Steve Baker

Blues Harmonica Playalongs Vol. 2

English edition

artist ahead
STEVE BAKER

BLUES HARMONICA PLAYALONGS VOL. 2

2nd edition

ISBN-10 3 936807 87 6
ISBN-13 978 3 936807 87 5
ISMN M 50150 088 8

All songs and text written by Steve Baker

© 2003, 2006 artist ahead and Steve Baker

All rights reserved

No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted, in any form and by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of artist ahead.

Band: Steve Baker (harmonica), Dick Bird (guitar), Rolf Breyer (bass), Rainer Dettling (drums), Stephan
Keller (keyboards)

Cover design: Peter Quintern

Layout: Udo Tschira

Photography: By kind permission of Matthias Hohner Deutschland AG, Susann El Salamoni and Steve Baker. Cover
photo by Peter Morlok

Recording/Mastering: Stephan Keller

Transcriptions: Hans-Jörg Fischer, Udo Tschira

Printing and binding: Hubert & Co, Göttingen

Manufactured in the EU

artist ahead Musikverlag GmbH

Beethovenstrasse 2
69168 Wiesloch
Germany
tel +49-(0)6222-380870
fax +49-(0)6222-380867
info@artist-ahead.de
www.artist-ahead.de

4 50150 088
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the author ............................................................ 6
About this book and the recordings................................. 7

Introduction ................................................... 8
How to use this book/CD package ................................... 9
What harps do I need? ................................................. 10
About the tablature ...................................................... 10
Double notes and intervals ........................................... 10
Playing techniques and styles ....................................... 11
Note on the transcription of the solos........................... 12

Headed for Home .......................................... 14

Backwoods Blues........................................... 18
Bluegrass Moon ............................................. 23
Lonesome ..................................................... 30
Back to the Country....................................... 36
National Blues .............................................. 41
Steve’s Shuffle.............................................. 46
Been to Detroit ............................................. 52
Boogaloo Train .............................................. 57
5th Dimension ............................................... 64
(Please don‘t get too) Stoned......................... 70
Take me with you when you go ...................... 75

50150 088 5
 About the author

Steve Baker was born and raised in London, England, and now lives near Ham-
burg, Germany. He took up the harp in  and has been a full-time professional
since . Today he is considered one of the leading blues harmonica players on
the European scene, and indeed one of the finest exponents of this instrument in
the world. Among harmonica fans he has earned an international reputation for
his outstanding and original playing as well as his excellent books on the subject.
Over the years Steve has become a kind of harmonica guru for numerous up and
coming young players. His unique style is a exciting fusion of traditional blues
elements with innovative melodic ideas and showcases his mastery of dynamics
and tone.

In addition to frequent live duo appearances with Hamburg’s blues legend Abi
Wallenstein and singer/guitarist extraordinaire Chris Jones (with whom he has
toured successfully in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Holland, the USA and Rus-
sia), Steve gives regular harmonica workshops. He is also much in demand as a
session musician, and his concise and distinctive playing can be heard on countless
record productions, TV/film soundtracks, and jingles. He has been Hohner’s
international consultant for diatonic harmonicas since  and is the author of
The Harp Handbook, acclaimed as the most comprehensive work on the diatonic
harp published to date (distributed worldwide by Music Sales Corp.). Apart from
performing, recording, writing and teaching, Steve is also active as a harmonica
journalist. He has written regular features for the leading German musicians
magazines Fachblatt and Soundcheck as well as numerous articles for various interna-
tional harmonica publications. His harmonica tuition - Interactive Blues Harp
Workshop was the first of its kind in the world.

Selected discography
: Have Mercy – “Have Mercy”, CrossCut Records CCD 
: Steve Baker & Chris Jones – “Slow Roll”, AMR ..
: Abi Wallenstein – “Blues Avenue”, Stumble Records CD ST /ET 
: Chris Jones & Steve Baker – “Everybody’s Crying Mercy”,
AMR ..
: Abi Wallenstein & Steve Baker – “In Your Face”, Indigo - / EIS 
: The Mudsliders – “Spirit’s Gonna Rise”
: Abi Wallenstein – “Step in Time”, NVN 
: Chris Jones & Steve Baker – “Smoke and Noise”, AMR ..

Bibliography
The Harp Handbook, Steve Baker, Edition Louis / Music Sales
Blues Harping, Steve Baker & Dieter Kropp, Hohner Verlag
Interactive Blues Harp Workshop CD-ROM, Steve Baker, Voggenreiter Verlag
Blues Harmonica Playalongs Vol. , Steve Baker, artist ahead Musikverlag
Blues Harmonica Playalongs Vol. , Steve Baker, artist ahead Musikverlag

Steve Baker’s website

www.stevebaker.de – all infos at a glance!

6 50150 088
 About this book and the recordings

After Blues Harmonica Playalongs Volume  was first published in Spring , I
received numerous requests for a sequel. One of the things I really wanted to do
with this volume was to widen the musical spectrum to include a number of
acoustic tunes, reflecting my abiding love for country blues, bluegrass and country
swing. This music is absolutely seminal in its influence on subsequent develop-
ments and it’s also great fun to play, so I hope that fans of modern blues won’t be
put off. There are also some more traditional blues numbers and a couple of
classic electric Chicago blues pieces as well as excursions into rock and funk.

In order to realize this plan, I co-opted my old friend and musical sidekick Dick
Bird to play guitar. Dick and I have been playing together for  years and his
wide-ranging knowledge and experience of the various styles of music heard on
this recording were invaluable, as was his expert assistance with the arrangements
and of course his wonderful playing on National tri-cone, acoustic and electric
guitars. Heartfelt thanks also to Rainer Dettling on drums and Rolf Breyer on
upright and electric bass for their commitment and enthusiasm as well as their fine
musicianship. You wouldn’t think it to listen to them, but these guys don’t usually
play the blues, let alone some of the acoustic material heard here. They learnt and
recorded these  tunes in a day and a half and managed to make it sound as
though they’d been playing them all their lives. Finally I’d like to thank Stephan
Keller for doing a great job of engineering and mixing the session as well as
contributing piano and Hammond organ.

The outside temperature reached nearly °C while we were recording these tunes
and ozone levels soared; fortunately, Stephan’s basement studio was pleasantly
cool in comparison. It consisted of only two rooms and all the playbacks (guitar,
bass and drums) were recorded live. Dick overdubbed some of the guitar solos,
but otherwise the backing tracks are all single takes. Recording an acoustic guitar
using a sensitive microphone isn’t possible in the same room as the drummer, so
we put Dick in the control room with the door closed, while the rhythm section
played in the other room. Meanwhile, Stephan used headphones instead of the
studio monitors and I kept very quiet and counted verses to ensure that the
arrangements were of the right length. Not only did we have no eye contact while
recording, but this also meant that on the acoustic titles I was unable to record the
harp at the same time (this would have necessitated a third room). The harmonica
on these tracks was all overdubbed. On the electric numbers, Dick set up his amp
in the same room as the bass and drums, so I was able to play harp at the same
time in the control room. Most of the electric tunes are absolutely live and several
are first takes.

I hope that the high quality of the performances on these recordings will increase
your enjoyment both in listening to them and in using them as accompaniment. I
certainly wish I could afford a band like that, and I hope that you’ll have as much
fun listening to and working with these tunes as we did recording them!

Steve Baker, Summer 

50150 088 7
INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Like its predecessor, Blues Harmonica Playalongs Volume , this collection of instru-
mental titles is directed at the intermediate level diatonic harmonica player who is
seeking practice material in a variety of styles. Though quite a number of the
tunes found here are not strictly speaking blues, they are all closely related to it
and employ similar playing techniques. The harp themes are chosen to illustrate
typical approaches to these styles and will help you to understand how the top
players create their exciting sounds.

This is not a book which purports to teach you how to play the harmonica,
however. In order to play these tunes as written, you will need to be able to play
single notes cleanly and with the correct intonation. It’s also necessary to know
how to bend and how to hit bent notes directly, without bending them down first.
A knowledge of overblowing is not really necessary – I’ve used quite a few in the
solos, but they don‘t occur in the themes. For detailed explanations of these and
other techniques, see The Harp Handbook (Music Sales), Blues Harping  (Hohner /
Schott) or Interactive Blues Harp Workshop CD-ROM (Voggenreiter), all available in
English or German.

Every song on the  can be heard in two versions: the full mix with my original
harp as the lead instrument, and a playback version without harp for you to jam
along to. In the book, the harp themes and endings are transcribed using tablature
and musical notation plus chord charts. Each song is given a chapter to itself, with
a brief description of the piece, plus detailed explanations of the tricky bits and
relevant background information, to help you to get a handle on the stuff more
easily. Practicing tips for each song are designed help you to master the specific
techniques involved. One frequent request by readers of Blues Harmonica Playalongs
Volume  was for transcriptions of the solos, and I’ve tried to accomodate this by
including at least partial transcriptions from each piece. Special thanks are due to
Udo Tschira and Hans-Jörg Fischer from artist ahead for their invaluable help in
transcribing the music and putting it into tablature – it’d have taken me years on
my own!

As in Blues Harmonica Playalongs Vol. , I decided to fit the key of the harp to the
character of the tune, rather than playing everything on one harp. You will need
harps in A, C, D and F (the four most commonly used keys) in order to play
everything on this  in its original key. This reflects musical reality more closely,
and helps you get accustomed to the different feel and response of harps in
various keys. Most of these numbers are played in ⁿ position (cross harp), but
there are also examples in ,  and th positions.

