Glenn Weiser's Harmonica Bio

Glenn Weiser was born in 1952 in Ridgewood, NJ. He first took up the guitar at age 13 and began playing harmonica at 16.
On harmonica, he started out as blues player in the Sonny Terry style,but eventually expanded into Chicago style blues tongue blocking, Celtic music, Southern Appalachian string band tunes, and other straight harp styles.
Now based in Albany, NY, he has been teaching and performing music full time for over twenty years, and is the author of several music books. These include three harmonica books- Blues and Rock Harmonica, Irish and American Fiddle Tunes for Harmonica, and Masters of Blues Harp, which Charlie Musselwhite calls " ...the coolest harp instructional book I've ever read."

As a performer, he has appeared on the same bill with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, and others. His playing can be heard on Never Grow Up by Anne Hills& Cindy Mangsen on the Flying Fish label. Glenn is the harmonica columnist for the folk music journal Sing Out!.- you can read a list of his columns here. He was also written about by the Associated Press for having transcribed 70 of the harmonica solos of blues legend Little Walter Jacobs, some of which will appear in Masters of Blues Harp.

Glenn maintains a harmonica-rich website at and also edits several music categories including Harmonica for Netscape's Open Directory Project. He is a frequent contributor to the Harp-L Digest.

In January 2000, Glenn also taught at David Barrett's Harmonica Masterclass Mini-Workshop in San Jose, California, an annual seminar for people wishing to improve their skills on the instrument (see below).

Tootin' with the tutor-Dave and Glenn demonstrate harmony examples for the class.

The Little Walter Class-Glenn explains Walter's jazzy rhythms and special techniques.