Low Rider
All my friends know the low rider
Here’s a fantastic tune to learn on the 10 hole harmonica. It’s by an American band called War, featuring the combination of saxophone player, Charles Miller, and a harmonica player, Lee Oskar.
A Low Rider is a fancy car with modified suspension that allows it to cruise low to the ground. With the flick of a switch, the driver can bounce the car up and down to show off.
The low rider is a little higher
Lee Oskar moved to America from Denmark in the 1970’s, taking with him just the clothes he was wearing and a harmonica. He arrived in New York, where he first found work busking on the street and recording in studios. Eventually he moved to Los Angeles in California, where he set up a band called War and made his fortune. He also started his own brand of Lee Oskar harmonicas, which you can still buy in music shops to this day.
Low rider drives a little slower
The Low Rider harmonica part is in two phrases, A and B. Phrase A makes good use of crisp, clean notes, with a repeated pattern on 3D. Phrase B meanwhile, is ideal for exploring the deep bend in 2D”, as this anchors down the second repeat phrase. Another name for a phrase is a riff. Hitting a bent note head on is what we call direct bending.
Low rider is a real goer
Mastering 2D” and direct bending are really important tools for building our ability to play funk, blues, jazz and pop harmonica. Low Rider itself is great fun and it’s easy to count in. As the two parts of the riff are repeated regularly, it’s also a great practise piece.
Grab your 10 hole C major diatonic harmonica and let’s check out the tune. The tab is in Orange. Each number tells you which hole to play. D is draw (breathe in) and B is blow (breathe out). 2D” means the play second draw bend in hole 2. Here’s the whole thing, to give you an idea of how it goes. Remember we play part A twice through. And don’t worry if you can’t play the deep draw bend in hole 2 yet! It’ll happen if you practise.
Part A
3D 3D 3D 3D 3D 4B 4D 2D 3D 4B 3D 2D
Part B
2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D” 2D…crescendo
Low rider knows every street yeah!
If you are new to draw bends, then check out our KS2 key skills page, or talk it through with your Harp Academy teacher. Learning to bend usually starts with 4D’ and 1D’, as there’s only one place to bend to and the notes are the same, just an octave apart.
Bending 2D is a bit harder as there are two bent positions, each a semi-tone lower than the note before. Using our tab, these bends are 2D’ and 2D”. Bending technique can only be explained and demonstrated by your teacher, which means there will be a period of trial and error until you find out how to do it. It’s a bit like learning to ride a bike, or learning to whistle. Unlike other instruments, we can’t place your fingers on keys or strings to show you what to do. But once you get it, and you will, you’ll never be able to stop getting it!
Low rider is the one to meet yeah!
You probbaly noticed that the first riff works up and down the same pattern of notes. It’s actually a special scale, which is in effect a safe path of musical stepping stones. Many musicians use patterns like these to fall bacl on, or to develop when they need to solo and improvise. They’re called pentatonic scales, because they have five notes. Chinese and oriental is based very much on pentatonic patterns. In our song, we’re using the G minor pentatonic scale. Here’s how it sounds.
2D 3D 4B 4D 5D 6B 6B 5D 4D 4B 3D 2D
Poly-rhythm
We’ve already learnt about different types of rhythm – jigs, reggae, latin, syncopated and so on. We’ve also looked at standard time signatures – 2:4 for marches, 3:3 for waltzes and 
4:4 for standard time tunes. Low Rider has a funky groove to it that makes you want to party as soon as you hear it. This is because it uses what we call poly-rhythm.
Poly-rhythm is where there is more than one rhythm happening at the same time. In this case, cowbell percussion opens the song with a beat that has us guessing, or anticipating, what comes next. Then there’s the roll on the tom tom followed by a regular ‘four-four‘ beat across the drum kit. Meanwhile the bass guitar kicks in with a very funky, or syncopated, rhythm. Then there are the vocal and the saxophone/harmonica lines , which take on their own shapes too.
All in all, this could easily be one big mess. But the musicians lock in with each other to create what is known as a groove, or special feel. We heard something similar when we heard the backing track to When The Saints Go Marching In. Dixieland Jazz uses the same creative channels to get its audience up and dancing.
Key Skills
- Minor pentatonic scale
- Riffs
- Repeat notes
- Poly-rhythm
- Groove
- Direct draw bends
- Crescendo