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welcome to tenhole.com

foto: Frouke Hoekstra

I would like to welcome you to tenhole.com where I hope to share with you the things I learn and experience in my life as a harmonica player.

I am what is sometimes called an overblow player and one of the few diatonic harmonica players that take the radical approach of playing everything on a single diatonic harmonica. Although the use of overblows has started to become widespread among bluesharp players the use of the diatonic harmonica as a fully chromatic instrument is still rare.

I am a student at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague where I study jazz harmonica under the tutelage of Jarmo Hoogendijk and Eric Vloeimans.

On this site you can find out about me, the bands I play in, the music I record and what is going on at school. If you are a harmonica player then you might be happy to know that this site is also the place were I will try to write as much as I can about how I approach playing the diatonic harmonica, and about how to play jazz on the diatonic harmonica.

Tinus Koorn

6 meisterklasse harmonicas

Agenda

Video

Audio

13-06-2009 15:57

On a regular C harp middle C is the blownote in hole 1.

13-06-2009 15:46

Tinus,

this has been puzzling me for a while, where is middle C on the harp?

Micheal

05-06-2009 20:25

ok...brothe´!!!

27-05-2009 22:04

George

Porn rocks :)

22-05-2009 14:29

Amazing what you do with this little thing, called harp. I've got problem with 3rd whole draw, can't find a way how to make tose tunes clearly, 3rd whole three band posibilites, can do hmmm, maybe two of them. But, don't bother yourself, I'm very satisfied with this site. All the best, Sebastian.

14-05-2009 19:19

Live and learn i guess.I had just bought my fabulous and could hardly wait to play an out of the box harp that would respond properly to my style ,which is an easy blow and draw tongue method.Boy was i disappointed,#2 hole had a problem,i had to send it back,they saidthere was an obstruction on that reed.That was in April 14/09,i am still waiting for my replacement,i'm not happy.I could have bought 3 or 4 Seydels for what i paid Canadian.I know i am green ,but i am a 30+ yr musician and know what an instrument should sound like.Thanks for letting me ramble...Carl

14-05-2009 18:49

Most of the more expensive harmonicas only differ from the more moderately priced models in cosmetic sense. The reedplates are often not different from other models. However the claim is that the fabulous has better reedplates than the other suzuki harps. How much better they are remains to be seen.

14-05-2009 18:16

I am a fairly new player of the harp.I play guitar,etc,sing an so on.I have purchased a suzuki fabulous,suzuki proharp, hohner golden melody,seydel silver,hohner special 20's.I love my seydel the most.Can anyone tell me what makes the suzuki fab,soooo much more in price as i think the seydel for $200.00 less is a better harp.What could they possibly do to make the harp that much more expensive..I hope someone can answer this.Thanks,greatsite...Carl

17-04-2009 14:14

keep me informed

06-03-2009 13:50

@ Big Al:
Your friend's view of second position scales is very different from what the rest of the harmonica playing world calls a second position scale. There are a lot of scales that could be called second position scales (some 29 different scales) and they all have one thing in common: they all start on the 2 hole draw note. That is wat makes them a second position scale, the root of the scale is the 2 draw. If a scale starts on the 3 draw triple bend it is not a second position scale but a 9th position scale. Clearly he defines 2nd position as something other than "starting on 2 draw"

05-03-2009 21:12

Got a question regarding second position scales. I got a good friend of mine who also plays harmonica. He says that there are seven second position scales that one can play.
For example, on the C harp, on can begin with the basis Blues Scale starting on draw 2, 3' 4 blow, 4 bend, 4 draw, 5 draw, 6 blow. The next scale would be starting on the 3 triple bend, 3 draw, 4 blow, 4 bend?, 4 draw.... The third scale would be starting on the draw 3... the fouth scale would be starting on the blow 4?
Anyway... if you are aware of the "Seven Second Position Scales"... I would love to know what their tabs are. Thanks so much! Big Al

29-11-2008 15:45

This is a great site. You give me so many ideas. My son has a degree in jazz bass performance and my best friend is an unbelievable piano player. She won the competition in Brussels at age 14. My son wanted me to go back to piano at my advanced age and for some reason my teacher and I became friends and was more intrigued with the harmonica playing.
By the way my late mother had been a trumpet player.
Anyway I tried nature Boy on the Low F# diminished Seydel and it sounded great.
another song that worked out well is Autumn Leaves adn St; James Infirmary.

07-10-2008 15:13

Thank you Ben, great to hear that you are playing C only, not very many people doing that. I'm very curious as to what you are doing with the harp. Glad you found the site helpfull.

