Chord grooves for minor playing in 3rd position?
The rythm guitarist in my band recently quit. We used to play BB King's 'The Thrill is Gone' as part of our setlist, which has some iconic guitar solos which our lead guitarist (still in the band) loves to play. Without the rhythm guitar backing, the overall sound during the guitar solos has become a bit thin. I'm trying to step in with the harmonica to fill the gap that is left by the absence of the rythm guitarist, but I'm not sure what to play. The 'solo harmonica' lessons have several chord grooves, but they are all in major and don't work for The Thrill is Gone (which is in Bm). I could imagine playing something in 3rd position on an A-harp, but I'm looking for examples of some performance-worthy advanced groove to put in there, of a similar level as the major-mode grooves in the solo harmonica lessons. Any ideas?
Bart:
The iconic turnaround mmarquez mentions is #V7, V7, back to the i.
Best bet: Write out the notes in the blues scale (which pretty much works for the whole song). Then write out the 1, 3 and 5 (and 7 for the V and #V) notes for each chord (e.g., if you're doing it in Bm, the notes are B, D and F# for the Bm, E, G and B for the Em, F#, A# (Bb) and C#, plus E for the V7, and G, B, D and F for the #V7. Then note where these notes are on whatever harp/position you're most comfortable using. E.g., an A harp in 3rd position.
Just about any note in the B blues scale or in the respective chord tones will work over the song and behind the guitar. Just mentally note which notes DON'T work, and avoid 'em.
P.S.: anchoring the harmony behind the guitarist is really the bassist's job. If the bass player knows his or her stuff, that should free you to play great fills, and just simple chord tones behind the guitar solo. E.g., the bassist can play some good pick-up notes into the chord changes.
Finally, when I do it I usually call the song in Am. Performances by BB through the 1990s sound to be usually in Cm, but by 2010 at the Crossroads show he was doing it in Bm. Maybe brought it down a half step as his voice aged. If your voice is happy in Bm, great.
And yes, as always, David will have great ideas, especially for a well-known song like "The Thrill Is Gone."
The accompaniment lessons are a better guide for this. For the thrill is gone, which is a slow blues, chord padding (generally using the tongue flutter) is a good choice. Since it's minor though, unless you get a minor keyed harp (Lee Oskar sells those, for example) you will only get at most just the I chord (in 3rd position). So you will need to either just play the root note (maybe using octaves when possible or go to the bass line type of option. You can also copy whatever other instruments are playing on the original or in other versions that you dig.
Note also that the thrill is gone deviates from the standard chord progression on bars 10 and 11, so you will need to adapt to playing times from those chords, especially if you are playing accompaniment.
You should also ask David directly for more ideas.