How to play Roadhouse Blues by The Doors

Hello, welcome to this week’s harmonica lesson. I will be showing you how to play the main licks in the doors song Roadhouse blues. You will need a harmonica in the key of A. We are playing in second position, which means that you are playing in the key of E.

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Watch the original

If you don’t know how the original song goes, I suggest that you click below to listen to it. Then when you are comfortable playing each lick see how they all fit together.

You will hear that there is a lot of repetition in the song. This makes for a nice hypnotic groove.

The style of blues is basically a one chord blues where the guitar is just sitting on the
E chord. There is a turnaround that you can hear at the end of the verse. You will need to combine licks 2 and 3 to play the turnaround.

Intro licks

The licks build on the first licks basic idea. There is a lot of accent being placed on the offbeat. This is called syncopation.

Once you are comfortable playing intro lick 1 and can play it in a loop, move on to adding licks 2 and 3.

Verse licks

During the verse, you will be playing lick 1 around Jim Morrison’s vocals. Licks 2 and 3 will need to be played with Jim Morrison’s vocal. Really concentrate on getting the timing synced up with the voice and guitar.

Thank you

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