Winslow Yerxa

Winslow Yerxa is a harmonica player, performer, author, inventor, and teacher centered in San Francisco, California. His lifelong quest to understand the harmonica (and help others do the same) began early on, when he couldn't find a teacher and had to figure everything out the hard way. Winslow has authored the books Harmonica For Dummies and Blues Harmonica For Dummies and writes for David Barrett's teaching site bluesharmonica.com. Other notable writing activities include publishing the magazine HIP - The Harmonica Information Publication, transcribing John Popper's harmonica solos for publication, contributing to Howard Levy's Out of the Box instructional DVD and the Howard Levy Harmonica School, and writing a regular column for Mel Bay's online zine HarmonicaSessions.com. As a performer, Winslow plays nearly every type of harmonica, in addition to composing, arranging and conducting. Currently he performs with the San Francisco Harmonica Ensemble and Tin Sandwich. Winslow currently teaches at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, California and co-produces the Harmonica Collective teaching event - see his events calendar on this site for information on the 2018 Harmonica Collective. He has also taught at David Barrett's Harmonica Masterclass and Jon Gindick's Harmonica Jam Camp. Winslow is past president of SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica, which stages an annual summer harmonica festival. He also continues to contribute to the understanding and appreciation of the harmonica through such online forums as Harp-l, the /r/Harmonica subreddit, the Modernbluesharmonica.com forum, and Slidemeister.