07-10-2008 07:47

Great site, Tinus, and nice work--never mind what our friend Bill says below (he should do more learning & less writing...) I play everything on a C diatonic & recognize your accomplishments when I hear you play those bird tunes. Well done! I referred to this site extensively when I was learning about gapping my harps & I'm just getting around to saying thanks! Keep up the great work!

Ben Graves, Nashville, TN

30-09-2008 10:24

I truely appreciate your attempts to advance the state of the art diatonic harp...People like you Levy, DeLay, open others imaginations as to whats possible with a harp. I see one thing repeated by people that struggle trying to bend notes.. ( and hitting the notes on the bends, tightly )..Maybe this can help some strugggling players...consentrate more on starting wih less air volume/ space, inside your mouth before you pull your tongue back...then make the real estate inside your mouth smaller as your tongue goes to the back of your mouth..Extra hard wind actually will hurt the accuracy of your bend....another thing, the bent note must come into tune on the beat....nothing sounds worse than an unresolved out of tune bent note....I hope this helps people....you have a great website, thankyou....Ed

22-09-2008 18:14

Thank you Bill for that very helpfull and constructive critisism....
Don't blame my teachers, the track was recorded long before I started school so it is not their fault. By the way my teachers don't play harmonica, just trumpet, so the certainly can use some harmonica lessons. Maybe you are right, maybe I should replace it with a more recent recording, but since I am in school I have difficulty finding the time to update the site and recordings.

22-09-2008 17:54

Hi, I went to your site and listened to Nature Boy and found it to be most drab. If I were you, I would delete that from your site. For someone who went to school to learn how to play jazz harmonica, you should be much better than that. Perhaps that school teacher needs harmonica lesions too. I have been playing the harmonica sense 1941 and I think I was playing that peace in the early 1950,s. in all key's and without a rigged harmonica. You should do less writing and more learning.............Bill

10-06-2008 13:33

Did the harmonica exam from 3rd to 4th year yesterday. Played with 2 great musicians. Was very tense and didn't play too well. Very much in the head, thinking about every chord change that passed. However it was good enough, well executed albeit stiff in the improv. So I am on to the last year of my studies at the koncon.

27-05-2008 03:09

Hey Tinus, Read your trial and tribulation about your School. Wow, I'm just starting out trying to play my Golden Melody Harp. Just bought a Hohner 64 Chromatic just, Cause it looked good to me. Love my GM though! I am a BomB Dog Handler in Honolulu Hawaii and just picked up the Harp because I wanted to play...just playing Tabs right now, but who nows??? I'm 55 years old and feel like a young guy when I play. Hang in there Man. Just saying Aloha from Paradise... My Dogs are GSD's. Lux & Bronek say Wuff-Wuff,Too!!!

01-04-2008 11:40

I'll ask him and I will give him your contact details.

31-03-2008 22:36

Hi Tinus

You wrote to someone on your other site saying you had a student who can set up a harmonica for overblowing chromatic on a diatonic - Wondering if he has a waiting list - and if he is taking orders ? I live in nova scotia canada and am a tenor and percussionist - but heard Howard Levy last summer and now am keen to learn this technique -

thanks for your help

woody

12-09-2007 20:20

The students area is for my private students. There are no online lessons other than the material you can find on the site. The area is there to enable me to share student specific material with my students.

12-09-2007 19:16

How would I sign in as a student? I tried to login but was refused. Thanks for your help :)

06-09-2007 18:50

As of september 2007 I will be teaching a harmonica course at the cultural center of the Technical University in Delft. For details about the course se the site of the TU Delft cultural center.

17-07-2007 20:19

igor

Wow, videos would be awesome, I really hope you make some!

16-07-2007 15:03

Hmm, bending instruction. I don't know there is a lot out there already. But maybe if I start making overblow instruction videos I'll inlude a couple on proper bending technique.

14-07-2007 19:30

igor

Now, after browsing this site and overblow.com, I'm really motivated to learn the harmonica properly. I'm still practising the bends and I'm anxious to start overblowing soon. However, I'm having a bit of a problem . I am using the electronic tuner of my guitar pedal to practise the bends, and whenever I try to bend the drawn notes more than half step, I'm forcing too much my tongue, mouth and even neck. If it's possible, it would be nice if you could add some simple bends methods and information to your site, in the same fashion of the overblow info. Until then, I'm going to keep practising to get to overblows as soon as possible.
Thanks a lot!

12-07-2007 23:51

Thank you, the site was designed by Kamiel Naaktgeboren from tick.nl where I work parttime as a developer.