At least in the case of the electric blues and rock numbers, many players would
tend to choose an amplified harp sound, using a tube amp and bullet mic. I de-
cided against this for these recordings, as it would make the sound harder for the
reader / listener to duplicate without the appropriate equipment. All the har-
monica on this  was recorded acoustically, using Hohner Marine Band Custom
Classic harps in standard Richter tuning and a Beyerdynamic M microphone
on a stand, without any effects beyond a little compression and reverb. Of course,
if you want to jam along to the playbacks through an electric rig of any kind, go

8 50150 088
 INTRODUCTION

ahead. But don’t forget that tone is created in the first instance by the player. Your
equipment only comes a very distant second.

I hope that these titles will provide you with interesting and stimulating practice
material and that the choice of styles may motivate you to explore areas which
you might otherwise have neglected. Remember, though, that there’s no substitute
for going out and playing with other musicians. If you can get to grips with the
verse forms and the rhythmic and harmonic structures used here, you’ll be a lot
better prepared for what you might encounter when you do. That’s the beauty of
the blues – once you get the hang of the basics, you can devote your time and
energy to filling them with emotion and content, rather than getting hung up in
endless technicalities. If you don’t feel like learning the titles as played, you can
just use the playbacks as backing tracks to play whatever you want to – of course
they’ll also work for any other instrument as well as the harmonica.

How to use this book/CD package

Though it’s not absolutely necessary to approach the tunes presented here in any
particular order, you may find it easier to start at the beginning due to the more
detailed explanations of the grooves and verse structures found in the earlier
chapters. Musically speaking, some titles are slightly easier or more difficult than
others, but there’s no clear starting point. Before starting to learn any of them, I
suggest you listen to the whole thing a couple of times first.

Select a number that appeals to you and which you feel comfortable with. Then
take a look at the tablature while listening to it, to see which harp you need and
where the notes are to be found. It’s a good idea to begin by playing the theme
through slowly on your own at first, without using the playback as accompani-
ment. The text is designed to help you here by taking you through the theme step
by step and explaining the more difficult parts. Take your time, and refer to the 
version every now and then to check your phrasing and intonation if you’re
unsure. When you feel that you’ve more or less got it down, try playing along with
the playback. Each playback has a short count-in (usually  bars in length, e.g.
 -  -    ) before it starts, to lead you into the piece. You may need to listen
to this once or twice to get the hang of it.

As is so often the case, the songs first really took shape during the recording
session. When arranging them, we used standard devices such as repeating the last
line a couple of times at the end, or starting a song with an  bar intro where the
band play alone before the harmonica theme comes in. Wherever something like
this occurs, it’s mentioned in the text as well as in the notation/tabs.

At the head of the text after each transcription I’ve noted the running order for
the song, so that you can see how many times I played the theme, the number and
sequence of the solos and so on. In most cases I play the theme once or twice at
the beginning, then do a couple of solos. These are followed by a short guitar or
piano solo to add variety, then another couple of harp solos (hey, this is a har-
monica instruction !) before returning to the theme at the end. The endings are
noted separately in the transcriptions. Below the running order is a listing of
exactly which verses (theme, solos, ending) have been transcribed, so you know
which solo you’re looking at.

50150 088 9
INTRODUCTION

One thing which this package will not prepare you for is backing up a singer, as
there are no vocals on the . It’s intended to help you familiarize yourself with
the verse forms and learn how to build solos over them. Accompanying singers,
however, is a totally different ball game. In real life situations, it’s what you’ll
probably find yourself doing more often than not. The main thing to remember is
that it’s vitally important to avoid stepping on their vocal lines, which means you
can’t just play any old thing which fits to the chord sequence. The first priority of
any accompanist is to listen to the singer and then play things which complement
the vocal without getting in the way or distracting from it. In the immortal words
of Dr. John, “You got to listen to learn, you got to learn to listen”!

What harps do I need?

All these tunes are played on -hole Richter harmonicas. No special tunings are
used, so you can use whichever model you prefer as long as it’s tuned to the
Richter system. I recommend the Hohner Marine Band Classic, Special  Classic
or Big River Harp MS. All of the other harps in the Hohner MS series are also
suitable. The tempered tuning of the Hohner Golden Melody or Tombo Lee
Oskar may make them sound a little rough on some of this material due to the
frequent use of double notes or chord fragments, but if you feel good playing
them then go ahead! The Marine Band is often considered a difficult instrument
for the beginner, because you need more air and the wooden comb can swell
when wet. It has the best tone of all once you’ve gotten used to it, however.

The key of the harp and the position in which it’s played is noted above the
tablature for each title. Whichever model or models you choose to use, you’ll need
them in the keys of A, C, D and F.

About the tablature

Writing music for the diatonic harp demands a tablature in addition to musical
notation, as the same note is found in different channels in harps of different keys.
In this book I use a similar tablature to that found in The Harp Handbook and
other publications (see table below). Breath direction is indicated by arrows
pointing up (blow) or down (draw), and bends are denoted by bent arrows, the
number of heads indicating how many semitones the note is bent. Overblows and
overdraws are denoted by arrows with a diagonal slash through the shaft. Like
most tablatures, this is an approximate system, but it’s serviceable when used in
combination with musical notation. The note and channel number are also given.

Double notes and intervals

I make use of a lot of double notes (also known as double stops) on these record-
ings – instead of directing the air through only one channel opening, I widen my
embouchure to allow a controlled amount of air to also pass through the next
channel up. Usually the upper channel receives about half the amount of air as
the lower of the two, so it’s not as loud. This creates an interval or double stop,
but because the lower note is louder, the ear tends to interpret the sound as a
fattening up of this note, rather than as an interval or chord fragment. The nota-
tion and tabs usually indicate this and I’ve also tried to point it out in the text. You
don’t have to play the tunes like this, but it does make them sound more authentic.
I play double notes completely unconciously, especially with country blues num-
bers, and didn’t want to deliberately falsify my style by simplifying things too

10 50150 088
 INTRODUCTION

much. I hope this doesn’t confuse readers. I’ve also made a lot of use of intervals,
played by blocking ,  or  channels with the tongue and allowing the air to pass
through the channels on either side. This is indicated in the tabs and notation as
well as in the text.

Fig. : Chart of symbols

Playing techniques and styles

Though I’ve done my best to ensure that the harp themes are reasonably easy to
play, I made extensive use of vibrato, hand effects and so on while performing
them, just as I normally would. There is no “dumbing down” here, so it may be
difficult for you to exactly duplicate the sound. In the solos I simply went for it
and played what I felt. In comparison to Blues Harmonica Playalongs Vol. , I notice
that I’ve made considerably more use of overblows here. This wasn’t deliberate
and probably just reflects how my playing has changed over the last couple of
years. I hope readers will excuse me if this presents a problem when trying to
learn the solos. We also performed the tunes at tempos which suited the material,
which may make some of them a bit fast for you. The problem is, if you slow
down the tempo, the song often doesn’t work any more. We decided to go for the
right feel rather than make compromises here. I hope this doesn’t prove frustrat-
ing for you when playing along.

The range of styles represented on this recording is fairly wide, making the ques-
tion of choosing a running order correspondingly difficult. In the end we decided
to retain the order in which we originally recorded the tunes, starting with the
acoustic material and moving on to the electric stuff. This seems to me to give a
feeling of continuity and also makes things easier for the listener who has distinct
preferences for one style or the other.

Titles – feature acoustic guitar and range from straight country blues to blue-
grass, country and early post-war Chicago blues; – all feature electric guitar
and range from Chicago-style electric blues to rockabilly, rock and funk. Stylisti-
cally I haven’t always stuck with the way that harmonica players would have played
at the time – there is more than a hint of jazz influence in some of the solos and

50150 088 11
INTRODUCTION

I’ve borrowed heavily from anything which seemed to be appropriate. I’m not a
music historian and am more concerned with whether something sounds good
than if it’s stylistically “correct”.

Note on the transcriptions of the solos

Please bear one thing in mind when working with the transcriptions of the solos
in this book:

We have made every effort to ensure that the transcriptions shown here are as
accurate as possible. In the text, I’ve tried to explain exactly what is going on in
order to (hopefully) make the solos easier for you to understand and reproduce
yourself. This may give readers the impression that they were planned that way, so
I’d like to make it clear that none of the solos heard here were arranged in ad-
vance. They emerged while we were performing the tunes and were not thought
out in detail beforehand. Often I had a rough mental sketch of where I wanted to
go, but sometimes I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was going to play. It’s a
strange experience to dissect your own music note for note and can make the
whole thing appear very academic, when in actual fact it simply happened that
way. The analysis took place after the fact and is aimed at making the material
accessible to the reader.

12 50150 088
 THE TUNES

50150 088 13
HEADED FOR HOME CD 1/13

14 50150 088
CD 1/13 HEADED FOR HOME

50150 088 15
HEADED FOR HOME CD 1/13

Headed for Home – Steve Baker

Form: theme (transcribed),
theme,
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
harp solo,
theme,
ending (transcribed)

The first tune we recorded doesn’t use the familiar  bar form. Headed for Home is
a country blues shuffle reminiscent of Big Bill Broonzy, but the verse is only 
bars in length. It can be broken down into two -bar segments, where the first 
bars make the initial statement, which is then resolved in the ⁿ -bar block. As
with most shuffles, you need to remember that the phrasing sticks closely to the
¹²⁄₈ rhythm. This means that the basic “   ” beat is broken down into daaa-da-
daaa-da-daaa-da-daaa-da, with “daaa” being twice the length of “da”.

