How to play Gangster of Love – Accompanying a singer

Jan 17, 2018 | Backing Track, Intermediate Harmonica Lessons, Licks, Songs

Hello, today’s lesson is all about playing a full tune including accompanying a singer and taking a solo. I will be showing you how to do this with the Jonny guitar Watson classic Gangster of Love.

You will need a harmonica in the key of A. We’re playing in 2nd position which means we are playing in the key of E.


Accompanying the singer

Lets look at what we are going to play around the singer first…

Hook

The first lick is a ‘hook’ and sounds very similar to the Hoochie Coochie Lick. You will need to make sure that the 3 draw is bent down to the blue 3rd. Furthermore, you also need to make sure that the jump from the 2 draw to the 4 blow is accurate. It doesn’t feel like a lot of space but it is very easy to fumble.

Listen to what the guitar does in the backing track because you will be playing exactly the same thing.

Lick 1/h2>

Lick 2/h2>

Lick 3/h2>

Turnaround/h2>

Soloing

During the solo section, the guitar actually follows a standard 12 bar progression. This is very common for this kind of blues. You have a 16 bar progression for the verses then a 12 bar for the solo.

Solo Lick 1

Solo Lick 2

Solo Lick 3

Solo Lick 4

Solo Lick 5

Solo Lick 6

Solo Lick 7

Solo Lick 8

Solo Turnaround

Playthrough

Backing track

Thank you!

Thank you so much for taking part in this lesson. I hope it was useful for you. If you enjoyed this lesson, please share it with your friends.

See you again for the next harmonica video!

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