How do you play blues harmonica?

Do you play the notes by heart or do you need to have a sheet music of some kind?

When you are playing the melody to a song with a harmonica it is a lot like singing; the notes you would use to sing a song are the same you notes you either blow or draw on with your harmonica. Personally, I play the notes by heart, although I will look at the sheet music, if I am not sure of a certain part. But when I know the song well enough, I will play it from memory, and this comes from learning the song, and practicising it over and over again, until I got it right.
Since you asked how do you play blues harmonica, I would suggest you get the Blues Harmonica Jam Tracks & Soloing Concepts sheet music book with a play along CD at Harmonica Tabs Blues Songs ( http://download-sheet-music-online.com/h... ).

if you know how to play a guitar then you know the chords all you have to do is find the chords on the harmonica and go from there.pick a song you want ot play and go for it.

Everyone plays the harmonica differently. The masters of yesterday were illiterate and couldn't read music. They played by memory and/or extemporaneously, like the Steve Miller Band, or The Grateful Dead [which shows that you don't have to be illiterate to play extemporaneously]. Someone would play lead, and the rest would follow by ear. The music of the illiterate masters has been analyzed and found to have very definite patters. Their music is said to have words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. They couldn't have had notes in the minds of the artists who couldn't read. [My best guess is that they had a harder time learning to play than someone who can read music, and they had phenomenally good ears for music. I don't recommend this approach. Learn to read well enough to pick up a few tunes before you memorize them. Do ear training separately because you want to. Not out of necessity!]
Most people that play the diatonic harmonica play in the second position, also called cross harp. This produces a key five steps down from the straight harp key labeled on the harmonica. It also produces a flattened Bb or the Mixolydian scale. There is such a thing as the blues scale, which is not uniformly applied by all blues players. But it is worth a look on wikipedia.com. Everyone plays differently. Don't sweat it. Just surprise your audience with bent and flatted notes and you will be playing the blues. Look in my profile for any other info you need.

What does it mean to play in different positions or modes?
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You blow and you suck.

If you ain't doin' it right, then you'll suck and you'll blow!

Listen to Dan - he's got good info there.

I think that playing blues harp from sheet music pretty much defies the purpose. Blues harp is about playing licks and riffs from feeling. you feel the music from the rest of the band and kinda try to find your place in it.

It looks better if you know the song of by heart (and you should know the songs you play by heart).
but if you don't mind having a music stand in front of you then play the songs that way.

Make up your own mind Its totally up to you if you feel more comfortable with the sheet music in front of you then do SO

There are three ways to play music: (1) Learn to read music, and play from a chart. (2) You learn to play licks from records, memorize them, then recall them and string them together into solos, and (3) you hear the music forming in your head a split second before you play it, thus creating new music every time you play.
You can learn to do 1 & 2, 3 you have to be born (blessed?) with.

with your mouth, put to lips and blow

Blues harp is played virtually exclusively by "heart" because blues is about FEELIING! Harmonica players in some other genres (Jazz , Pop & Classical primarily) may rely on sheet music, head sheets, tabs, etc. to some extent, but they too play "by heart". To paraphrase the old axiom-If you haven't lived it, it wont come out of your horn.


I must take exception to Dan's comments.

Firstly, illiterate and unable to read music are two distinct things.

Second, I am unaware of anyone in either the Steve Miller Band (Steve & Norton Buffalo played harp), or the Dead (Ron "Pigpen" McKernan played harp) who was/is illiterate.

Third, while I can read music to a degree, I certainly can't sight read. However, I guarantee you I l have "notes in mind" when I'm playing. You don't read notes when you are playing the blues, you feel them. I don't know if Little Walter could read music, but I doubt it. Nevertheless, forty years after his death, he remains the gold standard for amplified harp.

Finally, while reading music is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, if we eliminate those who couldn't do so, the list of seminal, original, influential musicians would shrink to a precious few. American music- which in my opinion is the most diverse, creative in history-would be a mere shadow of what it is.

Perhaps I am reading more into it than is there, or perhaps it was merely a poor choice of words, but Dan's comments smack of the "them darkies is dumb but they sho' makes nice music" mentality.

Try playing uido style....my blues harp is on A

it`s a vocal tradition,you assimilate from the ones who play it and learn from that , then improvise.. if U want to play the blues harp,learn from the main stylists,sonny terry-country blues,sonny boy williamson 2-a little country & city,then little walter-electric city blues. U learn some of this and U will be on your way. also, there are some books etc, on it so check it out...

not much now....but in past...Bb...C...A-minor...A#...F#..Eb..

sheet music? for harmonica? haha