This can be heard straight away at the start of the song, where the harp lead-in
starts on the “da” after the count-in “  ”, playing “da daaa da” before the first
beat of the actual opening bar. If you listen to the playback you’ll hear Dick count
this and then the drums play a lead-in on the final “da daaa da”. You just have to
start right together with them. The first notes of bar  are double stops – I don’t
only play channel , but also allow some air to pass through channel  – and are
accented by hand “wahs”. I also hit both notes slightly bent and slide quickly up
to the natural pitch. The next notes leading into bar  are also double stops, but
the whole tone bend on -draw is a regular single note. The first two bars are
played with a pucker. Bars  &  (also some double stops) are played with a tongue
block, as there are no bends and the rhythmic feel is better that way. In bar  I
repeat the phrase from bar  and then resolve the theme in bar  over the D/G
chord progression by playing a phrase which starts in octaves (Cc in --blow,
this is the th in the D chord) and then returns to the root note in -draw for the
turnaround in bars  & . In verse  the theme is repeated with slight variations,
but the phrasing remains pretty similar.

The first harp solo (see transcription) uses mostly single notes. It starts with rhythmic
bends on -draw (I hit the note already bent down and let it slide back up to
pitch), accented by hand “wahs”. Notice the direct semitone bend in -draw
followed by -blow in the first half of bar  – these two notes are the major third
and the th in the accompanying II chord D. The second solo is largely played in
octaves and uses both lower and upper registers. Check the run leading up to the
IV chord in bars  & , which starts with blow octaves in holes  and proceeds
up to the blow octaves in the upper register in . In order to play the draw
octaves which lie in between, you need to form a -hole block so that you can
play  and  as intervals. I find the best way to do this is to use the middle of
the top of the tongue to cover the channel openings, rather than the tip, as it‘s
wider (see exercises). Passages containing both blow and draw octaves require the
player to switch from a  hole block to a  hole block and back again as needed. I
continue playing octaves on the way back down in bars  & , returning to single
notes in the lower register for the turnaround in bars  & .

16 50150 088
CD 1/13 HEADED FOR HOME

After the guitar solo the harp comes back in a similar vein to the first solo, playing
double notes on --draw (this chorus is not transcribed). Notice the run-up to
the IV chord at the end of bar , where I play the overblow in hole  (Ab) to lead
from the G in -draw up to the A in -blow (the major  in the IV chord, F).
This solo is followed by the final theme and the ending, which is played in straight
th notes across the shuffle rhythm.

Practising Tip:

) The transition from bar  to bar  in the theme involves bending -draw down
a whole tone on two separate occasions. The first time the bend is short (one th
beat triplet) and connects the E in -draw to the C in -draw. The second time, I
play a double note on - & -draw, immediately followed by the whole tone bend
as a single note, which is held for most of bar . On both occasions I articulate
the natural note and the bend in hole  with the tip of the tongue against the
ridge of the hard palate behind the upper teeth, like a half-swallowed “d” or “t”,
to give them definition. The last two notes are accented with hand “wahs”. Try
playing this slowly as a cycle

until you feel comfortable with it.

) Here’s a -bar cycle using upper register octaves, like I play in the ⁿ solo verse:

The blow octaves require a  hole block, but you have to switch to a  hole block
for the draw octaves. Take your time and concentrate on getting both notes to
sound clearly every time, without unwanted additional tones. The  hole block is
not only useful when playing this kind of thing on the diatonic harp, it’s also the
basis of much blues chromatic playing. On the chromatic harp, all octave intervals
can be played as  hole blocks and learning this technique is essential if you wish
to become proficient in the style of playing exemplified by George Smith, William
Clarke, Rod Piazza and others.

50150 088 17
BACKWOODS BLUES CD 2/14

18 50150 088
CD 2/14 BACKWOODS BLUES

50150 088 19
BACKWOODS BLUES CD 2/14

Backwoods Blues – Steve Baker

Form: intro (transcribed),
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
guitar solo,
harp solo,
harp solo,
theme,
ending (transcribed)

I’ve always had a weakness for music which combines elements from blues,
country, and bluegrass. This tune is a  bar blues, but the feel is very country/
bluegrass oriented and the melody uses the major pentatonic scale instead of the
predominantly minor blues scale. In contrast to the regular blues chord sequence
I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I V
it remains one bar longer on the subdominant (IV) chord in bar  and stays on the
dominant (V) chord for two bars ( & ) instead of one bar of V and one bar of
IV, which emphasizes the bluegrass feeling:
I I I I
IV IV IV I
V V I I.
The turnaround remains on the I chord instead of going to the V. The rhythm is
straight ⁴⁄₄ with no trace of a shuffle in sight and has a distinct half time quality,
meaning that you tend to count it “ -  -  - ” instead of “       ”.

The song begins with a lead-in from the harp, heading into a -bar intro with the
same form as the last  bars of the verse. When playing along with the playback,
you have to start immediately after the “” in the half time count-in: “ -  -  da
da da daaaa” and away you go. After the intro the actual verse form begins and
the harp plays the theme. I start with a tongue slap and play the first four bars of
the theme with a tongue block, before switching to a pucker for the remainder of
the verse. On the IV chord in bar  (bar  of the verse) I play the root note A
not only in -draw, but also in -blow – this keeps the breath rhythm going and
makes the whole thing flow better.

The first harp solo (see transcription) begins with a typical country/bluegrass riff
played in double notes. I articulate these with the tip of the tongue against the
hard palate behind the upper teeth while bending the longer notes up at the same
time: “t t tui t t tui t t tui t t” and so on. To lead in to the dominant chord E in
bar  I play a run up to the overblow G# in hole , which is the major th in the
scale of A and also the major third in E. This underlines the major key quality of
the song and is also one of the easiest ways to employ an overblow in a way which
makes straightforward musical sense. The final phrase of this chorus also contains
a “ghost note”, a rapid exhalation of breath which is one eighth note in length.
Here I actually move the harp away from my lips, so that the blow note can’t
sound properly. This creates a percussive noise which supports the groove and

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helps maintain the breathing rhythm, a device which I use fairly frequently in
faster passages. In the second solo chorus I elaborate on the same theme again
over the first two bars, before playing a line ending with a chromatic run from the
A in -blow via the overblow in -blow to the G in -draw, accentuating the A
chord in bar . The rest of the verse uses the major pentatonic scale and ends
right back on the root note in -draw, paving the way for Dick’s nifty acoustic
guitar solo.

During the second chorus of the guitar solo I play rhythmic chords behind it,
which helps to push the whole thing along and raises the tension without getting
in the way. At the end of the guitar solo I play a lead-in over the last bar and
return to the same riff which started the previous harp solos (this time it’s not
transcribed). On the IV chord I change to playing blow octaves in  and ,
on the V chord I play a similar riff to the one at the start of the verse (t t tui t tui t
t t) on -draw before finishing the verse on the root note in the upper register, -
blow. This enables me to move up to playing  hole blocks in the upper octave at
the beginning of the final solo verse before running right back down again to the
root note in the lower register to play over the IV chord in bars –. The end of
the solo is reminiscent of the theme which follows it and brings everything back
down to earth again. At the end of the final theme, the last  bars are repeated
once and the harp plays a similar line to the intro, followed by a typical bluegrass
ending.

Practising Tip:

) Over the IV chord during the theme, the harp plays legato transitions from the
whole tone bend in -draw to the natural note in -draw. Learning to switch from
a bent note in one channel to an unbent note in the adjacent channel in the same
breath direction is an important part of mastering the instrument. Try this exer-
cise:

Naturally you can do this on any two adjacent channels where the upper one
contains a bendable note.

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) The tonguing technique described above in the first three solos can be varied
considerably and is one of the most effective ways to use the tip of the tongue to
accent individual notes. Try these exercises:

or combine them like this:

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Bluegrass Moon – Steve Baker

Form: theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
guitar solo,
harp solo,
harp solo,
theme,
theme,
ending (transcribed)

As the title might suggest, this really has nothing to do with the blues at all. It has
a standard  bar verse form, which is divided into × bar sections, and the
theme uses the major pentatonic mode. Bluegrass musicians frequently play this
type of tune at breakneck speed, but I thought that this might prove offputting to
readers and chose a more relaxed tempo. Playing a song a lot slower than one
normally would, however, can make it sound unnatural and we found that we
really couldn’t slow it down any further than this without becoming plodding. I
hope that we’ve reached a suitable compromise.

Like the previous number, this is in a straight ⁴⁄₄ rhythm with the emphasis on the
first and third beats in the bar “   ”, which gives it a slight half time feel. It
starts with a short intro from the guitar which leads directly into the first verse.
The theme begins on the first beat of the first bar, so that when playing along, you
start immediately after the first  notes on the guitar: “da da da DA”. If you listen
closely to the start of the theme you’ll hear that I first of all play the whole tone
bend A in -draw before sliding up to the natural note B an eighth beat later, but
if you have difficulty doing this fast enough, you can leave it out and just play the
B as a full quarter beat on the . At the end of bar  there is a rapid slide from the
natural note B to the whole tone bend A on -draw, which is played without using
the tongue to accent it. Leading into the V (dominant) chord in bars  &  at the
end of the second  bar section, however, the same  notes B and A are both
accented by the tongue on the hard palate – this gives them more definition. The
final  bar section is the same as the first and the whole thing is played with a
pucker embouchure.

The first three harp solos are transcribed here. The staccato notes at the beginning
of the first solo verse are mostly accented with the tongue against the hard palate
and the solo lines follow a similar pattern to the theme, with pauses in between to
make them stand out better. The second chorus starts with a rhythmic figure in
the middle register which is mostly played from the diaphragm, the tongue is only
used occasionally. As the verse proceeds, I leave less gaps and end it by running all
the way up two octaves to -blow for the beginning of the third chorus. The
staccato blow notes in holes – in the first six bars of this verse are also ac-
cented with the tip of the tongue, but its position is now much further forward in
the mouth, between the upper and lower teeth. I also reduce the size of the lip
opening in order to maintain the necessary pressure. The solo ends with a de-
scending passage in eighth notes, taking things back down to the root note in the

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lower register in time for the guitar solo which follows. I used the overblow on
hole  two or three times in the course of the ⁿ and  choruses, but the solo is
primarily based on the mixolydian mode and otherwise only employs natural notes
and bends.

