Blues Harmonica For Beginners (Even if You Can't Bend)

This beginner blues harmonica lesson assumes that you already know how to isolate notes. You don’t have to know how to bend for this lesson. Of course your blues harmonica soloing will sound best when you can bend.

You’ll find all the tabs, backing tracks, and more for this lesson here:
https://www.harmonica.com/blues-harmo...

How to Memorize the 12-Bar blues 1:14
Learning the Chords to the 12-Bar Blues 2:24
Learning a Harmonica Chord Rhythm to Play 3:47
Playing the Harmonica Chords to the 12-Bar Blues 4:26
Thoughts about Soloing 6:12
3 Killer Blues Harmonica Phrases 7:28
My Harmonica Solo Using Only the 3 Phrases 11:46

If you think you might still need some help isolating notes, check out this lesson first! https://www.harmonica.com/single-note...

And if you don’t know about numbering chords or how to play chords on the harmonica, then check out my last harmonica lesson, Chords for Beginners here:    • Harmonica Chords for Beginners (+ Lea...  

I’m playing a C harmonica in 2nd position, in the key of G. Any 10-hole diatonic harmonica in the key of C will work for this lesson. Alright, let’s learn how to play blues harmonica!

While there are many variations of the 12-bar Blues, the most common and simplest chord progression is this:

I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I

Here are the harmonica tabs for the 12-Bar Blues Harmonica Chords:

-234 -234 -234 -234 -234 -234 -234 -234
456 456 456 456 -234 -234 -234 -234
-4 -4 456 456 -234 -234 -234 -234


Here are the 3 Killer Harmonica Blues Vocabulary Tabs

Phrase 1: The Question
-2 -3’ 4 -4

Phrase 2: Answer
-4 -4’ -3’ 2’

Phrase 3: Trill
-4 -5

Harmonica tabs to my blues solo using these 3 phrases:

The point of this recording is to show that you really can play an entire solo with just these 3 phrases, and sometimes repeating the first or last note of the phrase. In this solo, I play 3 times through the 12-Bar Blues form (labeled 1st Chorus, 2nd Chorus, and 3rd Chorus in the tabs.)

1st Chorus

-2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -2 -2
-2 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -2 -2 -2
-2 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -5 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -2


2nd Chorus

-2 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -5
-4 -4’ -3 -2 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -5 -4 -4’ -3 -2
-4 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4 -4


3rd Chorus

-4 -5 -4 -4' -4 -4 -4 -4
-4 -4’ -3 -2 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -4 -5 -4 -4’ -3 -2
-2 -3 -4 4 -4 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -4’ -3 -2 -2 -3 -4 4 -4 -4 -5

Thanks for watching this free lesson on how to play blues harmonica for beginners. I hope you enjoyed this harmonica lesson. If you did, please give it the thumbs up and subscribe so you don’t miss any of the new free harmonica lessons. As always, please leave any questions below.

Have fun!
Luke with Harmonica.com

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