THE BLUES – AN INTRODUCTION ON GUITAR AND HARMONICA
This video series introduces The Blues to guitar and harmonica.
It’s amazing that a brand of music which typically only uses 3 chords in a consistent progression can have so many styles and such history. That’s why this section is called an introduction to The Blues. The subject is deep and vast.
I’ll take you through the structure or progression as well as the chords. Then we’ll go through the chord tones and scales on the harmonica to use when playing Blues.
An Introduction To The Blues On Guitar And Harmonica
This is the main teaching video of the series.
Begin with a review of selecting the right key harmonica for second postion.
Learn the chords on guitar and harmonica.
Discover the chord tones on harmonica.
Learn the Blues scale on both guitar and harmonica
That’s followed with the structure and chords of The Blues progression as well as The Blues scale.
Playing time: 8:39
Blues Exercise 1 – Chords on Guitar and Harmonica – FREE LESSON
This lesson works out Blues in G, concentrating on chords both on guitar and harmonica.
Keep the rhythm simple and as you change the chord on guitar, change the chord on the harmonica.
Continue learning music notation, don’t just rely on the harmonica tabs.
Don’t worry about single notes here. Play the full chord on harmonica.
Playing time: 2:24
Blues Exercise 2 – Chord Tones on Guitar and Harmonica
In this exercise, let’s work on the notes on the harmonica that make up each of our chords in our G Blues progression.
Concepts
* 12 Bar Blues
* Swing Rhythm
* Playing single notes on harmonica
* Continue getting familiar reading music
Playing time: 1:58
Blues Exercise 3 – Chord Tones Plus 6 on Guitar and Harmonica
This video extends the chords of The Blues to include the 6th of the chord.
This makes for a commonly used lick.
Concepts
* 12 Bar Blues
* Swing Rhythm
* Add the 6th to the chord tones
* Playing single notes on harmonica
* Continue getting familiar reading music
Playing time: 1:29
Blues Exercise 4 – The Blues Scale on Guitar and Harmonica
The Blues scale is covered in this video.
Learn what notes make up the Blues scale.
Learn where these notes are located on the guitar and harmonica.
Bending on the harmonica is required. The guitar can help get those bends right. I show you how.
Then jam along with me.
Concepts
* 12 Bar Blues
* Swing Rhythm
* Playing single notes Blues scale on harmonica
* Continue getting familiar reading music
Playing time: 7:00
Guitar and Harmonica – Blues in E
Learn how to play The Blues in an open E format.
This is a cool sounding, fairly easy to play riff pattern that we can use and expand on for exploring The Blues.
E Blues doesn’t work with our C harmonica however, so I show you where to put the capo in order to get Blues in G which does work with our C harp.
Playing time: 8:08
5 – 6 Blues Shuffle In A
Learn how to play The Blues in an open A format.
This is a cool sounding, fairly easy to play riff pattern that we can use and expand on for exploring The Blues.
This is very similar to the Blues In E riff learned previously.
The I chord root is located on the 5th string.
Playing time: 4:13
Notes on the Sixth String
The Blues can be played in any key so we don’t want to be limited to playing our Blues comping patterns just in open formats which limits the keys we can play in.
In order to play Blues in any key the root notes of our chords will be on the 6th and 5th strings.
For this reason, it’s important to learn the names of the notes on any fret on these strings.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the names of the notes on the 6th string from the nut up to the 12th fret.
Playing time: 6:54
Notes on the Fifth String
The Blues can be played in any key so we don’t want to be limited to playing our Blues comping patterns just in open formats which limits the keys we can play in.
In order to play Blues in any key the root notes of our chords will be on the 6th and 5th strings.
For this reason, it’s important to learn the names of the notes on any fret on these strings.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the names of the notes on the 5th string from the nut up to the 12th fret.
Playing time: 5:48
C7 Blues Comp
Here’s a great little Blues riff based on the C7 chord shape that can be moved all over the neck to allow playing the Blues in any key.