The  harp solos which come after the guitar solos are not transcribed. Here I
begin each chorus with rhythmic figures similar to those described in the previous
chapter “Backwoods Blues”, articulated with the tip of the tongue against the
ridge of the hard palate (“tui t tui t t t tui t tui t t t”). The run over the V chord
(bar ) in the ⁿ of these two verses uses the overblow F# in hole  to accentuate
the major-key character of the dominant th and the solo ends with a descending
passage similar to the one before the guitar solo. At this point I return to the
theme and play it through twice. The first time is the same as at the beginning
except for the little flourish at the end. The second time around, however, I
thicken up the sound by using double notes and ornamentations over the first 
bars before leaving the theme melody in bars – and playing  hole blocks in
channels  and  over the G G C C chords. The last line returns more or
less to the theme and is repeated twice (only the repeats are transcribed!) before
finishing with a break. You have to stop dead at this point because the ending is
played by the guitar on its own. The harp comes back in to underscore the final
chord with a bent-up double note on --draw, accented by hand “wahs”.

Practising Tip:

) Here is a major pentatonic phrase which will help you learn to play the fast and
rhythmic figures which are frequently used in this kind of music:

The trick to playing this phrase is to master the jump from the blow note in one
channel to the draw note  channels lower down, from -blow to -draw and from
-blow to -draw, while maintaining a solid rhythm. Now try this variation, which
enables you to play the phrase as a repeating figure:

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You’ll notice that here the final G is played in -blow instead of in -draw. When
repeating the figure, it’s nice to use this blow note, as it aids your breathing rhythm
and also prevents you getting out of breath so quickly.

) Here is a commonly used variation on this line, where the minor third Bb is
slipped in between the major third B and the second A at the end:

This device is used by quite a number of country harp players – it sounds great
but requires practise to ensure that the transitions between the different notes are
smooth and in time. The transition from the B to the Bb is not legato – you inter-
rupt the airflow after the B and then articulate the Bb with a sort of “K” formed
by the middle of the tongue against the soft palate at the back of the mouth. If
you don’t do this, it’s hard to control the timing and the intonation, so the phrase
may not sound right.

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Lonesome – Steve Baker

Form: theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
harp solo (transcribed),
theme,
ending (transcribed)

This title has not only got nothing to do with the blues, but it’s also in ³⁄₄ time,
meaning that the beat goes “     ”. It also has a slight shuffle feel, which is
why we decided to transcribe it as ³⁄₄ rather than ⁶⁄₈ – the notes would have been
more difficult to read like that. I originally wrote it as a country ballad about the
trials and tribulations of being a dog owner and the thankless task of clearing up
their droppings from the yard (if you don’t believe me, I’ll e-mail you the lyrics).
For the purposes of this session it morphed into a Tex-Mex tune vaguely reminis-
cent of Leadbelly’s “Irene”. It’s quite simple and fairly easy to play, but the bends
need careful execution to work properly.

When playing along with the playback, you need to pay attention to the count in.
Rainer counts like this: “ - -  - -      ”, then the playback starts on the 
of the next bar. Your starting point, however, is the “” of the final “  ”. The
harmonica lead-in starts exactly on top of the “” in the last bar of the count-in,
so you hear “ - -  - -   ” and then you play the lead-in. Though the theme is
mostly played as single notes, there are also a number of double stops. However,
the general feel is cleaner than on the more bluesy numbers. The notes on -draw
after the lead-in are accented with “wahs” (as are many of the draw notes that
occur in the rest of the theme) and I play the root note E in -blow instead of -
draw, after bending -draw down a whole tone. You have to play the legato transi-
tion from the whole tone bend in -draw to -blow twice in a row. I find that it’s
not only easier to play like this, but also sounds better than using -draw at this
point, because the E in -blow is part of the IV chord, A. In the final line of the
theme, there is a semitone bend in -draw (Eb), which occurs twice. Many people
initially find it easier to play an approximate semitone bend than a whole tone
bend on this channel, but the problem here is that the intonation has to be spot
on, or it won’t sound right. This is not a slide – the Eb has to be played a a discrete
single note. Eb is the th note of the E major scale and the major third in the
dominant th chord B, and the song uses the E major scale only. If you don’t play
this note with the correct intonation and without sliding, it will sound horribly
wrong (see practising tip). You may also need to practise the timing here. As is so
often the case, things which sound simple can be deceptively difficult to execute.

The solo which follows is a melodic elaboration on the theme and doesn‘t use a
lot of notes. Here too you will need to practise precisely controlled bends in order
to duplicate it. The whole tone bend in -draw in the nd bar has to be held at the
correct pitch, so that it sounds as the th in the accompanying / chord. Leading


into the V chord on the th bar of this chorus, I play a chromatic run up to the
semitone bend in -draw (see left) before jumping to the B in -draw, without
sounding the notes in between. On the run-up to the IV chord (bars –), I play

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the overblow in hole  as a passing note leading to -blow (C#), the  in the
subdominant chord A, before ending the solo with a more typical country lick
which includes a bluesy semitone bend in -draw.

After Dick’s slide guitar solo, the final harp solo is played almost entirely in inter-
vals in the upper register. In order to make some kind of harmonic sense out of
the various chord fragments found on the harp, I use  different tongue blocks:
the first  bars consist of -hole blocks on -- and --draw, so that the inter-
vals are sixths. In the  and th bars I change to blow notes, and reduce the size
of the block to a single channel so that I’m playing --blow, before switching to
octaves over the V chord in the th bar. The draw octaves require a -hole block
(--draw), whereas the blow octaves need a -hole block (--blow). In bar  I
return to -hole blocks on the blow notes, bars  and  are -hole blocks on the
draw notes and the ending is played in single notes. This all sounds more compli-
cated than it actually is – on a piano it would be easy! The trick is to learn which
different parts of your tongue can be used to create the required blocks – this
varies from player to player due to the anatomical variations between one person
and another. I use the tip of my tongue (the narrowest part) for -hole blocks, the
upper side of the tip for -hole blocks and the upper surface about cm back
from the tip for -hole blocks. Basically, the wider the block, the further back lies
the portion of the upper surface of the tongue which you use to block the chan-
nel openings.

The final theme which follows is basically played the same as at the beginning of
the piece, but I make slightly more use of double stops. For the ending, the last
line is repeated a third higher and the band plays is a slight ritardando (gradually
slowing down) over the last bar before the final chord.

Practising Tip:

) Here is a simple exercise in ³⁄₄ time on the bottom  channels, which uses the
semitone bend in -draw:

Try not to slide down to the bend, but to hit it directly as a bent note.

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) Here is an exercise using the E-major scale in the lower register which should
help you with learning how to play the bends in - and -draw used above:

Try playing this as a repeating cycle. You may find it helpful to articulate the
bends in - and -draw with a gentle “K” against the soft palate in order to clearly
separate the bent notes from the unbent ones.

) The most useful - and -hole blocks in the upper register are found between
holes  and . Try this sequence:

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Back to the Country – Steve Baker

Form: theme (transcribed),
harp solo,
harp solo,
harp solo,
piano solo,
piano solo,
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
theme,
repeats (transcribed),
ending (transcribed)

The emergence of what is usually referred to today as “Chicago Blues”, created

by Muddy Waters and others in the early s, featuring amplified instruments
and a modern drum kit, was preceded by a very different kind of blues in the
Windy City. Using primarily acoustic instruments and incorporating elements
from country blues, barrelhouse piano and jugband music, as well as influences
from jazz, this style was immensely popular from the late s to the late s in
Chicago and elsewhere. Big Bill Broonzy was one of its main proponents, aided
by a host of brilliant musicians such as John Lee Williamson (Sonny Boy ),
Washboard Sam or Jazz Gillum. It’s certainly one of my all-time favorite blues
styles, but it’s been sadly neglected by most modern blues artists in favour of the
better-known electric band sound. Here we’ve tried to create a contemporary
version in an up-tempo shuffle vein. The chord sequence moves away from the
standard -bar structure in the last five bars of the verse and uses a typical II-V-I
pattern. This offers the soloist some interesting melodic options which don’t work
over the usual  chord blues framework.

The piece begins with a -bar piano intro and turnaround before the harp theme
starts at the beginning of the first verse. The theme is divided into three -bar
segments or lines, where the nd and rd lines are very similar melodically, but
sound different because of the accompanying chords. The first four bar segment is
played with a tongue block and I use a tongue slap at the start of bars  and  to
add rhythmic emphasis. Then I switch to a pucker and retain this embouchure for
the rest of the verse. Notice the glissando which leads into the nd line over the
IV chord – I play a rapid slide over holes  and  before hitting the semitone bend
Eb on -draw (the th in F) which starts the phrase proper. Over the change to
the VI (A) chord in bar  of the verse I bend -draw up in semitones, from a
whole tone bend to a semitone bend to the natural note E, which is the fifth in
A. The last  bars of the theme are almost exactly the same as the phrase over
the IV chord in bars  &  (including the ghost note at the beginning), but here I
play the natural note E in -draw rather than the semitone bend Eb. On the turna-
round I leave the final bar over the V chord free in order to create space before
starting the solo. The key to playing this kind of tune is to get the rhythmic feel
right – the phrasing has a typical “jump” character which makes the whole thing
move. This is more important than exact intonation in terms of sounding con-
vincing (see practising tip).

