10 Songs That Taught Me Blues Harmonica

Here are 10 songs that taught me blues harmonica, from easy to “aargh!”

I learned some of these songs early in my journey, and some later.

But these are the best of the best.

And for the first 6 at least, if you’re a beginner (who has already learned how to play single notes) I’m gonna show you how you can play them too!

…Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that I don’t know if I can actually play the last song or not. Why? Because some blues harmonica is fricken hard. At least for me.

But not all blues harmonica is soul crushingly hard. From the moment I heard song #1  – I was like – yeah I want it! 

#1I Got Love If You Want It
by Slim Harpo

Here are the harmonica tabs for “I Got Love If You Want It” by Slim Harpo:

I was so happy to learn that the first lick of this song doesn’t really require any bending, and comes right down the scale I like to call The “Almost” Blues Scale, which simply consists of the notes of the blues scale you can play without bending.

Here’s the tabs:

Notice how the first riff comes right down that scale? Pretty cool, huh?

Now, if you don’t know how to bend yet, just replace all those -2” whole-step bend with blow 2’s and you can still pull off this classic blues following these harmonica tabs:

And, if you can’t bend, Song #2 serves up the goods even better sans bends. 

Song #2 is a must-learn blues tune for every beginner because it’s really… Easy. 😉

#2Easy
by Big Walter Horton

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Easy” by Big Walter Horton:

Wow, 2 songs in a row that were originally played on a Bb harmonica. It almost makes you want to go out and buy a Bb harmonica. (Do it!!!)

That last 2 bars of the 12-bar blues are called the turnaround, and Big Walter plays a great turnaround lick that you can find in countless tunes such as “After Hours” by James Cotton:

And you can use it in your solos as well. 

Turnaround licks are your friend. 

They say the last thing you play is the first thing the audience remembers, so ending your solo strong will make you sound like a pro.

Speaking of easy, you want to know the easiest way to learn harmonica? I know this is kinda early for my shameless plug for my Beginner to Boss course, but if you want to turbocharge your growth on the harmonica it’s tried and tested, and money-back guaranteed. The reviews don’t lie. Check it out here.

The next song is the only harmonica instrumental ever to score #1 the R&B charts, played by the man many crown the king of the Chicago bluesman.

Might sound hard to believe, but I’m gonna show you how you can kinda pull this song off before you master bending as well!

#3Juke
by Little Walter

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Juke” by Little Walter:

I include this song cos most blues harmonica players consider it an essential song to learn. 

And you can learn it. Here’s how to approach it as a beginner.

The trick to making it sound good is to nail the rhythm, and the musical term for the feel of this tune is Swung 8ths. 

Here’s the 2 step hyperspeed tutorial to nailing the feel…

1️⃣ First, start by counting triplets, like this:

2️⃣ Now we’re going to take out the center pulse (where we say the word “trip”)

3️⃣ and then where we were saying “let” we’re gonna say “ah” (to make it roll off the tongue a little easier)

Removing the bend from the main riff, the rhythm now is:

Here are the harmonica tabs to play Little Walter’s  “Juke” without any bends:

Could there be a 4th song played by a titan of blues harmonica that we could pull off without being able to bend?

#4Checkin’ Up On My Baby
by Sonny Boy Williamson II

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Checkin’ Up On My Baby” by Sonny Boy Williamson II:

This song is so great because it illustrates the power of space, silence and restraint.

A common mistake among beginners is overplaying. To which the great jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie famously responded:

 “You should try leaving some holes in your playing, maybe some music will fall out!”

Learning “Checkin’ Up on My Baby” is a great way to train yourself in the vital skill of restraint.

Maybe that’s part of the reason why 16-year old Luke spent so much time studying this record. Sonny Boy Williamson NEVER overplays. 

In the space of this 12-bar blues, he plays only 6 riffs, which means he’s only playing about half of the time!

Only the 5th riff has strong bends. And, if you haven’t learned bending yet, you could just play it like this:

Here’s the harmonica tabs for “Checkin’ Up on My Baby” without bends, and just saying “dwah” or “kyuh” to get a little hint of a bend on the -3’s and -4’s:

Great job! But if you really wanna play Blues harmonica, you’re gonna need this, baby…

#5Need My Baby
by Big Walter Horton

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Need My Baby” by Big Walter Horton:

This is the second song on our list from the Godfather of blues harmonica (and it may not  be the last 😉). What can I say? Big Walter was just a total genius for coming up with really cool melodies on the harmonica.

In the video, I played this song using tongue-blocking, tongue slaps, and splits.

I’m gonna explain what splits are (and why they’re so powerful) later in this lesson, but for now, I wanna show you how we can take the splits and bends out of this, and it’s still a killer tune, even if you’re still more of a beginner.

Here are the harmonica tabs for a beginner version of “Need My Baby” by Big Walter Horton:

Congrats on making it halfway through our list!

