'new thing' has to be practical to use and with clearly provable advantages, so good videos showing how it works and what it can do are essential.

And finally you need to be able to supply the demand when the orders come in, post quickly, and deal with any customer service issues that arise in a fair and prompt manner.

I think that's about it! Pretty obvious really. Even new ideas are not hard to come by - I have several every day, and many others do as well.

The difficult part (but also the part I find most interesting) is testing them to destruction! Very often an idea is abandoned after the first prototype - you find your Great Concept was a load of wishful thinking, not practical at all for some reason or another.

Even the ideas that get further down the road often hit a seemingly insurmountable barrier, in many cases after months of work. That's a big disappointment and tough to accept! They get put in a box, likely never to see the light of day again.

But I find even the failures (and most of my ideas are in that sad category!) have a special feature that can come back and be adapted or used in a practical model that DOES succeed. Or my design/making skills advance to a point where a previously insurmountable barrier can be overcome. Or I have a 'eureka moment' and take a new, previously unthought-of direction to bypass a problem, perhaps enabled by a new material or process I discover.

Rn'D: it's an endlessly fascinating process that I find really absorbing and satisfying, because the little triumphs along the way trump the inevitable disappointments. But it does take a huge amount of time, trying this, trying that, starting from scratch. And to have the time to explore new things, you need to be financially supported in some way.

I'm lucky that enough of my design ideas eventually turn into products which capture people's imaginations sufficiently to turn a profit. Their sales enable me to have the time to keep pushing into new territory in the workshop, and play/record the music I want when I get that urge too.

If I just had to rely on music it would be tough, maybe impossible! Especially in this digital age when musicians can't get paid properly even for successful original material via royalties, as in the past.

But the flip side of that coin is that digitization has democratised so many previously out-of-reach areas for most people - such as making complex industrial parts. We can now create them in our homes, with small affordable machines and sell them to the world via the internet - wow!

That's a wonderful thing in all areas of life, including harmonicas :-) It enables creative people everywhere to get their stuff to a global market. If it's really good and priced right, it will sell.

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