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The first three solos which follow are not transcribed. I start the first one with a
couple of long upward bends on -draw, accentuated with hand “wahs”. On the
run-up to the VI chord in bar  I use the overblow Ab in hole  as a passing note
leading up to A. Over the II chord D in bar  I play Cc in octaves in holes  –
C is the th in D. Over the turnaround I run up the scale in the lower register so
that I can start the second solo chorus on the Bb in -draw. Over the IV chord F I
D7 G7 play a couple of overblows in hole , which sounds good because the Eb is the th
in F. On the D chord in bar  I play -draw bend – -blow (rd & th in D),

# 
followed by -blow (A) over the G chord in bar , creating a G/ (see left). I
then play a similar run-up over the turnaround in the higher register in order to
start the rd solo chorus on the high C in -blow before working my way gradually
down and ending on the root note C in -draw in time for Stephan Keller’s de-
lightful piano solo.

The harp solos which follow the piano solo are transcribed above. I come back in
with a short, punchy phrase leading to the root note C in -draw, which is ac-
cented with a “wah”. The phrasing in this chorus leaves plenty of gaps and antici-
pates the chord changes by playing into them. Over the last couple of bars I play
more notes and reduce the spaces, while retaining a clear melodic line which leads
into the double notes at the start of the next chorus. On the run-up to the IV
chord I play an ascending passage in semitones (Stephan doubles it on the piano)
which uses the overblows in holes  and . The remainder of the solo returns to
clear melodic lines, taking things back down again in anticipation of the final
theme. Stephan’s piano accompaniment becomes more prominent as the chorus
progresses, helping to build the dynamics.

The last theme is pretty much the same as the first one, but Stephan doubles some
of the harp lines on the piano to lend them added emphasis. At the end, the very
last line ( bars in length) is repeated twice, with variations. The variations are all
transcribed above from the first repeat onwards and include an overblow in hole
, but you can play the regular theme (see below) each time if you like. The very last
time around, I depart from the melody of the theme and play a simple closing
passage in octaves, which ends in a break to make room for Dick’s masterly
ending – some pretty nifty fingerpicking! The harp plays the final chord after the
drum fill together with the guitar.

Practising Tip:

) Here’s a technique to help you get the phrasing in the nd and rd lines of the
theme to sound snappy. The phrase which begins each line contains legato transi-

   
tions from to and vice versa, from to . The trick to making these really swing
on a shuffle rhythm is to accent the first (longer) eighth note in each case with the
tongue (I use a sort of soft “D”) and then move smoothly to the next note with-
out accenting it. With the next pair of eighth notes, you accent the second one

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instead. With practise you’ll develope a feeling for which notes and which ones
not. Try these:

) Here’s an alternate ending using the phrase from bars  &  of the theme to
lead into the VI chord on the repeats – this is considerably easier to play.

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National Blues – Steve Baker

Form: intro,
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
harp solo,
theme,
repeats (transcribed),
ending (transcribed)

This number is in the vein of early Muddy Waters and is driven by Dick’s slide
work on the National steel guitar tuned to open G. Once again, it’s not a shuffle
(we’ll get back to that later), but a straight ⁴⁄₄ beat with an alternating half time
bass line, kind of like slowed down rockabilly. The verse form is a -bar, but in
the theme and also in the guitar solo, both the first and the second -bar sections
start on the IV chord C. The song begins with a -bar guitar intro before the first
verse (theme). Rainer counts the guitar in: “ -  -   ” and Dick plays a brief
lead in on “”. You need to count  bars from the next “” (“         
    ”) before coming in with the harp on the “” of the fourth bar. On the
lead-in and over the IV chord the harp is playing octaves using  hole blocks. If
you have difficulty doing this, you can play the theme as single notes in either the
lower or the middle register, but it won’t sound as good as when you play them
together. The phrase leading back to the I chord is in single notes, accented with
hand “wahs”. The whole thing is repeated over the second  bars. Over the V
chord in the th bar of the verse I play bent double notes in holes , then briefly
return to octaves in --blow on the IV chord, before repeating the closing
phrase from the previous two  bar blocks.

All harp solos are played over a normal -bar chord structure, the first  bars
remain on the I chord and the IV chord doesn’t occur until bar . The first solo
(see transcriptions) starts with a trill (hand “wah” at the beginning). I play a head
shake trill here rather than a tongue shake or hand shake, i.e. I’m moving my head
rapidly from side to side whilst holding the harp still. This creates a smoother
sound and is easier to play in time than is the case if you shake your hand and
keep your head still. The whole tone bends in -draw before the change to the IV
chord are also accented with “wahs”. The next  bars are similar to the first four,
before I resolve the final line with a more rhythmic phrase in the middle register.
The nd solo verse is played almost entirely in double notes. These are not noted
in the transcription, but if you listen closely, you’ll notice that I add a touch of the
next hole up to almost every note, by slightly widening my embouchure. This
verse also includes several rhythmic chordal interjections on the bottom draw
notes and lots of “wahs”.

The final harp solo which follows the guitar solo is not transcribed. I keep it fairly
simple, switching between the natural note and the whole tone bend on -draw in
short staccato phrases over the I chord (see practising tip ). Over the IV chord I
play double notes in --draw, followed by octaves in --blow, then drop back
down to -draw to repeat the riff which came at the start of the verse. The final -
bar section of the chorus essentially repeats the line I played over the IV chord,

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though here the double notes on --draw are played in triplets. The closing
theme is basically the same as at the beginning, but I add some rhythmic orna-
mentation here and there. The last line is repeated twice with slight variations (see
transcription) before the ending, which is played in chopped eighth notes.

Practising Tip

) The phrase which starts the final harp solo is great training for learning to play
bends directly, without first bending the natural note down. It’s important to
concentrate on hitting both these notes with the correct intonation. The bend has
to be deep enough, so that it really is an F and not something in between F and
Gb, and the natural note has to sound at its highest possible pitch, so that it really
is a G and not something between G and Gb. Try playing this passage slowly at
first and concentrate on the intonation and the timing, before attempting it at a
faster tempo. Note the pauses after the first two notes – the phrase would sound
quite different if played legato.

) One of the commonest techniques harp players use in order to make their
sound more expressive is the hand “wah”. I use these to a greater or lesser degree
in all the tunes on this . The main requirement to create this typical effect is that
you learn to enclose the harp in your hands as completely as possible. It’s possible
to create a number of different “wah” sounds from this starting point, depending
on how you open your cupped hands, which hand you move and where exactly
you open them. You may like to experiment here to find out exactly which differ-
ent sounds you can create in this way. One of the most effective ways to use a
“wah” is to accent a bent note which you allow to slide back up to the natural
note while making the “wah” at the same time:

You actually have to form the “wah” a little before you want to hear it, as it will
sound best if its strongest point is at the start of the note. The angle of the harp
relative to your lips also affects the sound, as does your embouchure – a “wah” on
a tongueblocked single note sounds different from one on the same note played
with a pucker.

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Steve’s Shuffle – Steve Baker

Form: intro,
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
harp solo,
harp solo,
theme,
ending (transcribed)

With the first electric track on this recording, we finally get around to a heavy
Texas-style shuffle. Shuffles have a characteristic lurching quality, because the first
of each pair of eighth notes is twice as long as the second – “daaa da daaa da daaa
da daaa da” – even though the notation depicts them as being of equal length.
The theme is fairly straightforward, once again the secret lies in getting the timing
and the intonation right. The song starts with a  bar guitar intro which is a stand-
ard turnaround and the harp comes in over the V chord just before the first verse
begins. There is no extra count-in on the playback, you simply have to follow the
guitar. If you count the  bars from when Dick starts playing “       ”
then you have to come in immediately after the “” in the nd bar: “      ”
and away you go!

The harp lead in (the first  notes, before the verse actually starts) has the rhythm
“da daaa da”, i.e. the F# in -blow is twice as long as the notes that precede it and
follow it. The C# (-draw) over the first bar of the verse is hit bent down a little
over a semitone and slides quickly back up to natural pitch. I also add a touch of
-draw, making it a double note. Much of the theme is played like this, but it’s not
noted in the transcription – you’ll have to listen for it! This first phrase is then
answered in the following bar. Notice the “ghost note” in this lick – I exhale
briefly (“da”) after the first two draw notes and before the rest of the phrase. This
not only allows me to get rid of surplus air, but also strengthens the rhythm. It is a
most useful technique to learn. I move the harp slightly away from my lips when
doing this, so that the air barely activates the reed, as most of it escapes past the
channel opening. The nd  bar section uses the same lead-in from the harp, but at
the start of the IV chord I play -draw as a direct semitone bend (C instead of C#
– C is the th in D), once again bending up to it. The answering phrase differs
slightly from the corresponding one in the first  bars and also uses C instead of
C#. The theme is resolved in the final  bars by a riff leading up to the whole tone
bend on -draw, B, over the V chord and then finishing with what is basically the
same answering phrase used in the first two  bar sections. You can actually use
the same phrase each time if you remember to play C instead of C# over the IV
chord – I varied it without really thinking.

It’s worth taking a closer look at the simple but effective structure of this theme.
Like most  bar blues it consists of three  bar lines. Each line consists of a lead-
in running up to the first beat of the first bar of each  bar section – “da daaa da
daaa” – which is then answered by a different phrase leading up to the first beat
of the third bar in each  bar section. This always leaves plenty of space between
the individual licks and because all the phrasing leads to the first beat of the

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following bar, it underlines the clear rhythmic feel of the piece. When accompany-
ing the theme at the beginning and the end, and during the guitar solo, the rhythm
guitar, bass and drums are all playing a solid shuffle. During all the harp solos, they
ease back and play much more sparse and jazzy, building up as they approach the
next heavy shuffle verse. This accentuates the feeling of space and adds to the
dynamics.

