Wooden Hall Concerts will present two afternoon acoustic blues workshops and a 7:30 p.m. concert Feb. 24 at Alhecama Theatre, 914 Santa Barbara St., the Santa Barbara Acoustic Music Association (SBAMA) has announced.

A beginner harmonica workshop will be taught at 2:30 p.m. by Tom Ball, who has played harmonica on some 250 CDs and written three harmonica instructional books.

Ball will teach beginning-intermediate basic blues 10-hole diatonic harmonica in the key of C, including how to hold it; hitting chords and single notes; simple songs; cross harp; blues patterns; and how to bend notes. He also will demonstrate some advanced riffs and tricks, SBAMA said.

An intermediate blues guitar workshop will be presented by Kenny Sultan at 4 p.m. Sultan’s class is for all guitar players who know the basic first position chords.

Those who are just beginning to play, or those who’ve been playing for a while will learn and explore what one can do with just three simple chords in a song, SBAMA said.

Sultan said he will be concentrating on two bluesman for this workshop, Gary Davis for alternating bass in the key of G or C, and Lightnin’ Hopkins for monotone bass in the key of E.
 
Ball and Sultan, Flying Fish/Rounder recording artists, have been bringing their blend of guitar and harmonica blues, rags and good-time music to diverse audiences for some 35 years, SBAMA said.

Together and separately, they’ve worked on film scores, TV soundtracks, commercials and sessions. They’ve appeared on TV internationally, were featured on the Levi’s 501 Blues ads, have played for audiences of 300 million via Voice of America, and are frequent guests of National Public Radio.

Their eight duo albums have garnered critical acclaim worldwide, SBAMA said. Their live performances include concerts, clubs and festivals all over the globe. The Alhecama performance will feature Ball’s and Sultan’s four-piece band.
 
The Wooden Hall Concerts are 90-minute shows set in a historic 1925 theater in downtown Santa Barbara. SBAMA is a volunteer, nonprofit, featuring top acoustic musicians.

For more information and tickets, visit www.sbama.org.

— Santa Barbara Acoustic Music Association.