Peter C
May 08, 2012 5:51 AM GMT

I am a new harmonica player but I want to be able to play the harmonica in this song as I sing karaoke and I would be able to delete the harmonica sound on the backing track. I need a few clarification on the harmonica part to this song. I am aware the song is in the key of C and hence I need a C harp. I played around with my guitar and found out the notes if I am not wrong is C, B. A, G, G, A. Am I right? Does playing this little harmonica riff requires bending any notes? I cannot bend notes yet. Am I right playing this little riff means blowing on hole 4 (C), drawing on hole 3 (B), drawing & bending a whole step on hole 3 (A), blowing on hole 3 twice (G G) and ending on A (draw and bend half a step on hole 3) . Is this accurate? This requires bending one note (A) but is there a way of playing this riff without bending any notes? This is the song and the harmonica riff is at the beginning lasting for a few seconds starting from 0.10 to 0.15 on the timer. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiUUtbALp_0

Can anyone help me?

here is a link

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Harmonica/Harmonica_Layouts_and_Alternate_Tunings

where you can see the notes on diatonic harmonicas and see if they match those you figured out on the guitar.. there are no bends in these diagrams

my apologies, i am more a gut type player and so can't help with the specifics of what to do on this song. BUT i can hear a lot of great possibilities for harmonica in this one.

what i have always found attractive about harmonica is that it is so close to the human voice and such a versatile instrument. over many years i have played many different parts on many different songs.

one way i would approach this song would be as you say, with a C harp and playing in 1st position, which is primarily blow notes. the exciting thing to me here is that one can soar into the higher register in that position.

i also hear very good possibilities for cross harp or 2nd position, where you would play an F harp using mostly draw notes and mostly between 1 and 6 holes on the harp.

let me make one other suggestion: as you become familiar with the harmonica, explore bending notes. no need to draw too hard to get results, but what draw bends do is give you hald steps and actually whole and steps-and-a-half on a given harp and hole. there is a lot of free information on this with a google search.

best of luck to you and i hope this helped in some small measure!