The first solo (see transcription) starts with a lead-in using the same rhythm as in the
theme, but different notes, followed by a long, smooth trill over the first  bars of
the chorus. The phrasing follows a similar pattern to the theme, always leading up
to the first beat of the first bar of each line. Over the IV chord I use another
ghost note, just like in the theme. Leading to the V chord, I bend -draw down
from C# to B and accent these notes with hand “wahs”. The final phrase ends with
a chromatic run using the whole tone bend, the semitone bend and then the
natural note in -draw. Over the turnaround I alternate rapidly between the A in
-draw and the A in -blow before moving up to -draw in the first bar of the
next chorus. From there I play the overblow in , followed by -blow – another
chromatic progression – and wail away on -draw before sliding up to -blow over
the IV chord. This type of glissando is not a bend, it entails passing rapidly over
the channel openings in  and  before landing on , so that these notes sound
very briefly. I then hit the overblow in  before running down to the lower register
in chopped phrases (thanks to the pauses which precede the draw notes after the
overblow). On the first note of the V chord I use the overblow in , Ab, the rd in
E, this chromatic run accentuates the jazzy feel before the band returns to the
heavy shuffle for the guitar solo.

The two harp solos which follow the guitar solo are not transcribed. Here the
band drops right back and leaves lots of space. I play a combination of hand
“wahs” and semitone bends on -draw, followed by simple but effective phrases in
- and -draw. Over the IV chord this is repeated and I use another overblow in
hole  over the V chord. On the final solo, the band builds up the energy level and
I combine bluesy and jazzy phrasing to lead up to the final theme, which is much
the same as at the beginning except for a couple of embellishments. The piece
ends with a break on the IV chord at the start of the th bar of this chorus and
here I depart from the theme to play the phrase noted in the transcription. The
ending is a typical blues phrase which stays in the shuffle rhythm.

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Practising Tip

) Here’s an exercise to help you get accustomed to playing “ghost notes”. I can’t
overstate the usefulness of this technique for developing rhythmically solid phras-
ing. Don’t forget to play it as a shuffle, “daaa da daaa da daaa da”.

All the played notes are draw notes and all the ghost notes are blow. It’s not
important to move a lot of air on the ghost notes, unless you need to empty your
lungs a bit. The point of the whole thing is the breathing rhythm which it creates.
Just break the contact between your lips and the harp for a fraction of a second
while you exhale in the direction of hole . It’s a good idea to try playing this as a
repeating pattern, you need to do it for quite a while to get the rhythm in your
breathing rolling properly.

) Theoretically, trills can be played on any  adjacent draw or blow notes, but in
practice they sound best when the interval between the two is three semitones, a
minor third. The trill on --draw with which I start the first harp solo is a good
example of how I use this technique. I always begin trills on the lower of the two
notes, and if this note can be bent then I usually hit it bent down and quickly slide
back up to the natural pitch. Some people like rough sounding trills, but I gener-
ally try to get them sounding smooth, which means the tempo has to be constant.
I mostly play them in nd notes at this tempo, i.e.  notes per quarter beat, though
this was never something I consciously thought about or tried to do. I guess they
just sound good like that. Nowadays I hardly ever move my hands, only the head,
though I may use my hands to move very slightly in the opposite direction to the
head shake. Try playing slow, regular trills like this on --draw, --draw and -
-blow, bending into them at the beginning where possible. Don’t forget that it’s
really important not to break the contact between your lips and the harp while
doing this.

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Been to Detroit – Steve Baker

Form: theme (transcribed),
harp solo,
harp solo,
guitar solo,
harp solo,
harp solo (transcribed),
ending (transcribed)

This type of ⁴⁄₄ rhythm is often referred to as a Detroit Boogie. It has a distinct
double time feel – you tend to count it “       ” instead of “ -  -  - ”.
The brilliant songwriter, singer and harp player Jimmy Reed used it frequently and
many of his best-known tunes such as “Big Boss Man” or “High Heel Sneakers”
are in this style. Reed was also justly famed for his st position harp playing, which
loosely serves as the inspiration for this piece. The theme is played with a mix of
tongue block and pucker embouchures in the bottom octave, as is the solo verse
which follows the guitar solo and closely resembles the theme except at the begin-
ning. All the other solos are played in the top octave and use typical blow bending
riffs. There is a common theme running through all three, so it might make more
sense to describe the form as: theme  – theme  – theme  – guitar solo – theme
 – theme , ending. Due to the close similarities between all the top-end cho-
ruses, we decided to only transcribe the last one, which is nearest to what I’d
actually intended to play.

In the notation and tabs, I refer to the bent note in hole  as Eb, even though it’s
really closer to D – I bend this as far down as it will go and the resulting note is
considerably deeper than Eb. However, if we called it D, this would give rise to
confusion with the real D found in -draw, which also occurs at one point. Unfor-
tunately, there is no way you can generate the same effect by using the D in -draw
instead of the bend in -blow. Also please note that all of these blow bend phra-
ses live from the fact that I hit the bendable notes as direct bends and slide up to
the natural pitch. This is even more useful when playing in st position than in nd
position and I’ve tried to indicate it in the notation where appropriate.

This time the count-in comes from the hi-hat – Rainer taps out “ -  -    ”
and then the theme begins on the first beat of the next bar. The first verse (see
transcription) is accompanied by guitar and Hammond organ only. The first  bars
of the harp theme is fairly straightforward, the only thing you need to watch out
for is to get a clean semitone bend in -draw. I accent the individual notes with
“wahs”. On the IV chord I play blow octaves in , followed by a typical first
position blues lick in - and -draw which ends down on -blow. The trick here is
to play the bend in -draw as a slide, hitting it as a whole tone bend and moving
smoothly up to the natural note, then to the semitone bend in -draw, then back
down to the sliding bend on hole . Over the final -bar section I play double
notes on --draw in triplets before repeating the phrase mentioned above. On
the turnaround the bass and drums come in and take us into the next chorus.
Here I move to the top octave for some high-end first position stuff.

All three solos in the upper register are player with a pucker – some players man-
age these blow bends with a tongue block, but I find it too difficult to control the

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slides like that. The first one begins with a lead-in starting on “” of the final bar
of the theme which uses the direct bend on -blow – I don’t play the E straight
away, but slide up to it from the Eb bend. This happens very quickly. The longer
note on -blow on the “” of the first bar is a gradual slide from the bend up to
the natural note. This is followed by a pause, then I answer the first phrase with a
nd one on -, - & -blow. This pattern is repeated with slight variations over the
next  bars. I once again play a lead-in to the change to the IV chord D, where
the semitone bend on -blow gives the th, C. There are a couple of jumps from
-draw (F#, the rd in D) to -blow and after the change back to the I chord I play
around the root note A in -blow. Leading into the V chord I play a phrase ending
on a heavy bend on -blow. This sounds like a whole tone bend or the draw note
(B), but isn’t. The ear interprets it that way, but really the note lies in between C
and B, somewhat below the semitone bend. This can really trash your harp, so
tread lightly when trying it! The verse ends with phrases similar to those over the
IV chord in bars  & .

The nd high-end chorus is a variation on the same theme. I start with a lead-in: -
blow, -draw, -blow bend, -blow and then stay close to the fifth in  blow. The
line ends with a whole tone bend on -blow before dropping down to play
around -blow over the IV chord. Here I once again use the direct semitone bend
in  to get the third in D. Over the I chord in bars  &  I play a couple of
overblows in hole  to get the th note in A, G. This is not really true to the
genre, but the line is very similar to the one I play in the first theme in the bottom
octave, just an octave higher. There’s another overblow leading up to the V chord,
I play -blow, -draw, -overblow, -draw here. In bar  over the IV chord it gets a
bit more normal, then I play a similar phrase to the one in bar  over the turna-
round to take us into Dick’s rocking guitar solo.

After the guitar solo the harp returns in the lower octave with a lead-in starting on
a quick direct bend in -draw, gliding up to the natural note and followed by the
semitone bend in -draw. This is the th in A, G. I accent the phrase with hand
wahs and a bit of vibrato on the long note before bending down to the whole
tone bend F#, the natural note E in  draw and quickly back to the F#. Over the
next  bars this phrase is again repeated and answered with variations, before I
return to the original harp theme over the IV chord and stick with it through to
the end of the chorus.

The final high-end solo is transcribed above. Thematically it’s similar to the first
two, but stays closer to the genre as it contains no overblows. The phrasing over
the IV chord is a little tricky, but the transcription is dead on (I pored over it for
hours, so it ought to be) and should help you here. The ending is fairly standard
and is played in straight eighth beats, right with the rhythm section.

Practising Tip

) When playing in st position at the top end of the harp, it isn’t necessary to
blow hard. It took me many years to realize this and I have caused friends and
family untold distress by blasting away at the “screeching high notes” until the

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blood ran from their ears. Those old street musican habits die hard! The secret is
to learn the correct embouchure and then to maintain the upper lip pressure
necessary to prevent air escaping between the harp and your lips. Because these
notes have comparatively short wavelengths, the mouth space they require is
small. When lip blocking you have to purse your lips up to create a small opening
and the tongue is much further forward in the mouth than when playing lower
down. I usually position the tip behind the lower row of teeth. The feeling is
rather like imitating bird calls by whistling. If you get this right it’s possible to
bend the upper blow notes using much less air pressure and at a much more
pleasant volume. This in turn makes them easier to control and also allows you
put vibrato on them more easily. I use jaw vibrato on these notes, making biting
movements with the lower jaw without breaking lip contact (or striking the teeth
together!).

) A good way to develop your chops on the high blow bends is to play phrases
like this as a repeating pattern:

This is fairly strenuous even at low volume due to the tension required to maintain
the seal between the upper lip and the cover plates. Try playing it slowly at first,
concentrating on getting the timing and intonation right each time. When you
reach the point where you can repeat the phrase without losing the rhythm over
several bars, then try speeding it up.