12-07-2007 23:40

igor

I just stumbled upon this site, and before I browse the actual content, I have to congratulate you on the page design!

12-05-2007 01:09

Ja ik geef nog steeds les. Bel me vooral om een les af te spreken.

11-05-2007 19:26

Beste Tinus,
Ik zag op het bluesharp forum een berichtje van jou dat je ook les geeft. Zou je mij willen mailen hierover als je dit nog steeds doet?
Groet,
Mirjam uit Delft

11-02-2007 14:17

To say it is a jazz school for harmonica players is a bit of an exageration. It is a jazz school yes, but I am the first harmonica player to study there. It might be possible to get admitted to a conservatory like this in your country. I know there are and have been harmonica players that study music in a number of countries like France, Sweden, England and Finland. I don't think that the schools they went to were offering special courses to harmonica players. These were just harmonica players that wanted to study and decided to try and get in. Why wouldn't that be possible in Italy, someone just has to be the first to try.

10-02-2007 22:32

Hi Tinus, I'm Franco from Italy. I've just noted that there's a jazz school for harmonica players in your country... you are a very lucky man! I mean, in Italy there's nothing similar!!!!

02-02-2007 19:01

I had heard that there are old recordings of overblows beeing played but I haven't heard Blues Birdhead.

02-02-2007 18:27

do you like blues birdhead?

02-02-2007 15:46

>drew

Good luck with those overdraws, playing the diatonic harmonica chromatically isn't as difficult as you might think. Learning to set up the reeds properly is half the work, learning to play with good intonation the other half :)

16-01-2007 16:39

hi I'm in Toronto and play diatonic ... want to learn how to overblow the top 4 holes and learn chromatic.

01-01-2007 06:08

Thanks for you reply Tinus.

And Happy New Year!

22-12-2006 17:07

> Crazyharp
I used to play through a Fender Blues Junior amp, a 15 watt tube amp. Very nice sound but a bit heavy to drag around to sessions. I used it together with a Astatic 200 microphone. Lately I have been using a small Beringer preamp with an AKG C 416 condenser microphone ( I'll post a picture of me playing it), they just fit in my bag and I use them to play through the PA. I don't have the tube sound anymore but have a lot more controll over the dynamics and I like the more accoustic sound for playing jazz.

21-12-2006 04:10

Hi, Tinus

Thanks for your reply, and then another question. :) (I am writing a list of devices which famous players use.)

In your live performance or records, what kind devices do you use? Such as the brand of the MIC and AMP?

Thanks.

27-11-2006 23:45

That is a though question. Tuned down to Eb from where? From E, from C? I would play on a C harp, but that doesn't mean you should. Does it have to be in 2nd position? Or in third or twelfth? Maybe it is easiest to ask the guys what key they are playing in and then pick a harp to match that key in your favorite position.

27-11-2006 23:34

I play with some guys who are tuned down to Eb. Which harp should I use for a song oringally in key of G? Key of C?
Thanks

20-10-2006 15:40

They live very long. When I started out playing overblows I would wreck a harp a month I guess, but now they last 6 months to a year. And I usually just play one harmonica at a time quite a few hours a day. If my harmonicas break it is always the hole 7 blowreed that goes. I am still doing someting wrong on that hole 7 overblow. Hopefully when I stop doing that my harps will last forever.

20-10-2006 11:33

Hi, Tinus,

Good job! I 'd like to know how long did a harp of yours live? One week . one mounth or one year?

06-08-2006 00:46

Enjoyed the 10 hole overblow,takes a lot of practice. I enjoy the chromatic.I love the old songs of the 40s up,also country music.I play a few gigs in my area,VFW,a place on Anna Marie Island called the Pier.Florida of course.I never go anywhere with out my ten hole or chrom.Great listening,thanks loads,Phil

14-07-2006 11:54

Yes www.overblow.com does still exist although I am working on updating it so it might be down for maintenance every once in a while.

14-07-2006 05:23

Tinus...does www.overblow.com still exist?

13-07-2006 21:19

Overblows and overdraws can be played on most diatonic harmonicas. Most of the available harmonicas require a little regapping and some other alterations before they overblow well, but in principle you can play an overblow on any non-valved diatonic.
If you want to read about overblow technique then you should visit www.overblow.com.
I do not sell harmonicas but there are a lot of custom harmonica builders that make very good harmonicas for overblowing.

13-07-2006 02:33

what harmonica do I buy so that I can get these overdraws and bends?
Or do you sell them ,
much obliged