First we’ll learn the Blues in C and then move it around a bit to demonstrate playing in different keys.
It’s important to be able to name the notes on the 5th string since this is where the root note for the chord is.
There’s also some Travis picking which can be a bit of a challenge. But that’s what makes the riff sound cool.
Playing time: 6:15
5 – 6 Blues Shuffle Root on 6
In this video, I look at moving the 5 – 6 Blues Shuffle around on the neck.
In particular, we set up the I7 chord with it’s root note on the 6th string.
This ties into an earlier lesson where we learned the names of the notes on the 6th string.
This will allow us to play the Blues in any key.
Learn where the I7, IV7 and V7 chords set up when the root of the I7 chord is on the 6th string.
Playing Time: 6:31
5 – 6 Blues Shuffle Root on 5
Like the previous video, here I look at moving the 5 – 6 Blues Shuffle around on the neck.
This time however, we set up the I7 chord with it’s root note on the 5th string.
This also ties into an earlier lesson where we learned the names of the notes on the 5th string.
Playing Time: 4:38
Offbeat Blues Comp
Here is a straight forward comp to use that imitates the snare drum with down strokes on 2 and 4.
A ton of Blues songs are in the key of A, so that’s the key used here.
This comp is great when starting to add harmonica riffs because it’s easy to play meaning you don’t have to think too much about your guitar when you’re trying to concentrate on the harmonica.
It is also an absolute viable comping pattern that’s been used countless times.
Get a good feel for this one because we’ll be adding the harmonica next.
Playing Time: 3:43
Offbeat Blues Comp Harmonica Shots
Let’s combine the offbeat Blues comp with the harmonica.
In this video, I’m going to keep it simple. The harmonica mimics where the kick drum sits and the guitar hits on the snare drum offbeats.
This is a standard 12 Bar Blues in the key of A.
The harmonica is played in second position so you’ll need a harmonica in the key of D.
Playing Time: 4:06
Offbeat Blues Comp with Harp Chords
Let’s use the offbeat Blues comp again in the key of A and play chord shots on harmonica.
You’ll need a D harmonica for this.
Harmonica shots come on 1 and 3 &.
When on the I play a chord consisting of notes -2 -3 -4 -5.
When on IV, play 4 5 6.
On V, play -4 -5 -6.
Playing Time: 2:30
Blues Root 7
Now it’s time to step up the harmonica difficulty a little bit.
So we’ll keep the comp simple and use the offbeat Blues comp.
For the harmonica, we’ll have a new riff that uses the root of the chord and the 7th of the chord with a syncopated feel.
When on the I7, the harmonica tabs are -2 -2bb -2 -2.
On the IV7, it’s 4 -3b 4 4.
On the V7, -4 4 -4.
Playing Time: 6:28
Blues Root 7 with 5 – 6 Shuffle
In the last video we added some complexity to the harmonica riff.
In this video we’ll keep the harmonica riff but increase the difficulty with the comp.
Instead of the offbeat Blues comp, here we’ll use the 5 – 6 shuffle.
It’s important to be comfortable with the guitar comp so that you can put as much on autopilot as possible.
This will be Blues in A, so a D harmonica is required.
Playing Time: 5:04
Riffin’ Offbeat
This lesson combines a simple rhythm, the Blues offbeat comp with a 4 bar harmonica riff.
The riff is played three times in a 12 Bar Blues progression so that even though the chords may change, the riff stays the same.
Since the riff is quite difficult, the comp is simple.
Again we are playing Blues in A and so need a D harmonica for second position.
Playing Time: 7:08
Riffin’ 5 – 6 Shuffle
This lesson combines the 5 – 6 Shuffle in A with the 4 bar Riffin’ harmonica riff.
The riff is played three times in a 12 Bar Blues progression so that even though the chords may change, the riff stays the same.
Riff stays the same, comp gets harder.
Brain gets worked a little more every time.
Playing Time: 5:04
Leave a Reply