4 Levels of Amazing Grace

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LEVEL 1: Here are the harmonica tabs in C for Amazing Grace in 1st position, upper octave.

6 7 7 8 7 8 -8 7 -6 6

6 7 7 8 7 8 -8 9 9

8 9 9 8 7 8 -8 7 -6 6

6 7 7 8 7 8 -8 7

If you know how to bend, the -6 is a good note to add some soulful expressiveness with a bend. If you don’t know how to bend, you can try saying “oy” or “waoo” on the -6 and see what happens.🤷🏻

Also holes 8 and 9 are great places to do little blow bends on the harmonica. You can try saying “tyuh” or “kyuh.

LEVEL 2: Here are the harmonica tabs for Amazing Grace in 12th position, on a C harmonica playing in the key of F:

4 -5 -5 -6 -5 -6 6 -5 -4 4

4 -5 -5 -6 -5 -6 6 7 7

-6 7 7 -6 -5 -6 6 -5 -4 4

4 -5 -5 -6 -5 -6 6 -5

LEVEL 3: A Bit Tricky - 1st Position Lower Octave
For Level 3 we have to do one bend, and it’s the -3” whole step bend and that’s why this one is a bit tricky. 🤔

But it’s just a passing note in the melody, so if we don’t get it quite right, it’s not the end of the world. And, other than that, this is a really easy place to play Amazing Grace on the harmonica because it’s nice and low in the register.

So even if you don’t know how to bend yet, I recommend giving it a shot! 🙌
Here are the harmonica tabs in C for Amazing Grace in 1st Position in the Lower Octave:

3 4 4 5 4 5 -4 4 -3” 3
3 4 4 5 4 5 -4 6 6
5 6 6 5 4 5 -4 4 -3” 3
3 4 4 5 4 5 -4 4

LEVEL 4: Here are the Amazing Grace harmonica tabs in 2nd position (key of G on a C harmonica:)

-1 -2 -2 -3 -2 -3 -3” 34 23 -12
-1 -2 -2 -3 -2 -3 -3” -4 -4
(*This is a good place to add a bluesy riff)
-3’ -3 -4 -4 5 -4 -3’ -3 -3” 34 23 -12
-1 -2 -2 -3 -2 -3 -3” 34 -23 -3” -12

*The moment after the 2nd line of tabs presents a good opportunity to flex a little bit 💪🏼 and add in some soulful bluesy improvisation.😎

Here are some options to consider in order to get your creative juices flowing:

OPTION #1
Nothing thrills a crowd as much as the -45 trill (aka “warble” or “shake” - alternating quickly between -4 and -5.)

OPTION #2
Wanna flex a little bit more? After the -45 trill, you could come right down down the blues scale in 2nd position, ending on the -1 like this:

6 -5 -4 -4’ 4 -3’ 3 -2” -1 -1’ -1

OPTION #3
If you wanna get even fancier, you could go into a 3rd position blues scale lick. Here’s the first 5 notes of the 3rd position blues scale:

-4 -5 6 -6’ -6

If you’ve checked out my Blues for Beginners lesson, I talk about a couple of licks that I use all the time which I’ve labeled the “Question” phrase❓and the “Answer” phrase ✅

In that lesson, we explored those phrases in 2nd position, but we can also transpose those licks into 3rd position. Here’s 3rd position harmonica tabs for he “Question”:

❓ -4 -5 6 -6’ -6

And here’s 3rd position harmonica tabs for the “Answer”:

✅ -6 -6’ -5 -4

So beginning by putting those two phrases together, we can heighten the sense of climax with some 3rd position blues harmonica vocabulary like this:

-4 -5 6 -6’ -6 -6’ -5 -4 6 -5 -4 -5 -4

And from there switch back into some 2nd position blues harmonica vocabulary like this:

-4’-3’ 4 3 -3’ 4 -4’ -4 -4’ -3’ -2 4 -3’ 3 -2” -1 -1’ -1

Don’t miss out on hearing LT Smooth sing this song! Check out this video of us performing the whole song together:    • When Amazing Grace Gives You Goosebumps