Hello and welcome to this week’s harmonica lesson, where I will be teaching you how to play the Sonny boy Williamson classic Checking up on My Baby. You will need a harmonica in the key of D, and we will be playing in 2nd position in the key of A.
Click here to download lesson resources
Lick 1
The tune starts before the start of the 12 bar progression. The 1st phrase starts on beat two of the bar before bar 1 of the 12 bar.
Lick 2
Lick 3
Lick 4
You also don’t need to play loads of different notes. Lick 4 just has two different notes and sounds really tasty!
Lick 5
The last lick is a different rhythm to the others and uses a classic Sonny boy Williamson trick. This is the repeated 4 draw bend, release, 5 draw lick. You will hear him using this in lots of different tunes.
Backing Track
Full Tune
Click here to download lesson resources
Thank you
Thank you so much for taking part in this lesson. I hope it was useful for you. If you enjoyed it please feel free to share it with your friends on Facebook and/or Twitter.
If you have any questions just send me a wee email.
Happy harping and see you next Wednesday for the next lesson!
Edinburgh Harmonica Workshop
If you want to find out a little bit more about the most exciting weekend in my calendar then click here to find out about the Edinburgh Harmonica Workshop.
Hi Tomlin,
Apart from the scoops are you hitting the notes sicato?
Thanks
Tony Taylor
Hi Tony, I am indeed hitting them stocato 🙂
Thank you kind sir. If I wanted to up my pledge to $ 30 a month to get Skype lessons what do I do?
You go to http://www.patreon.com/tomlinharmonicalessons and hit “edit your pledge”.
You might need to log in first.
Follow the on screen instructions.
If you have any problems just give me a shout 🙂
Hi Tomlin each time I try to download load o,like don’t boy checking up on my baby it comes in zipped file and I can’t open it is because my tab is a polaride loving your you tube lesson thank you regards Paul
Hi Paul, send me an email to tomlin@tomlinharmonicalessons.com and I will be able to sort it out 🙂
Dear Tomlin,
It’s written in the key of D ( 2 sharps ,Fand C ) so why do you say we play a D harmonica in second position ? first position , no ?
where’s my mistake ?
Hi Tomlin, what will be the tempo on a metronome to work on when we start to learn the song and the real tempo?
I wish you would do your lessons in C since I don’t have your array of instruments. It’s a bother to transpose.
Hi Don, Apologies – I use to put the key of the harmonica in the key signature. So D refers to D harmonica. I have not started putting the key of the song instead. Hope that makes sense 🙂
Hi David, most of my lessons are in C. Have a little look through them here – https://www.tomlinharmonicalessons.com/free-harmonica-lessons/
Hiya – The speed to work on at the start should be as slow as you need it. This will vary from person to person. Could be anything from 40bpm to 80bpm. Your final tempo is 116bpm.