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Boogaloo Train – Steve Baker

Form: intro,
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
guitar solo,
guitar solo,
harp solo,
harp solo,
harp solo,
theme,
repeats (transcribed),
ending (transcribed)

This number is a homage to more than two generations of musicians ranging

from Elvis Presley to the Stray Cats and beyond – white boys on speed playing
up-tempo versions of blues and R&B tunes with manic energy and creating a
unique cultural mix in the process. There isn’t really a harmonica tradition in this
kind of music – rockabilly has always been dominated by twangy guitars, which
left me free to play whatever I felt like. The harp on this one uses elements from
country swing as well as more usual blues styles. As befits the music, the whole
thing was recorded live in one take except for the guitar solo, so I shall ask listen-
ers to excuse my mistakes and sloppy playing. It’s also pretty fast – this kind of
tune doesn’t work if you play it much slower – so I beg readers’ indulgence on
that count too. There’s nothing like practising up-tempo material to develope your
chops! The rhythm is a fast shuffle, but the feel is much more open than the
traditional blues shuffle, because of the half time alternating bass line. I play most
of this tune with a pucker, but sometimes switch to a tongue block.

The song begins with a one verse intro from guitar, bass and drums. At the end of
this verse, there is a short fill on the snare drum to lead into the harp theme,
which starts on the first beat of the first bar of the nd verse. When playing along,
you start on the “” immediately after the snare fill. The theme starts on -blow
and I accent the last  of the  E notes on -draw which follow it with the tongue.
Note the sequence of direct bends which comes next, I switch from the whole
tone bend to the semitone bend in -draw and hold it for half a bar before bend-
ing it down to the whole tone bend again. The same phrase is repeated over the
next four bar block over the IV chord, but I played an extra note at the beginning,
the B in -draw at the end of bar . You can leave this out if you like, or you
could also use it in the first phrase. The theme is resolved over the final  bar
segment using the same whole tone and semitone bends on -draw. Once again,
timing and phrasing is everything when playing this type of material – the melody
isn’t that complicated in itself, the problem is getting it to swing. I recommend
that when learning this piece, you at first just repeat the theme over several verses
of the playback, instead of playing solos. The rhythm section is very solid, so just
relax and roll with it.

The three harp solos after the theme are all transcribed above. At the end of the
theme I play a lead-in to the first solo, running up in semitones from -draw to -

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draw over the turnaround. The sliding bend up to B in -draw is accented with a
hand “wah”, then I bend it hard, almost down to A. The phrases that follow are
rather fast but I believe the transcription is accurate. Leading up to the V chord in
bar  is an overblow in , Eb (once again, this is the third in the V chord, B)
followed by syncopated phrases back down to the root note in -draw. Over the
turnaround I play an ascending run up into the next octave and start the nd solo
with a blue note on the overblow in  (G, the minor rd in the key of E). Like
most of the first solo, this chorus is based on the major pentatonic mode, with the
addition of the blue notes. I also add some double stops. At the end, the harp line
carries straight on over the turnaround into the rd chorus, which is played almost
entirely in octaves using a -hole tongue block. It finishes with a run up the
pentatonic scale to the E in -blow, leaving a one bar pause before the guitar solo.

After the guitar solo the rhythm section drops right down, leaving lots of space
for the harp. I play a trill on --draw over the first three bars and then attempt
(and fail dismally) to play a chromatic run up in semitones to -blow. Once again
the rest of the chorus is based on the major pentatonic mode and I leave plenty
of pauses to retain the open feel. The next chorus starts with hand “wahs” on -
draw, using the semitone bend and the natural note, and the band starts to pump
up the energy level. Over the IV chord the phrase contains the overblow in  (G,
the th in the A chord). In the last  bars of this verse the harp plays a pentatonic
phrase which ascends the upper register and then slips back down again to start
the final solo chorus with bent double stops on --draw. Most of the verse is
played in double notes. Over the IV chord I switch to a tongue block for the bent
double stop on --draw as well as the phrases which follow. For the end of the
solo I switch back to a pucker and bring things back down again, then leave the
last bar free before playing the final theme. This is the same as the first time
around, but the last  bars are repeated twice with two fills in between the theme
licks. These are noted in the transcriptions and are identical except for the final
note – the first one ends on the E in -blow, the second on the E in -draw. The
ending is standard rock&roll and the harp plays --draw over the final chord.

Practising Tip

) The major pentatonic mode is the basis for a great deal of music:

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Now with a beat:

The trick is to learn how to create interesting phrases out of it, rather than just
playing the scale up and down. It’s always helpful to practice playing jumps be-
tween non-adjacent notes of the scale:

) With the addition of the  blue notes (minor rd, flattened th, th), plus the th,

you have a mode which is extremely versatile and can be adapted to many differ-
ent styles of music. For me it’s one of the most wonderful aspects of nd position
harp, as all these notes are readily available in holes –.

Try this, for example:

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5th Dimension – Steve Baker

Form: intro,
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
theme,
fade

And now, as they used to say in Monty Python’s flying Circus, for something
completely different. th Dimension is basically a  bar minor key blues with a
couple of simple chord substitutions. The rhythm is a slow ⁴⁄₄ and the band plays
a spacious but syncopated backing which is filled out by Stephan Kellers Ham-
mond organ. Many harp players are not that familiar with the th position, but it’s
one of the best ways to approach songs in minor keys. Here your root note on a C
harp is the E in holes ,  and , and you can use almost all of the other natural
notes fairly freely. The exceptions are the F notes in - and -draw – do try to stay
away from these, as they clash with all of the accompanying chords. Your basic
orientation in th position is the G major pentatonic scale G A B D E G:

5 8    P
but with E as your tonal center. This gives a minor pentatonic scale E G A B D E:

C 5 8   
In the solos I add the missing blue note Bb, and in the theme there is a C at one
point, but otherwise virtually the entire piece (solos included) only uses these
notes. This is an example of what the expression “modal playing” means – you
only use the notes of one particular scale in a way which fits to all the chords.

The song starts with a  bar intro from the band, the harp comes in at the end of
the fourth bar with a short lead-in and the theme proper starts on the first beat of
the following bar. On the playback, Rainer counts “  ” before the band starts
the intro. Keep counting and start the harp theme on “” of the fourth bar (just
after Rolf ’s bass fill). The first four bars of the theme consist of a  bar phrase
which is played twice, only using natural notes. The important thing is to keep the
rhythmic feel moving, it should be nice and light. Just before the change to the IV
chord in bar  comes a whole tone direct bend in -draw (A), leading to the G in
-draw (the th in Am). This is followed by a couple of syncopated phrases which
once again use the whole tone bend in -draw, then the harp returns to the initial
theme again as the chord changes back to Em. If you have difficulty with the
funky licks, you can simplify them by leaving out the G between the B and the A
– just hold the B a little longer.

In bar  the chord changes to Am, followed by a C/ with G in the bass. Here
the harp plays a G over the Am and then the C in -blow over the C/ before

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slipping down to the B in -draw on the Em chord. I hit the B as a double stop,
adding a touch of -draw (D) and immediately bend both notes quickly down,
then glide up to pitch again. The same chord progression is repeated in bar ,
but the harp plays the E in -blow instead of the C. The verse ends with a break
on the dominant th chord B. Here the harp plays the syncopations leading up to
the break right with the other instruments. I‘m playing a double stop again here
on --draw, with a bend on the last beat but one. On the break, the harp doesn’t
stop with the rest of the band, I continue bending the double stop in triplets, sort
of worrying at it over the short pause before the next verse starts. On the first
beat of the verse I turn the double stop into a trill on --draw and slowly fade it
out, creating space at the beginning of the solo.

Both the following solos are transcribed above. After the trill fades, I leave a bar
or so free before answering it with a short phrase, ending on the st beat of the
rd bar. Then I play some rapid sycopations on - and -blow before leading up
to the chord change to Am with the semitone bend on -draw, Ab, followed by
the A in -draw. The following phrases also use the overblow in  – this is the
flattened th in Em, Bb, but it creates tension as a passing note over the Am. As
the chord changes back to Em, I drop back down to the B in -draw, bending it a
couple of times. The harp lines over the chord changes in bars  and  of this
chorus come straight out of country-style cross harp, but played with the tonal
center in E rather than G. Notice that I bend up to both the Bs at the beginning
of bar . I continue in the same vein over the Am / C/ sequence in bar 
and play the breaks on the B (with a couple of bends) before leading straight up
to the repeating riff which starts the next solo chorus.

I play the phrase G E B D E three times over the first two bars of the chorus,
leave a short pause and then repeat the whole thing over the next two bars. This
time, instead of leaving a pause I continue on up the minor pentatonic scale to hit
the high E in -blow on the change to the IV chord. Over the Am I play a
couple of bluesy licks at the top end of the harp before dropping back down to
the middle register when the chord returns to Em. Over the next two bars I play
some fairly dirty phrases in holes –, slurring the notes by beginning and ending
them with bends and accenting them with ”wahs”. Over the sequence Am /
C/ I play a long trill on --blow, answered by octaves in holes --draw on
the Em. As the sequence is repeated I stay in octaves for the next phrase and
conclude the chorus with a high-end blues lick which stops on the break.

The theme is repeated in the following verse, it’s basically the same as the first
time, but one or two phrases are clearer here. Over the syncopations leading up to
the break at the end of the verse I play octaves in --draw. After the break the
harp plays a trill on --blow together with the organ, and then I play sparse
bends in -draw, followed by a couple of simple repeating figures in --draw. As
the title starts to fade I move up to the high register and finish with trills on --
blow.

