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Octive
By now you know how to play the 8 note scale and all of the songs mentioned in Lesson 1 plus a few of your own. Right? Ok, so lesson two is a riff used by just about every harp player at one time or another. I call it the octive because it starts on one note and ends on the same note an octive higher.
It goes like this:
2 3 4 5 6 ------------------------- D D D B B B=blow D=draw
Click here to download an audio file of the "octive riff" above played on a "A" harmonica:
Octive riff .au format
The best example of how this riff was used by a BluesHarp Legend
would be Little Walters "Juke".
Here is the modified version of the riff above as played in "Juke"
2 3 4 5 6 6 ------------------------------- D D D B B B
Click here to download an audio file of the "Juke riff" above played on a "A" harmonica:
Juke riff .au format
The same riff in the first example above can also be played on the harp starting an octive higher, like this:
6 7 8 8 9 ------------------------- B D D B B