Where does everyone get their Blues licks from?
I personally like to invent mine while noodling blues for hours. I just don’t care for playing other people’s licks from songs over and over again, it gets boring and I play for fun. Admittedly, I kind of burn out my favorite A harp in 2 position doing this though….
What do you all (or ya’ll if your from the south) do?
Here south of Houston it is! “y’all”
Pronounced “yoll”
I remember Houston people saying yall, not ya’ll. The apostrophe makes a difference.
When I’m not making up my own, I mainly try picking up ideas from Sax and Hammond B3 licks
If you link a recording of your go-to licks, I could give you some suggestions of good ones to add to your bag.
Most of my blues licks actually come from listening to a lot of Terry McMillan. Although he’s not considered to be a “real blues” harmonica player by many (because he didn’t follow the traditional Chicago sound), I found out that a lot of his licks could easily be passed off as something that a blues player would do. But for some odd reason, the blues section of the online harmonica community has a strange taboo in place that you’re not supposed to have non-blues influences in your playing style. I was constantly told that I needed to get rid of Terry’s influence and listen to “real blues” (aka Chicago electric blues). So I don’t identify with the blues player label for this reason.
My feelings about this sort of “thinking” (putting oneself into such a small box) is totally foolish. Now of course, if you want or need to sound a particular way for whatever reason, then it sort of makes sense. Blues in general covers an enormous variety of structures. Play what fits and consider yourself an accomplished harp player. I could say lots more, but I don’t want to upset anyone besides, this isn’t politics or religion LOL LOL!
Hey hey @dblues similarly to your sax - I create a lot of my riffs and phrases on guitar and then play them on harp and see how they sound.
Obviously this isn’t the only way. I am just recognizing the similarity.
Strangely I’ll also come up with riffs and phrases by simply humming and whistling while walking or driving.
brains a curious thing 
Best
Mike
I have posted this before, but this is kind of the sound I am chasing (:40 second clip)
I am not sure what ‘type’ of blues this would be, but I like it.
All the licks in here are mine, except for the 4-5 warble which I did variable speed and dynamics on.
Any ideas of other licks would be greatly appreciated - Thank you🙂
Oh nice man! I love this sound! Sounds great man. Here’s a few licks off the top of my head.
-4’ -4 -5 6 -5 -4 (a good lick for repeating over and over again, like -4’ -4 -5 4 and -4’ -4 -5 -4 6 -5)
-5 5-4 -3’ -2
-3’ -3 4 5 -5 5 -4
-1 -2” -1 -2” -2
6 6 6 6 -5 -4 4 -3 -2 -2” -1 -1’
You ever messed around with blow bends? Bending into the 9’ 9 can be a great accent as well as 10 10” 9
The other classic high note riff from James Cotton is -8 8 -8 (slide quickly down -7 -6) 6
You ever do splits? That would be a nice addition to your sound like -3 14 -4’ -4 ‘4 -3’ -2 or 36 -14 -25 14 -4 -4’ -3’ -2
Hope that helps?
Thanks @Luke!
I am going to try these when I get a chance.
I do use splits, I didn’t have a recording of easily available when I wrote back to you. I have been super busy, and not able to play as of late😔.
High note blow bends are a funny thing. I learned how to do them, but never could get the James Cotton high/low note mix to sound good together. It’s almost like I get ‘stuck’ on the high end of the harp.
Do you notice that you play WAY better when your not recording? I do. It’s annoying.
haha @Dk360 yep I feel ya on that - recording pressure is real - a few months ago I did happy birthday for my mother in law. I had it down no problem then started the camera… six takes later got what I was looking for.
You are not alone
best
Mike
I also find that listening to backing tracks with different grooves (drum and bass variations) inspire me to come up with different riffs. Listen to Jason Ricci’s latest “Free Friday” video. He has examples of some really cool grooves on this.
Start it from beginning (not sure why it started further on?)
@Dk360 Nice! Glad you’re digging that riff - that’s from Big Walter.
Regarding the high note riff in 2nd position, there’s really one James Cotton lick that has been my staple for 30 years and never ceases to delight my ears.
Sliding up to the -8, holding it, then quickly going to 8, and back to -8, sliding down -7 -6 and ending 6 5 6. Like this:
That’s a money riff if you learn will serve you well.
The other one is 10 10” 9 (and you can bend down the 9’ and slide off of it as well) a la the beginning of Whammer Jammer.
imo those are 2 riffs every intermediate blues harp player should get under his or her belt to climax a blues a solos and “break out of the box” of feeling stuck between holes #1 and 6.
Hope that helps. Rock on! 
Thanks again, I’ll give those new licks a try when I can.
I like Big Walters stuff. Very talented guy, his ‘Big Walter Boogie’ and ‘Dont get around much anymore’ are personal favorite. Definitely more ‘musical’ than the sometimes harsh sounds of some blues artists.
Nothing.
Except I do play with my stuff.