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Part of learning the harmonica is learning to play along with music. The best way to do this is to play along with backing tracks in various styles and tempos. Learning the basic structure of the blues is the key to unlocking many different styles and creating a foundation to understand how different songs are constructed and how to add your new voice to the mix.
This page is set up with videos you can play along with ranging from basic patterns to more advanced. There are tons of backing / jam tracks on Youtube, but I found this site had a large selection all in one place https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL074916BC5EC3E53E .
To find out more about blues progressions see the wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-bar_blues
Blues Progressions
Blues Progressions
The selection and changes of chords in the blues is one of the foundations of popular music. Although we will be using the key of G , the pattern of progression from one chord to another is the same for any key being played. Unlike other instruments, changing keys is not a big deal for harmonica players as long as they have a harp in the right key - the same patterns of play will instantly work! We will get into playing different keys in other sections, but for now you can use your key of C harp to play along with these backing tracks in the key of G.
Your goal here is to get the feel of the movement of the music - these progressions from one chord to another form patterns that repeat through the whole song. Almost all of blues is played with very few patterns, but changing the tempo and the syncopation of the rhythm produce a wide variety of 'feels'. After mastering the basics musicians start making chord substitutions for different parts of the patterns giving even more range of mood.
Basic 12 Bar Blues Progression
Basic 12 Bar Blues Progression
This is the place to start your journey with the harmonica! Regardless of tempo these all follow this pattern. To find out more about blues progressions see the wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-bar_blues . Although there are some older, even more basic 12 bar progressions in the history of the blues, we will start with this basic pattern.
What does 12 bars mean anyhow? Each bar is just a section of the song often called a measure. In these first songs the length of a bar is a count of 4. If you count evenly "1 2 3 4" and do it twelve times, you have covered 12 bars.
Bar | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
Count |1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|1234|
Chords |G |G |G |G |C |C |G |G |D |C |G |G |
Holes |⬇123|⬇123|⬇123|⬇123|⬆123|⬆123|⬇123|⬇123 |⬇45 |⬆45 |⬇123|⬇123|
What happens after bar 12? Repeat the sequence again, over and over until your lips bleed!
This notation shows what is happening but can take up a lot of space. You will often see the 12 bars broken down into 3 sections of 4 bars each and just showing the chord for the bar . This makes the patterns a bit easier to remember. You will often see these variations:
Basic 12 Bar Blues Progression
Basic 12 Bar Blues Progression
This is the current foundation pattern for blues. It works great, but can get a bit monotonous.
Basic 12 Bar with Turnaround
Basic 12 Bar with Turnaround
The 'Turnaround' is the D chord at bar 12. This helps build tension and guides the pattern back to the 1 bar to repeat the pattern
Quick Change with Turnaround
Quick Change with Turnaround
Same as the turnaround but switches to the C chord in the second bar. The quick change gets the listeners attention and provides a bit more interest.
Blues Backing Tracks
Blues Backing Tracks
Nice simple acoustic guitar track. Uses the basic pattern with a turnaround on the 12th bar. A little peppier than the slow blues, which may help you get the swing feel.
Another nice, but short, acoustic guitar track. This one uses the standard pattern, but has an 'opening' to start things off (C, G, D) then goes into the 12 bar pattern. There is also a closing sequence. After learning the basic patterns, work on some beginnings and endings - We will look at more of those when we get into common licks.
Let's Rock! Same basic pattern but with a different feel and instrumentation. You'll see this has a different feel - it sounds more like a basic rock & roll song than a blues song.
This is a mid tempo shuffle - good to work on after you feel comfortable with the slow blues tempo.
This is an Allmans Brothers style track. It uses the quick change and turnaround pattern. The quick change is the switch to the C chord in the second bar.
Holy Blues Batman! I have no idea why this even occured to me , but the batman theme is actually a 12 bar blues too! This might not be exactly in tune with your C harmonica , but it is close enough to play along with. There is no real turnaround in the 12th bar, but the song ends by repeating a turnaround of D, C , G.
Have fun!
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