Of course, if your gonna call yourself a bluesman, you’ve gotta cop some licks from this cat:

#6Crosseyed Cat
by Muddy Waters (James Cotton)

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Crosseyed Cat” by Muddy Waters:

Besides Sonny Boy’s Real Folk Blues record, Muddy Waters was the other artist whose songs I copied most. And his Hard Again record was my favorite, with the harmonica played by James Cotton – the man I most wanted to be on harmonica in my early years. 

Why James Cotton? Just like BB King on the guitar, James Cotton just puts his whole heart and soul into everything he plays.

Here’s why Crosseyed Cat has been such a great study song on my harmonica journey:

➡️ Beginner

As soon as I could play single notes, I could play something that actually sounded cool to me. No tricky rhythms, no swung 8ths, no bends, and you’re playing something legit cool.

Plus, to add cool points, I could work on sliding up into the -5.

➡️ Intermediate

As I started to learn bending, but couldn’t control them well, I could make this lick sound a lot cooler bending into the -3’ at the end.

➡️ Advanced

Then as I advanced in my bending skills, the 2nd lick James Cotton plays is a great workout for the -2” whole-step bend and the -3’ half-step bend.

And this is a great lick to play over the IV chord.

James Cotton had huge tone, just like Carey Bell, whose technique on song #7 is gonna make you sound huge!

#7Walkin’ By Myself
by Jimmy Rogers (Carey Bell)

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Walkin’ by Myself” by Jimmy Rogers:

When Jimmy Rogers released this in 1956 on Chess records, Big Walter Horton was on harmonica. But the version I just tabbed out is from his 1994 release, performed by a Chicago harmonica player who was actually a protege of Big Walter Horton.

And although Carey Bell’s name isn’t heard as often as other players on this list, he is absolutely a powerhouse of a player. His variation from a warm tone in the beginning to a raw tone at the end, and his great use of splits are part of what make this my favorite version.

Oh yeah, and I promised you I would talk to you about splits! It’s simply the technique that allows us to play 2 non-adjacent notes at the same time.

The most commonly played splits span 4 holes, and the easiest one to learn first is the 14 split. Playing splits is one of the best ways to add blues horsepower to your harmonica playing.

And if you’re itching for some sick split licks, Slim’s riffs can scratch that itch…

#8Baby, Scratch My Back
by Slim Harpo

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Baby, Scratch my Back” by Slim Harpo:

Slim Harpo, man. Such cool phrasing. Style points for daaaayz. 

In the second chorus, did you notice how the splits increased the blues horsepower? I also love how he used them to outline the I chord and the IV chord. If you’re not familiar with chord numbering, check out Harmonica Chords for Beginners.

Also, learning the 12-bar blues form is time well spent. Every professional musician I know has memorized the 12-bar blues form. I teach how to memorize it in Harmonica Blues for Beginners.

When it comes to learning how to make up your own blues harmonica solos that rock hard, beside learning and playing around with notes from the blues scale the other secret is learning to play the notes of the chord one at a time:

The V chord takes the most practice, but also adds some of the coolest colors.

When we’re improvising, and we play individual notes that are part of the underlying chords, we call that “outlining the changes” because if you take away the band, you can still hear the chord changes implied in the melody alone, which is why this approach is so bulletproof.

Whether our blues harmonica heroes knew this consciously, or just did it intuitively, we hear examples of it in all of their playing.

To start tuning into this, notice how often players will play the -3 over the I chord, but then play the -3’ over the IV chord, and try it yourself.

If you wanna master chord tones in action, the most important thing to practice is your -3 bends, and when it comes to finessing the -3 bends song #9 will take you to that big boss level.

#9Big Boss Man
by Jimmy Reed

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Big Boss Man” by Jimmy Reed:

Jimmy Reed is so soulful.

Like Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Checkin’ Up on My Baby“, this is another great example of the power of leaving space.

This solo might SOUND simple, but if you try to play along with it, I think you’ll find it’s NOT easy to match what Jimmy Reed is doing.

ANYONE can be complicated. It requires GENIUS to be SIMPLE.

Trying to play this exposes the genius of Jimmy Reed’s mastery of the subtleties of rhythmic phrasing and finessing the -3 bend.

Also, on the subject of outlining the changes, check out his lick at the end of bar 7 of the form:

Landing on the -3” whole step bend exactly on beat 1 of the V chord, which is one of the notes in the chord.

OK, and now it’s the moment of truth. Song #10. It’s a standard in the harmonica repertoire, but it’s so fricken hard. I honestly don’t know if I’m gonna be able to pull it off or not.

#10Walter’s Boogie
by Big Walter Horton

Here are the harmonica tabs for “Walter’s Boogie” by Big Walter Horton:

The hardest part of this tune is the lick he plays over the IV chord:

Joe Filisko gave me a great piece of advice here: “Think sharp.” When it comes to intonating this riff, playing it too sharp sounds a lot better than playing it too flat!!

Please leave any questions or comments below. And keep on playing them blues, cos it makes the world a better place! 🌎❤️🎶