Blues and Boogie Woogie

The Need For Single Notes

By now, you should be working seriously on your ability to obtain single notes, if you have not already begun to do so. Many of the following songs and exercises can be played without using single notes, but some will sound better if you can use single notes.

Some Tonal Variations

Please note that although many of the following licks, songs and other exercises are notated with single notes, it is sometimes acceptable to use a combination of single notes as well as chords when playing them.

Some songs may sound better when played with a greater number of chords in place of single notes, others may sound better when played with more single notes. Thus if a song uses the single note 4e, it may also be played as the chord 345e, or as 34e or 45e. This choice is up to you. When a song "jumps" from one note to a distant note (as with the jump from 4e to 6e in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), it is acceptable to jump directly from the 4 to the 6 hole, or to "slide" the harmonica, briefly hitting upon the 5 hole. However, the slide must not interfere with the correct timing of the song. It is also acceptable either to use, or not to use, a tonguing effect on any note or chord. Unless notated, this is entirely left to your discretion, depending on whether you prefer a "flowing" (not tongued) or "sharp" version of the song. All of these variations are demonstrated on the recording, used appropriately depending on the song.

These exercises will both help to prepare you for playing the second position Blues Scale, and help prepare you to play the blues verses in this and subsequent lessons. Start by playing these note patterns, in no particular rhythm. Concentrate on learning the distances between each note, and on changing from the inhale to the exhale at the proper time. On the recording they are each demonstrated with chord and with single note versions.

Rather than playing the three notes of each chord together, as above, in the following Twelve Bar Structure each note of the chord is played separately. Playing a chord in this way is known as "arpeggiating" a chord. This verse also features a full four beats of turnaround (including the final silent beat).

This verse is a variation on the first arpeggiated verse. It also introduces a turnaround based on the low D note provided by 1i.

Any other arrangement of the chord notes, such as 3i 2i 1i or 2i 2i 3i for the G chord bars, 6e 5e 4e or 4e 4e 5e for the C chords, or 6i 5i 4i or 4i 4i 5i for the D chords, would work just as well. If you like, create a variation of your own based on those suggestions. More exciting variations will be possible when you have learned to break beats up into smaller parts.

A boogie woogie is a particular type of Twelve Bar structure. Originally based on the notes played by the left hand of New Orleans style piano players in the early part of this century, it has been adapted into a standard harmonica piece. It is generally played with each beat broken into two parts and played in a swing rhythm, as it will be presented in Lesson Sixteen.

This will probably be the most difficult piece so far. You may wish to play each eight beat section by itself, slowly, before attempting to put them together to form the entire verse.

It is also more difficult to recognize the Twelve Bar Structure in the boogie woogie than in the previous blues pieces, but a careful count of the beats will prove that the chord changes are less obvious but do occur in the correct places. Be prepared for the turnaround, which requires a jump from 6e to 1i.