Once you have achieved a certain amount of control over your bends and have gotten as many of them as you can find out of your C harmonica, you will want to use these new tools to create “riffs.” A riff is a series of notes that create a musical idea or phrase. Riffs are often used as the building blocks or primary musical ideas of a song.

One classic riff that most people would recognize is the “Mannish Boy” or “Bad to the Bone” riff. This is a great example of how a musical idea or phrase is used to create a whole song. In fact, this riff is so complete that a harmonica alone is enough to play the song.

The first of our classic blues riffs is one of the most common you'll hear in blues. It's famously played in the classic, “Mannish Boy,” by McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters.

FIGURE 5-5: Classic riff with draw bend 1

This riff is played by using:

1 draw - 2 draw bend - 1 draw - 2 draw bend - 2 draw unbent

This riff is often used in blues to punctuate the space that occurs between the singing of the vocal parts of a song. Typically the vocals and the harp riff would alternate in this way: counting each 4/4 measure as “1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and,” the vocal line would be sung over counts “and-2-and-3” while the harmonica riff would be played over counts “and-4-and-1.” So the overall effect would sound like this:

“Gypsy woman told my mother” (play riff) “Before I was born” (play riff), and so on.

Here are some other classic blues riffs that feature draw bends:

FIGURE 5-6: Classic riff with draw bend 2

Here is another classic riff for you to try at home.

FIGURE 5-7: Classic riff with draw bend 3

Here is the classic Fannie Mae riff.

FIGURE 5-8: Classic riff with draw bend 4

The final example is a little bit more advanced: it combines a trill, draw bends, and rhythm exercise all combined into one.

With an arsenal that includes clean single notes and draw bends alone you should be able to play many of the great tried and true harmonica riffs.

FIGURE 5-9: Classic riff with draw bend 5