Mississippi Saxophone...Right?

Utilizing Horn Lines on the Harmonica

Past and present, Harmonica players have sought inspiration from musicians beyond their sonic and technical prowess.

Searching for different musical ideas from other instruments, most notably horn players, transformed the humble harmonica's identity to the colloquially dubbed “Mississippi Saxophone,” so named for the deliciously crude, horn-like quality the instrument takes on when amplified.

Listening to and emulating horn sections created the blues chromatic sound with George Harmonica Smith playing those chunky amplified octaves. Most notably, it enabled Little Walter to develop his unique swinging style, which almost every blues harmonica player mimics to this day.

The origin of that swing lies not in harmonica history but in the hands of great saxophone players like Lester Young, Louis Jordan, and Illinois Jacquet.

Many harmonica players I talk to will go on and on about how they are influenced by horn players and how they try to make the harmonica sound like a saxophone, a trombone, or a trumpet. There’s a lot of merit in this.

While I’m fully supportive of harmonica players being inspired by horn players, I believe it is still essential to be mindful that the harmonica is not a horn… it’s a harmonica. It has the limitations of a harmonica that should be respected and utilized to the best of your ability. This requires patience and creativity to see how you can achieve the phrases of these great saxophone players.

Why Learn Horn Lines?

-Greater musical vocabulary and an endless source of licks

-Using licks to your advantage and re-arranging them to fit the harmonica's sound and capabilities.

-It’s a great gateway to developing new phrasing techniques for diatonic and chromatic harmonicas.

-There are only so many harmonica players from whom to take inspiration. Listening to more musicians, especially horn players, will teach you how much more there is to learn in music.

-The more horn players you listen to, especially in band settings like Clarence Clemons, the more you understand your role as the soloist. Harmonica is not really an accompaniment instrument (although we do have the ability to support the music), so it's essential to realize your role on the bandstand, and at its core, the harmonica occupies very much the same role that a horn player does.

-There are certain textures you can get out of a saxophone or a trumpet that are, for lack of a better adjective, sexy. Fortunately, many of these sounds can be mimicked on the harmonica. It’s one thing to learn the notes they are playing, but knowing how the notes are produced and how they get those subtle textures

How To Learn Horn Lines?

-Just like learning the licks and tendencies of great harmonica players, much of your time will be spent transcribing licks. Play, rewind, play, and try it.

-Experiment with hand technique (this becomes critical, especially when learning the phrases of great trumpet players like Louis Armstrong)

Play both amplified and acoustic. Look at the textures that amplified players like Little Walter and Dennis Gruenling get out of their bullet mics. Listen to how they shape their hands around the mic and harp. One of the most incredible videos for this is attached below. Listen to how Dennis utilizes his hands and his choice of notes to get that saxophone-like sound.

-Pick up a chromatic and start messing around with 3rd position. George Smith, Rod Piazza, William Clarke were all heavily influenced by big band music and used the chromatic as a crude but badass representation of a horn section using those big chunky octaves (attached below)

Horn lines are a great practice piece for any level player. I would highly recommend mixing in some transcription time to listen to and tab out different saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone players you dig and see how they influence your style on the harmonica.