5 Stupidly Simple Harmonica Riffs

Even if you’re a total newbie, here’s 5 stupidly simple harmonica riffs GUARANTEED to impress:

#1Do Wah Diddy

This song is great because the words of the song are our articulations for the harmonica.

-123 Do Wah Diddy Diddy

1234 Done Diddy

-123 Do

#2Back at the Chicken Shack

Here are the basic harmonica tabs: 

-12 -12 -23 34 -34 34 -23

I say “kuh” on the -12’s to give them a little more percussive attack.

Also, try saying “dwah” or “kyuh” on the -34 to give it a little more expressiveness.

Extra credit: when you get to the -34 we can add a lot of pizzazz by throwing in what I call a “-45 trill”. Some people call it a “warble”. It’s probably most accurately described as a “shake” cos you can shake your head, or the harmonica, or both.

When we get up the draw -34 we can add in a shake on hole -4 and -5. And that makes it sound a lot bluesier. So now the tabs are:

-12 -12 -23 34 -34 -45 (trill) 34 -23

#3DeeDee Hoodoo Hee

I first encountered this groove played by the great Ronnie Shellist, one of my favorite harmonica players and teachers. Today we’re mostly gonna focus on the chordal riff, and then over time you can add in riffs in the space between – but I’ll give you a couple ideas to get you started if you’re already at an intermediate level.

This groove is played on holes 123.

And we’re gonna start by drawing and saying:

• Dee dee (whisper inhale) on the -123
• Hoodoo on the 123
• Hee on the -123

-123 -123 123 123  -123

 Dee  Dee Hoo Doo   Hee

A variation of this is to add one more fast Dee on the draw so it’s Dee Dee-Dee.

-123 -123 -123  123  123  -123

Dee   Dee-Dee  Hoo Doo   Hee

Now for those of you who are more advanced I’ll just show you a couple licks you can play in between. If you’re more of a beginner, please skip this section. It will serve you well in the long run if you just focus on chords for now.

Lick #1

We’ll go up the major pentatonic scale, skipping the note we’d have to bend (-3”). Here are the harmonica tabs:

 -1 2 -2 -3 -4 5 6

Lick #2

We’ll come down the “Almost Blues Scale”. If you haven’t learned the almost blues scale and you already know how to play single notes, you can check out my lesson right here. Here’s the harmonica tabs for the Almost Blues Scale descending:

6 -5 -4 4 -3 -2

And then after the third one we’ll try a -45 trill. So putting it altogether:

-123 -123 123 123  -123

Dee  Dee Hoo Doo Hee

 -1 2 -2 -3 -4 5 6

-123 -123 123 123  -123

Dee  Dee Hoo Doo Hee

 6 -5 -4 4 -3 -2

-123 -123 -123  123  123  -123

Dee  Dee-Dee  Hoo Doo  Hee

-45 trill

-123 -123 -123  123  123  -123

Dee  Dee-Dee  Hoo Doo  Hee

#4The Train (Taka-Hoo)

The train imitation groove is one of the most fun riffs to play on the harmonica, and according to Joe Filisko, who may be the foremost living expert on the harmonica, it’s one of the best riffs to play for improving your technique.

And there’s basically 2 components to this:

The whistle

• Drawing around -45 or -345 
• Saying “dwah” or “oy” for bending effect
• Using hand-wah 

The chugging

• Taka on -123 with open hand wah
• Tuh-kuh on 123 with closed hand wah

One question I get all the time is:

“After I finish the train whistle my lungs are too full to do the chugging.” 

The solution?

Exhale all air before whistle, and then quickly exhale ALL AIR AFTER the whistle. 

The fastest way to get air out of your lungs is to breathe out forcefully through your nose and mouth at the same time.

The traditional way of doing this is the train starts slow, speeds up, and then slows back down as it pulls into the station. Any time you’re growing tired with the chugging, you can stop and give a whistle.

Hey if you’re digging this lesson, you might want to check out my Beginner to Boss course, I have several lessons devoted to the train throughout the course. Thousands of people who thought they were musically hopeless are finding they can shred some harmonica. Come join them!

#5You Gotta Move

Here are the harmonica tabs with some helpful hints:

Line 1

-12 -23 34 -34

Now the 2nd half of this line is all draws and our lungs are gonna fill up quickly. You can out-gas on the blow 34 in the first line – outgas just means when you play a note on the harmonica you push air out your nose at the same time also called a “nose push”. You could also do a quick exhale AFTER the first 4 notes.

-34 -34 -23 -12 -23 

Now you might have to exhale again before playing the 2nd line, because we have more draws coming.

Line 2

We’re gonna play -34 four times in a row, and if you try saying “Kyuh” or “Dwah” that might help you get a little bend to make this more expressive. You could also try those on the -23’s on the second phrase here.

-34 -34 -34 -34 34

-34 -23 -23 -12 

Line 3

-1 12 -12 -23

Even if you don’t know how to isolate notes, you can still isolate -1. Just play -12 then move to the left until all you hear is -1.

-23 -12 12 -1

Line 4

-12 -12 12 -12

So putting it all together, here are the harmonica tabs for You Gotta Move:

-12 -23 34 -34

-34 -34 -23 -12 -23

-34 -34 -34 -34 34

-34 -23 -23 -12

-1 12 -12 -23 

-23 -12 12 -1

-12 -12 12 -12

Thanks for checking out this 5 stupidly simple harmonica riffs lesson. I hope you found it helpful. Leave any questions or comments below. Keep on rocking the harmonica, and making the world a better place! ❤️🌍🎶

If you liked this lesson you might wanna check out 5 Stupidly Simple Harmonica Grooves.