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Play Blues

Harmonica

Five short lessons from first seal to your first bend, all on one A harp.

Foundations

Ears First

Intro
You'll be able to

Know what a 12-bar blues actually is — in your body, not on paper — before you touch an instrument.

Do this

12 bars, four beats in each. Count the bars out loud, 1 to 12, clapping or tapping your foot along — that's the whole form, and most blues songs ever written live inside it. Three chords do the work: the home chord, the one that lifts you up, and the one that wants to come back home. That's it — that's I, IV and V, and you never need the Roman numerals again. One more thing before you play a single note: let the last note of a line ring out. Don't rush into the next one. The silence is part of the music.

You're ready when

Can you count all 12 bars out loud, in time, without losing your place?

Play to backing

Backing in E. Count 1–12 out loud. Don't play yet.

Bluesnoodle

That's the shape you'll build on — Little Walter's profile is where this course eventually points.

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