5 Rolling Stones Riffs

Easy to Hard!

Whatever your level on harmonica, by the

end of this video you’ll increase your
swagger as you learn some moves like
Jagger. Let’s go.

5 Rolling Stones Riffs (Easy to Hard)

Harmonica com

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Level TOTAL NOOB

1 You Can’t Always Get
What You Want
Even if today is your very first day playing
the harmonica, you can still do this.

They say the great football coach Vince

Lombardi started every season saying
“this is a football.”

So whether today’s your first day, or your

10,000th, it’s always great to review the
critical harmonica fundamentals:

Deep diaphragmatic breathing, along

with a nice steady airflow
Deep mouth position on the
harmonica

Playing along with You Can’t Always Get

What You Want is a fun way to learn or
review this.

If today’s literally your first day playing

harmonica, I recommend you start here,
and then come back to this.

But what we’re gonna do is just inhale

through the harmonica on holes -123 for 4
counts, and then exhale through holes 123
on the harmonica for 4 counts.

Once you can do that, we’re gonna add

some syllables to mimic the rhythm of the
acoustic guitar pattern. First say this with
me:

Ta Ta Ta Ta Taka-Taka

Now we’re gonna add one more ka right

before the third Ta:

Ta Ta kaTa Ta Taka-Taka

Now try whispering that one time while

inhaling and one time exhaling.

Here’s a jam track for you to jam along

with:

Harm…
You …

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Level NO SWEAT
2 Satisfaction
Now that we’ve played an acoustic guitar
part on the harmonica, let’s play his
electric part on (I Can’t Get No)
Satisfaction, which I demonstrated before
in 10 Guitar Licks on Harmonica. This
requires you to know how to isolate notes,
if you haven’t learned that yet you can
check out my Single Notes for Beginners
lesson.

We’ll be using our C harmonicas to play

this riff in D minor, which we call playing in
3rd position. All 3rd position means is that
we’re using our harmonica to play in the
key one letter name above the key
labeled on the harmonica.

Here are the harmonica tabs for (I Can’t

Get No) Satisfaction, to be played on a C
harmonica along with the jam track
provided below.

-4 -4 -4 5 -5 -5 -5 5
-4 -4 -4 5 -5 -5 -5 5 5 -4

The riff on the original recording is the key

of Bm so you’d need an A harmonica, but
I’ve made a jam track for us to play it on
our C harps. Rock on!

Harm…
(I C…

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Level BEGINNER’S CHALLENGE

3 Sweet Virginia
We’re gonna learn the actual harmonica
part to one of the most popular songs off
of Exile on Main Street, which was released
in 1972.

Even if you’re a beginner, I think you’re

gonna be able to rock this just like Mick
Jagger – check him out playing this on
the Voodoo Lounge tour in 1995.

Mick Jagger harmonica intro Sweet Virgi

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This is not complicated, but it’s good.

 Remember: If it SOUNDS good and

it FEELS good, it IS GOOD.

Never believe the lie that something has

to be complicated in order to be good.
Anyone can be complicated, it requires
genius to be simple.

And this simple song starts on hole 4, so

let’s find hole 4:

4 -4 4 -4 5 5 -4 4 -4
4 -4 5 5 -4 4 -4
4 -4 5 6 7 8 -8 7

Here’s a Sweet Virginia jam track in the key

of C so that you can play along with these
harmonica tabs on your C harp.

Harm…
Swe…

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Level HARD
4 Midnight Rambler
This riff is intermediate because it requires
bending – specifically the -2” bend.

If playing single notes is easy for you and

you haven’t learned how to bend, check
out my lesson on Bending for Beginners.

Here’s the harmonica tabs for Mick

Jagger’s riff from the studio version of
Midnight Rambler, which is off of the 1969
record, Let it Bleed.

-34 Trill -2 -2 -2” -2

-34 Trill -2 -2 -2” -2
-2” -2 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2

The Stones do this song in the key of B,

so you’d need an E harmonica to play
along with the recording (but of course
I’ve made a jam track in G below, so that
we can jam it on our C harps).

I grew up with my dad listening to the Live

from Madison Square Garden version
from 1969 which is on the Hot Rocks
record, and I always loved the stuff Mick
played on that. Here’s the harmonica tabs
for the main riff he plays before the song
starts, and then again when they change
from a swung to straight feel about 2:22
seconds into the song:

-1 -2” -2 -2

I could listen to that riff all day, and in

fact the -2” bend is also at the heart of
what Mick Jagger is playing around 2:00
into Gimme Shelter on the version from
the 1969 album Let It Bleed. He’s playing it
on an F# harmonica.

-2” -2 -2 -2 -2 -2” -2 -2 -2 -2” -2

-2 -2

Here’s the Midnight Rambler jam track in G

for you to play along with on your C
harmonica:

Harm…
Mid…

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Level DANG IT!

5 Miss You
Our Level 5 song is Miss You, from the
1978 album Some Girls. And this isn’t even
Mick Jagger playing! This is the great
harmonicist Sugar Blue.

The reason this song is level 5 is cos he is

playing in 2nd position on a D harmonica
in A MINOR. This requires a lot of bending
precision to always play that -3’ in tune
and not allow it to release up into the
major.

On a C harmonica, we’ll be playing this in

G minor. Here’s the harmonica tabs for
Miss You:

-2” -2 4 -3’ -2 -2” -2

-2” -2 4 -3’ -2 -2” -2
-2” -2 -3’ -2

I want to get into a couple of the cool licks

that Sugar Blue plays at the end of this
song, around 4:13, and specifically this
one: -4’ -4 -6’-6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -4

The concept behind this lick is so cool,

and it’s the same one I talk about in Level
4 of my Amazing Grace Lesson: when you
are playing in 2nd position and you want
to create more excitement, you can
actually play 3rd position riffs over the
2nd position song. This is exactly what
Sugar Blue does at the end of Miss You:

-4’ -4 -6’-6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -4

(vibrato)
6 -6’ -6 -7 -8 -9 9 -9 -8
7 -7 -6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -4
4 -3’ -4’ -4 (vibrato)

Then comes my favorite lick of the solo

which starts in 3rd position and then
switches to second:

6 -6 -5 -4 4 -3’ 4 -’3 -2
(3rd is 6 -6 -5 -4, and 2nd is 4 -’3
4 -3’ -2)

And then he finishes by playing with long

bends between -4’ and -4, and with -3’ -3”
like this:

-3’ 4 -4’ (hold long) -4 4 -3’ -3”

Harm…
Mis…

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Miss You is just one of the 25 Rock Riffs

you can check out here.

Thank you so much for checking out my

Rolling Stones harmonica lesson. Please
leave any questions or comments below.
Keep on rocking the harmonica and
making the world a better place!

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4 COMMENTS

⚡ 🔥 Most Voted 

Warren Carlson 🔗

I been playin since I was a kid.

Always play by ear. Great lesson
tho. Midnight Rambler has
always been a little difficult not
having the right key
1 Reply 

Luke Teacher

🗪 Reply to Warren Carlson 🔗

Time to buy a new harp?

2 Reply

Warren Carlson 🔗

Can you do “ If ya wanna get to

Heaven “. Been playing that
since the 70’s. Awesome
harmonica jam.
0 Reply 

Luke Teacher

🗪 Reply to Warren Carlson 🔗

This isn’t perfect, but will

get you pointed in the right
direction:
[Link]
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si=5vFFMC1OsG77rh65
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