Lesson Info

Difficulty: Medium

Lesson Length: 6:37

Instructor: George Goodman

Recommended Gear

A Hohner Special 20

Roadhouse Blues is in the key of E. We want to use an A harmonica in 2nd position.

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Help File

Download the harmonica tabs in pdf format for easy offline viewing - 8 Roadhouse Riffs

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8 Roadhouse Riffs For Harmonica

Roadhouse Blues is played in the key of E so for this we are going to need an A harmonica. That means that we will be playing in second position or ‘cross harp’ position.
The reason for this is, on an A harmonica, when you draw on holes 2, 3, 4, and 5, you get an E7 chord.

Also by setting up the chord to sound on a draw means that you can bend the notes to create tones that are part of the blues scale which sound great.

The harmonica part on this song is a great example of filling spaces and not stepping on the other musician’s toes. There’s a great comping rhythm part that sits under the vocals and then tasty fills when there’s space.

There are a ton of nuances added in the playing – there’s bends, scoops, drop offs, slurs, trills that are really hard to notate in tab form but I’ll give you the holes to blow and draw so you can form a basis on the notes to play so you can add your own inflections.

Riffs

Riff 1 – is the comping riff found throughout the song. It starts off playing a 2 draw on the offbeats
-2 -2 -2 34 -3

Riff 2 – near the beginning of the song after the first riff has been played three times. This will repeat 4 times with a tag added to the 4th time.

First 3 times: 3 4 -4 with a bend and falloff.
Fourth time: 3 4 -4 -2 -3 -3 -2

Riff 3 – after the first line of vocals
-2 -3 4 -4 4 -3 3 -3 -2 -2

Riff 4 - During ‘The future’s uncertain | the end is always near’
-4 -5 -4 -5 -4 -5 -4 | -4 6 -5 -4 4 -2

Riff 5 – guitar solo call and response similar to line ‘Save our city’
-4 4 -3 -2

Riff 6 - near the end of Morrison’s vocal improv. Starts on ‘and’ of 1:
-2 -3 4 -4b -4b -4b -4b | -4-5 trill -4 4 -3 -2
The trill starts on 1 and last for 2 beats

Riff 7 follows the sixth riff:
-2 -3 4 -4 4 -3 -2 | -3 -2 -2

Riff 8 - Let it Roll Baby Roll
-4-5 trill | -4b 3 -3 -3 -2

So remember, you can definitely put some bends on these riffs - especially the draw 3.

And that's 8 Roadhouse Riffs for harmonica.

Cheers,
George