Chords for Play the Bassline | A Fresh Approach to "Help Me, Baby"/"Green Onions"

_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ [Eb]
Everybody recognizes that tune if you're a harmonica player.
[F] It's the beginning of [E] Sonny Boy Williamson's classic tune,
Help Me Baby, that he [Db] recorded in [G] 1963,
and many other people followed.
[Gb] Junior Wells [Eb] recorded my favorite version that I first heard,
and [N] many others.
So, today we're going to deal with this tune more fully,
because most harmonica players, when they play it,
they play it in cross-harp position,
_ _ _ _ [D] _ flatting the third whole draw, somewhat.
Because when you play blues, you don't have to be strictly in tune with the minor third.
[G] _ _ [N] _ You can be a little bit sharper.
It's cool, actually, to be a little sharper.
But the problem is, this is a minor blues,
[C] _ _ [F] and then the four chord comes in with the same exact bass [Bb] line.
_ _ _ Unless [D] you do overblows, you can't play [N] that bass line.
So today, we're going to work on just the basic ingredient here
of playing the bass line of Help Me Baby for the one, the [Eb] four, and the five chord.
So as much as [F] I love playing this in cross-harp on a C,
I'm going [E] to show you on some other harmonicas where you can really play the tune.
[C] So the first one I'm going to use is a low F.
Zahona Rocket.
Pretty nice harmonica.
[D] Now the fact is, this is in a minor key, right?
G minor.
So G minor on a low F harp [G] is third position. _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] Or, _
[F] it does that minor thing really nice.
And then the four chord is that cross [Dm]-harp minor.
[C] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _
[E] Back [G] to one.
_ [D] And then the [D] five chord _ _ [F] _ [G] is fourth position.
[Dm] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ It works up there, too.
[D] So five.
_ [Fm] _ [Cm] _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ [Em]
So I'm going to play it [Gb] along with the track and illustrate [Dbm] more of what I'm talking [G] about.
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ [C] _ _
[Eb] _ [F] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ [C] It solidly works [G] great.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
[Ebm] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _
_ [F] _ [G] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [G] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ [F] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ That's the whole [Ab] point.
To play the bass line and really play those [N] three chords.
It's very accessible in third position.
_ And I would choose the low F instead of the high F
because it's a richer sound.
_ Moving upward through the positions,
the [F] next one I'm going to do is going to be in fourth position
[G] on a B-flat harmonica.
Fourth position is the key of the six-hole draw,
which [Eb] is [B] obviously a G, G minor [G] here,
or the third-hole [F] draw bend.
[Abm] _ [G] _ _ _ [N] So you can play that bass line.
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ And there's that defensive stuff, too, that Sonny Boy and [Bb] Junior Wells did.
_ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Ab] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ Anyway, you can get very bluesy in fourth position.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [D] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _
[Bb] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [Cm] _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _
_ [F] _ _ [Bbm] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [N] Now that you can bend overblows, if you know how to do that,
the whole middle octave of the harmonica gets bluesier. _ _ _
[G] _ [E] That's the problem with [D] playing in fourth position.
You can't, without overblows, get that bend on the five.
[G] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [F] So with the [G] overblow, you can get the [Gb] flat of fifth
in [A] the fourth-hole overblow and bend it up.
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
[G] [F] The last harmonica I'm going to show you this [E] on is a low E [Gb]-flat.
So to [Eb] play in G minor on an E-flat [Db] harmonica,
that is [F] called fifth position,
the key of the [G] second-hole blow, _ fifth-hole blow.
_ [Eb] _ So now [Gb] the one _ [Eb] chord_
_ [G] _ _ _ [F] _ And then the four chord is fourth position. _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ [D] _ _ [Gm] Back to one. _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ So the five [Dm] _ _ _ [N] chord_
Technically, it's the sixth position.
_ [Dm] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [Fm] _ [G] _ _ _ [N] _ _ _
So these harmonicas allow you to really follow the chords
more like the way the original tune
that this was taken from, I believe,
which is called Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs,
who were basically the house band
for Stax Records in Memphis.
And they put out Green Onions in 1962.
_ So this came out in 63.
It's really the same tune.
So I'm going to play it for you on the low E-flat harmonica.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ Gives you a nice [C] bend. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _
[Eb] _ [F] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _
[Gm] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ [C] _ _
_ [F] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ Nice warble, [Gm] huh?
And _ [C] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Ebm] then_
[Gm] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ [Gm] _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Cm] _
_ [F] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [Gm] _ _
[Bbm] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[C] Hope you enjoyed our little hang.
See you next time.
[G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [N] _ _ _