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Practising Tip

) Here is a -bar exercise to help you familiarize yourself with the minor penta-
tonic mode in th position and also practise the whole tone bend in -draw:

This mode works well in the upper register too – here is a more extended exercise
in the same vein, starting in -blow:

) The next step is to integrate the missing blue note Bb, the flattened fifth in E.
This has to be played in  different ways, depending on which octave you’re in: as
a semitone bend in -draw, as an overblow in  or as a whole tone bend in -
blow. By adding it to the minor pentatonic scale, we get a classic blues scale:

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Here is an exercise using the blues scale in th position as an descending and as an
ascending sequence:

Here is a phrase using the flattened th Bb, played in each octave:

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(Please don‘t get too) Stoned – Steve Baker

Form: intro,
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
theme,
ending (transcribed)

I used to be a great fan of the Rolling Stones in their heyday, not especially be-
cause of Mick Jagger’s harmonica playing, but because of Keith’s classic guitar
riffs. This is my attempt at writing a Stones tune in a typical modal style. The first
thing you need to realize about the main guitar riff is that it’s neither truly major
nor truly minor, as it’s played entirely in intervals of fourths and fifths. There are
no thirds as such, the D in the guitar riff is only heard together with an A, never
with a B, which would make a B minor chord. The major third in the key of B, Eb,
doesn’t occur at all. Basically the riff exhibits characteristics of both major and
minor tonalities, but belongs to neither.

The harp theme sticks strictly to the dorian scale found on the natural notes of
the harp in rd position, which also has both minor and major characteristics. In
the solos I sometimes add the blue note which is missing from the dorian mode,
the flattened fifth F. The structure of the theme is similar to a  bar blues, but
the guitar riff is repeated once at the end, giving a total of  bars. Both solo
choruses are  bars shorter than the theme and start on the IV chord, but are
otherwise the same.

The song starts with a -bar intro from bass and drums, then the harp comes in
on -draw together with the guitar and plays the first two notes of the riff with it.
These are played with a tongue slap to accent the rhythm before switching to a
pucker for the middle portion of the riff. Here you have to execute clean jumps
from the natural note in -blow to the whole tone bend in -draw and back again,
then from -blow to -draw. The riff ends as it started, but this time I play octaves
in -and -draw. This entire sequence is repeated over the second -bar block.

On the IV chord, the harp plays a -bar phrase in holes  twice. Here I use a
tongue block and also widen my embouchure in order to create a double stop,
which thickens up the sound. Then it’s back to the original riff, which is played
once. On the final portion of the theme, the harp plays a simple line on holes 
over the A and E chords and then leads back to the B chord with a tricky jump
from -blow to the whole tone bend in -draw. This needs to be legato, there
should be no noticable pause between these two notes. The final notes of the
harp theme sit once again right on top of the guitar riff and are played in octaves.
The guitar riff is repeated once to round the whole thing off, but the harp sits out.

The solo starts with a big ringing E IV chord from the guitar. The harp plays
tongue-blocked double stops in holes - and basically just sticks close to the
chord modulations. I accent the rhythm with tongue slaps. When we return to the
I chord and the guitar riff, the harp moves to single note lines. These are all based
on simple blues scale licks in rd position, ie the dorian mode plus the blue note F,
the diminished fifth in B (semitone bend in -draw). Notice that I play the same

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jump from -blow to the whole tone bend in -draw as at the end of the theme
after the first chord change A/E to lead back to the B chord. Over the four bars
on the guitar riff before the nd solo chorus begins, I mess around the F# in -
draw; these are really rock guitar licks rather than blues harmonica.

The nd solo chorus starts with a lead-in up to the E chord which is played in
octaves in the upper register. After thrashing the D note in octaves (--draw), I
return to the rock guitar riffs over the next couple of bars, including an overdraw
on , then go back to playing octave riffs over the B chord. For the A / E se-
quences I run up to the top note again (check the semitone bend in -blow, both
ascending and descending) and rock on through to the end of the solo, working
my way back down the blues scale and quoting the theme riff at the very end. I
made every effort to check the transcription carefully and it’s as accurate as I can
get it. Hope it helps.

After the solos it’s back to the theme, but I add an extra note, the whole tone
bend in -draw, F#, after the first  Bs (see transcription “Ending”). Over the A / E
chord sequences at the end of the verse I use double notes to thicken up the
sound and play a fill between the two sequences in a similar vein to the solo. The
tune ends with the guitar riff, we play it together three times and end on another
big E chord with the harp playing octaves in --draw.

Practising Tip

) The only difficult part in the theme is the direct bends and the jump from -
blow to -draw. Try practising this part of the riff on its own:

) Here’s a rock riff using the blues scale which is typical for the style I play on the
solos here:

Many of the notes on the off beats are not legato, the short pause after the F and
the E at the beginning of the phrase help make the whole thing move along
better.

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Take me with you when you go – Steve Baker

Form: intro,
theme (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
harp solo (transcribed),
theme,
ending (transcribed from V chord onwards)

To finish up, we have a slow traditional Chicago shuffle in the Jimmy Rogers vein.
This style is driven by the guitar and Dick knows exactly what to play when
backing up a harp player. The piece is really a dialogue between the harp and the
guitar. Rainer supports him with a rock-steady shuffle beat, implying the th beat
triplets rather than actually playing them, which gives the whole thing a very
relaxed feel. The harp is slightly reminiscent of Little Walter, but as he invented
the style, that’s not surprising.

After Rainer’s opening drum roll the guitar plays a  bar intro and the harp joins
in on the first beat of bar two, answering the guitar line. Notice the downward
bend on -draw at the end of bar , before I switch from a pucker to a tongue
block for the E in -draw and the notes which follow. Here I’m playing -draw as
a half step direct bend, G. On the V chord (B) at the end of the intro I lead to
the root note B in -draw by moving from the whole tone bend D to the semitone
bend D# in -draw (D# is the third in B). Then I lead into the theme on the last
beat of the intro with two whole tone bends on -draw, accented with hand
“wahs”. On the change to the IV chord in the nd bar of the verse I play the
whole tone bend in -draw, followed by a legato jump to the semitone bend in -
draw. This is musically simple, but not easy to execute – concentrate on getting
timing and intonation right and you’ll sound great! In the next bar I play a varia-
tion on the first phrase before moving up to a trill on --draw. On the final beat
of the bar I play a lead-in to the IV chord in the next bar, starting on -draw, then
the semitone bend, then -blow. The typical Chicago-style passage over the IV
chord is played with a tongue block, then I go back to a pucker for the trill in -
-draw. I lead from the natural note in -draw to the whole tone bend F# over the
V chord, then play the same tongue block passage along with the IV chord again.
The harp plays a standard turnaround phrase, but I leave the actual V vhord at the
very end of the verse free in order to have space from which to lead into the first
solo chorus.

This starts with a brief run-up to a tongue flutter over the first bar of the solo.
Here I’m basically blocking holes  with my tongue, and partially uncovering
them to create the trill, so you hear hole  plus either  or  (all draw). In the
transcription, this is noted as a simple trill, but actually it’s played as described
here. The next line is also played with a  hole block, then back to the tongue
flutter for the following bar. Building up to the change to the IV chord, I play a
rhythmic triplet figure, bending the semitone bend in -draw up to the natural
note. These are in fact double stops, there is always air passing through hole  as
well as hole . On the IV chord I play the E in -blow with a tongue block, fol-
lowed by a descending phrase to get back to the low E in -draw, then return to
the tongue flutter over the I chord. Over the final  bars of the verse I stick with

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variations on the traditional Chicago phrasing, but some of it’s not very precise,
so the transcription isn’t % accurate here. Trust your ears.

The nd solo chorus once again starts with a lead-in from the final bar of the
turnaround, I play the semitone bend in -draw (plus a tad of -draw too) and
follow this with --draw on the first beat of the new verse. Both are accented
with heavy “wahs”. This pattern is repeated in the rd bar, before I move up to a
fast trill in --draw over the th bar, building up to the chord change. On the
final beat before the change to the IV chord I hit -blow with a semitone bend
(Eb), slide up to the natural note E and then hit the whole tone bend in -blow
(G) over the A chord on the first beat of the bar. I stay up the top end for the
duration of the IV chord and then drop back down to the middle octave, return-
ing to the phrase with which I started the verse over the I chord. This is followed
by some syncopated phrasing, then a lead-in to the V chord. On the B I play the
whole tone bend in -draw, F#, then bend it down further to the  semitone bend
F, followed by the E in -blow. This is quite exacting but very effective. The solo
ends with another typical turnaround figure before leading into the final theme
(not transcribed). This starts like the first one, but in the rd and th bars I vary it a
little before continuing over the subdominant as before. The ending is noted in
the transcription, the passage over the V chord is similar to the nd solo chorus,
but I move up to the E in -blow for the IV chord and play a descending run,
building towards the ending. The ending itself uses a classic Chicago harp trick, I
start on -draw (D) and then bend this down almost a semitone to C#. This creates
a quite different effect from playing the C# normally in -blow, due to the bend,
but can trash your harp if you overdo it. On the final chord I pull the semitone
bend in -draw (G) down a further semitone to F#, the th in E/.

Practising Tip

) As you may have noticed, this piece lives from the use of lead-ins. Especially
when coming up to a chord change, I’ll play a short phrase at the end of the bar
before the new chord in order to introduce the next segment of the tune. This
creates a totally different effect from starting your phrase on the st beat of the
chord. The lead-in starts either on “-and” or on “” of the previous bar. Here’s a
typical example:

The key to the phrasing is the shuffle beat, you always have to have the th beat
triplets in the back of your mind: “           ”. Stick with them and
try to remember to leave space – it’s not just what you play, it’s what you don’t
play and when you don’t play it.

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 Also available:

Steve Baker: Tom Bornemann:

Blues Harmonica Playalongs www.four-strings.com, Vol. 1
The internet-assisted bass method
Vol. 1 ISBN 978-3-936807-76-9
ISBN 978-3-936807-01-1 ISMN M-50150-077-2
ISMN M-50150-005-5 EUR 21,90 – book w/ 2 CDs
EUR 19,90 – book w/ CD
Vol. 3
ISBN 978-3-936807-83-7
ISMN M-50150-084-0
EUR 20,90 – book w/ CD

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