High End 2nd Position Playing

When a player goes to the high end of the harmonica (holes 6 through 10) in 2nd Position, it really adds something special to a solo. The challenge with developing vocabulary is that when looking for licks to copy from recordings, it was extremely rare for classic blues harmonica players to go above hole 6 in 2nd Position. Modern players do go to the high end, but it’s still not that common—you have to build a pretty good-sized recording library to find a few good licks.

To help students get comfortable with playing on the high end, I’ve written licks that go to the high end in most of your study songs. In this lesson we’ll dig in much deeper and I’ll show you how to move licks to the high end from the low end (an area of the harmonica we’re comfortable with); improvise, one hole at a time (with the use of Focus Notes); and I’ll show you a whole bunch of killer licks.

This lesson is for students that have completed Tongue Block Study 2 and Bending Study 3. There are licks that are more advanced than these levels, but you’ll be able to enjoy many of the licks in this lesson now. You’ll need an A Harmonica for this study. To begin this study, go to https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/high_end_2nd_position_playing