Backing Tracks: A Harmonica Player’s Best Friend

There is a grim, inevitable, and tragic narrative to the passage of an unstructured practice session on the harmonica.

Millions of minutes whisk by in a haze of unstructured and disastrous disillusionment, and by the end of the session, you are no better off than when you started. These unfortunate episodes are necessary for development. You are not just learning the harmonica, you are learning how to learn the harmonica. It’s a much more nuanced and meta version of improvement. Every instrument needs to be learned differently, and harmonica requires, perhaps more than other instruments, a deeper degree of focus, fascination, and fun.

Coming to harmonica for the first time can be intimidating. You don’t know what to do and how to do it. That little piece of paper in the harmonica box is excellent, but it can only take you so far. What about playing with people? What about becoming the next John Popper or Junior Wells? How do I get there? What does it take?

Having the right tools. And one of the single greatest tools of a harmonica player is a backing track.

The time-honored wisdom of harmonica, which can also be said for most instruments, is that “the more you play, the better you’ll be.”

Yes- but let's elaborate on that. “The more mindfully you play, the better you’ll be.”

Backing tracks have been a rotated tool in my toolbox for improvement for as long as I can remember. Not only are they completely free on YouTube, but they are an infinite source of new, exciting angles with which you can approach working out a concept, a scale, or a rhythmic exercise. Do they replace the act of playing with other human beings? No- absolutely not. However, most of us don’t have the opportunity to play with a live person every day. Most of us don’t have the luxury of analog jamming. So, backing tracks become your instant best digital friend.

While I fully support backing tracks, I do not believe in just turning the track on and wailing. There is a time and place for everything; sometimes, it can feel great to approach a practice session as a simple jam. I support harmonica players having fun; that's why we play. However, I think you will get the most out of backing tracks if you approach them with a degree of focus and restriction.

What does that look like?

Here are a few different ideas to work with when approaching backing tracks (assuming you are using a 12-bar blues structure)

Alternating Dynamics: How do you tell if a harmonica player is good? For me, it all boils down to dynamics. Luckily, we don’t need humans to practice this skill. Try playing a 12-bar chorus as you usually would. Then, before the turnaround, turn the volume down on the track. Using your ears, match the volume of the track on your harmonica. Do this for a few rounds, alternating between loud and quiet. Use different key harps for this exercise. You’ll see its considerably more challenging to have good dynamics on a F harmonica than on a Bb or A. Remeber, a harmonica player is a musician first and foremost, and musicians don’t always play at the same volume.

-Imagine a Singer: One of the main flaws of backing tracks is that they don’t come with a digital singer. That's okay: make one in your mind. Assuming you have heard a 12-bar blues before (and if you live on this planet, I’m sure you have), try to imagine a singer singing the vocal structure of a blues song. Imagine a female or male voice and dress him or her up with all the characteristics you want. Let the theatre of your mind run wild. Try to play in the cracks between this imaginary singer's words. Better than an imaginary singer? Sing the words yourself. Harmonica players should, no matter how poorly, learn to sing. It helps to ground you in the music on a much deeper level and gives you more options as a musician.

-Switching Scales: One of my favorite ways to use backing tracks is to take a scale (let's say minor pentatonic) and play it for 12 bars. For the next 12 bars, play major pentatonic. For the next 12 bars after that, combine the two, mixing in different phrasing ideas. After you’ve done this for a while (and players will hate me for this), start to play the same scales… starting on 6-blow (the top octave). I just heard players groan, but learning how to improvise on the top of the harp is a pillar of growth from a beginner to an intermediate player.

-Accompaniment: I sometimes imagine someone else taking a solo during the backing track. I play chordal accompaniment behind that imaginary guitarist, sometimes throwing little chord pops and octaves. Experiment with it. If you need inspiration for how to do this, look no further than Little Walter backing up Muddy.

-Position Work: Similar to how we worked different scales, try alternating 12-bar ideas on different harps. Take a chorus on a D harp in 2nd, then shift for 12 bars to an A harp in 1st. Try to pick out different licks you liked in either position and transpose them to each other. This is a fundamental practice, especially for an intermediate-level player.

Treat it Like a Metronome: I enjoy using backing tracks to check my timing. I double-time, try out phrases at different speeds, and deliberately play behind, on top, and ahead of the beat. Practicing this skill takes a lot of work, but it makes a difference when you start playing with humans.

-Restrict the Holes: You can get a whole landscape of tones on the harmonica solely from the first three holes. All the chords, bends, and flavor can be milked out of the instrument. Getting comfortable on holes 1, 2, and 3 is an invaluable part of using backing tracks. Jason Ricci and Ronnie Shellist have made videos discussing various restriction exercises to facilitate more creative phrasing with fewer notes, which I highly recommend you check out.

Backing tracks are not doctrine. If you don’t feel like they add anything to your practice or you are somehow averse to technology and jamming with robots, by all means, keep honking away alone in the basement. The journey of a harmonica player looks different to each person; the more tools you have (and the more methodically you use them), the more growth you will achieve.

I’m training to run the Boston Marathon for the 2nd time in two years. It’s cold as shit in Boston. My legs and face freeze when I take my dog for a walk, her little paws crunching in the icy snow. I hate running outside when it’s this cold. The treadmill provides me a space away from the cold where I can still increase my fitness for race day.

I don’t know any runners who would tell you that treadmills are a waste of time, especially when the occasion calls for them.

Are they as good as running on the actual road? No, but they certainly help you in a jam (no pun intended)

Backing tracks are no different. Don’t be afraid to embrace a modern tool simply because it's “not what Little Walter did to get better.”

If he had access to it, he probably would have used it.

-Shane