For at least a good while, keep at least one harp with you all the time so that you can grab a minute here or there. It adds up.

Don't work too hard. Harps are designed to work well with only slightly more air pressure than normal average breathing (blow bends and overblows, etc are a moderate exception). If you're getting dizzy, check your breathing carefully. You should--after a while--be able to use blow notes or pauses to do all the exhaling you need.

Try to start playing with a neutral amount of air in your lungs--or even very slightly exhaled.  In other words, start so that your lungs aren't full or empty and take it from there. A slight bit of extra air in your lungs probably won't hurt but a whole whack at the outset will just make you uncomfortable. Take it easy. If you start off with your lungs full, you'll run out of air when doing any longer draw notes--and most blues playing is mostly draw notes. Breathe accordingly.

Get yourself some good backing tracks. The Blues Harmonica Jam Tracks and Soloing Concepts available at David Barrett's Harmonica Masterclass site are excellent and well worth the very reasonable $$$. Highly recommended. You can also use the free downloadable jam tracks available from David Urich's site--they're intended for guitar but they work just fine. Another option is the very widely available guitar-oriented jam-trax series. 

Whichever backing tracks you choose--use them often and don't stay in ruts...stretch yourself and take risks--after all, who will hear you? It's not like you're in front of a huge audience.

Absolutely do play along with favorite CD's, tapes and anything you like that you hear on television or videotape. I mean--look who you get to play with! Playing along with your favorite recorded music means you get to play with the best musicians in the business. Especially useful is working to make what you play fit the recorded tune without making things too crowded or busy. This is great practice for developing an ability to fit with other players in the context of a performing band. 

Keep your lips wet. Moving the harp from side to side should not pull at your lips. If it does--you're running too dry.

Go to your local toy store and look for one of those cheap big kids microphones that make an echo sound. They cost about a buck or two. Pick up your harp and play into it :-). When you practice--especially as a beginner--the echo will really add something nice to your sound. Plus--the echo is a motivator, it makes solo practicing less boring. Bore yourself and you'll quit. I repeat-don't bore yourself. (By the way--the echo in those cheap mics is made with a real honest-to-goodness spring reverb, a miniature version of what you find in cool reverb amps). 

Don't just copy riffs from other harp players. My own style, for instance, owes as much to players like Alvin Lee, Jeff Beck,  Woody Herman and funk bass players as it does to Sonny Terry, Howlin' Wolf or Charlie McCoy. Adapting lines and solos from other instruments stretches your ability technically but it also helps develop your ability to create different moods and textures. Remember--the right single tone that suits and enhances the song is a lot more appreciated than out-of-context pyrotechnics.

Practice with real live people as often as possible. Walking a thin line on the ground just doesn't hone your skills like walking a tightrope :-). Be brave--you'll find that you might make a mistake a dozen times when alone, but only once if you make it in front of other players. You don't generally want to do that again. You'll still make mistakes--but they'll be different mistakes.

A hundred repaired errors is a hundred correct techniques. Making mistakes and fixing them is what practice is all about. After all, how much do you need to practice things you already do perfectly. Practice is taking the time to make and correct mistakes. Period.

Remember the famous Edison story:

He'd tried all sorts of different materials in his search for something he could use for the filament in his intended light bulb. So far none of them had worked. A friend asked him if he wasn't just brutally wasting his time. Edison responded by saying, no--he was the only guy on the planet that knew that many ways you couldn't make a filament.

Above all, have courage--everybody starts out sounding lousy. Also remember, have fun--they call it playing for a reason!

Pacemaker Tempo Speed and Pitch Controller

Something very handy to have is software that slows down tunes without affecting pitch. That way you can slow down riffs to analyze them. This WinAmp plug-in does that and a bit more handy stuff too--and it's free.

Here's the Pacemaker Tempo Controller Homepage for the most recent version.

There ya go.