Christmas Horns

A great – and seasonally appropriate – tune here from Lowell Fulson. A lovely loping blues.

There’s no harmonica on it, but there’s a great horn section, and those parts can be played on your harp. In fact, approaching accompaniment as if you were a horn player is a great way to play, especially if you find yourself relying on a few cliche blues licks.

Listen to those nice swells that follow the chord changes. Try playing an octave on the 3+ 6+ for the I chord and 5+ 2+ for the IV. Start as quiet as you can and slowly build in volume as Lowell sings. This is great breath control practice by the way.

The lick that comes in on the V chord is 1+ 1′ 1 repeated (or 4+ 4′ 4 if you want to do it an octave higher).

It’s a fun way to play, and sounds especially good amplified through a nice warm tube amp.

Here’s the song pitch shifted so you can play along on a C harmonica. Enjoy!