5 Rolling Stones Riffs (Easy to Hard)

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LEVEL 1 - TOTAL NOOB - You Can’t Always Get What You Want
For total newbies, focus on these important fundamentals:

Deep diaphragmatic breathing, along with a nice steady airflow
Deep mouth position on the harmonica

To play along with You Can’t Always Get What You Want, just inhale through the harmonica on holes -123 for 4 counts, and then exhale through holes 123 on the harmonica for 4 counts.

Once you can do that, we’re gonna add some syllables to mimic the rhythm of the acoustic guitar pattern:

Ta Ta kaTa Ta Taka-Taka

LEVEL 2 - NO SWEAT - Satisfaction
Now that we’ve played an acoustic guitar part on the harmonica, let’s play his electric part on (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, which I demonstrated before in 10 Guitar Licks on Harmonica.

The riff on the original recording is essentially a B Minor riff, so you’d need an A harmonica to play along, but I’ve made a jam track for us to play it on our C harps.

Here are the harmonica tabs for (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, to be played on a C harmonica.

-4 -4 -4 5 -5 -5 -5 5
-4 -4 -4 5 -5 -5 -5 5 5 -4

LEVEL 3 - BEGINNER’S CHALLENGE - Sweet Virginia

The actual harmonica part to one of the most popular songs off of Exile on Main Street, released in 1972. Even if you’re a beginner, I think you’re gonna be able to rock this just like Mick Jagger.

Here are the harmonica tabs for Sweet Virginia which we are playing along with in the key of C on this video:
4 -4 4 -4 5 5 -4 4 -4
4 -4 5 5 -4 4 -4
4 -4 5 6 7 8 -8 7

LEVEL 4 - HARD - Midnight Rambler
This riff is intermediate because it requires bending - specifically the -2” bend.

Here’s the harmonica tabs for Mick Jagger’s riff from the studio version of Midnight Rambler, which is off of the 1969 record, Let it Bleed.

-34 Trill -2 -2 -2” -2
-34 Trill -2 -2 -2” -2
-2” -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2

The Stones do this song in the key of B, so you’d need an E harmonica to play along with the recording (but of course I’ve made a jam track in G so that we can jam it on our C harps.)

I grew up with my dad listening to the Live from Madison Square Garden version from 1969 which is on the Hot Rocks record, and I always loved the harmonica Mick Jagger played on that. Here’s the harmonica tabs for the main riff he plays before the song starts, and then again when they change from a swung to straight feel about 2:22 seconds into the song:

-1 -2” -2 -2

I could listen to that riff all day!

BONUS: the -2” bend is also at the heart of what Mick Jagger is playing around 2:00 into Gimme Shelter on the version from the 1969 album Let It Bleed, which he’s playing it on an F# harmonica.

-2” -2 -2 -2 -2 -2” -2 -2 -2 -2” -2 -2 -2

LEVEL 5 - DANG IT! - Miss You

Miss You, from the 1978 album Some Girls, performed on harmonica by the great Sugar Blue.

The reason this song is level 5 is cos he is playing in 2nd position on a D harmonica in A MINOR. This requires a lot of bending precision to always play that -3’ in tune and NOT TO allow it to release up into the major.

On a C harmonica, we’re playing this in G minor. Here’s the harmonica tabs for Miss You:

-2” -2 4 -3’ -2 -2” -2
-2” -2 4 -3’ -2 -2” -2
-2” -2 -3’ -2

I want to get into a couple of the cool licks that Sugar Blue plays at the end of this song, around 4:13, and specifically this one. -4’ -4 -6’-6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -4

As I also talk about in Level 4 of my Amazing Grace Lesson (   • 4 Levels of Amazing Grace  ): when you are playing in 2nd position and you want to create more excitement, you can actually play 3rd position riffs over the 2nd position song. This is exactly what Sugar Blue does at the end of Miss You:

-4’ -4 -6’-6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -4 (vibrato)
6 -6’ -6 -7 -8 -9 9 -9 -8
7 -7 -6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -4
4 -3’ -4’ -4 (vibrato)

Then comes my favorite lick of the solo which starts in 3rd position and then switches to second:

6 -6 -5 -4 4 -3’ 4 -’3 -2 (3rd is 6 -6 -5 -4, and 2nd is 4 -’3 4 -3’ -2)

And then he finishes by playing with long bends between -4’ and -4, and with -3’ -3” like this:

-3’ 4 -4’ (hold long) -4 4 -3’ -3”

I hope these harmonica tabs and this lesson on Rolling Stones harmonica has helped you. ROCK ON! 😎