I remember the first time I heard “Ain’t Goin’ Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)” by Garth Brooks and being absolutely fascinated by the sound of Terry McMillan’s harmonica playing. There was one particular effect that he used on the track that, more or less, was a signature sound for him. Terry often employed growling in his playing mainly on the 3 draw half step bend, but he also did it with the 2 draw whole step and the 4 draw bends. That made his harp sound very raspy and I wanted to learn how that was created.
Shortly after learning how to bend on my C and Bb Special 20s, I found a video from a Youtuber, who sadly doesn’t make videos anymore as he deleted his channel, named Jake Knows Harmonica on how to get that growly tone Terry had, multiple in fact. I tried his method of using a trilled ‘r’ (which sounded like a tongue based Spanish ‘rr’) on the 2 draw whole step bend. I played it that way for a long time until I refined the technique by using a harsh sounding French ‘r’. This gave the growl a more throaty and raspy tone which sounded a bit closer to what Terry was doing when he used it.
What helped me get it down was listening to Terry’s playing on “Ain’t Goin’ Down” and emulating what he was doing. In fact, back when I did my own tabs, that was the first song I ever did tabs for. I played those growls until I was sick of them (which I didn’t get tired of them at all). In my eyes, Terry played the harmonica like he was imitating blues singers and usually when you hear blues artists like Koko Taylor growl, it was very intense and soulful. Add that harmonica growl to a mic and amp combo, which he did sometimes on certain songs, and it sounded very swampy.
Linked below is a video I made a long time ago explaining the growl and how I found out about it.
