Did you know you can play reggae on the harmonica? Nope? Neither did I. Until one night, when I was playing with a blues band in Kanchanaburi (the town that contains the famous ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’) in Thailand. After the strains of ‘The Thrill is Gone’ and the applause fade, the next song starts, and it’s Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’. Ah … hmm: Reggae. I’m not expecting that. Live in front of an audience. No rehearsals. I thought we were a blues band.
BEN TALKS HARMONICA Ben Hewlett Vice-President
Ok. I’ve got this …what key, which position, which harmonica …what am I supposed to play? I know the song enough to sing the chorus but no more than that.
No idea about the structure, chords, lyrics, or soloing style required. I lean over to the bass player, “What should I play?” “Just get in the groove.” “Yes, but what do I actually play?” “Anything, just get in the groove.” So, this month, one of my three live classes on Zoom has been ‘Exploring Reggae’. The others are ‘Learning Whammer Jammer’ and ‘Basic Blues Level 1’. All details are at www.playharmonica.co.uk. I will be repeating these classes later in the year, so register on that site to get an alert and be in the loop if you fancy it. In the class, we start with rhythm and groove. Using chordal chugging to pulse on beats two and four is a great place to start. This works nicely - one ‘chucka’ three ‘chuck’. Next, we use a groove called ‘Sunshine Reggae’ on iReal Pro - that’s a free backing track program I’d recommend. (www.irealb.com/forums/showthread.php?15908-Sunshine-ReggaeLaid-Back) It has a bar of G (you need to change the song key to G), a bar of B minor, and two bars of E minor in a repeated pattern of sixteen bars. It’s a nice relaxed groove to chug along to using those chords. Using a C diatonic, we can easily play the G chord on holes 12&3. The B minor chord can be partially played using B and D on holes 3&4, and the E minor chord can be partially played using E and G on holes 2&3.
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