So far, we haven't talked about how to structure our solos, we have just played what we felt like. This is quite okay. But to really play solos that captivates our audience, there are a few elements to add. The first element is repetition. Often harmonica players don't want to give the audience as much repetitions as they like. We're often caught up in trying to think of a new riff to play, rather than to repeat the one we just played.
Think of it this way. If you just played something great, why not give the audience a chance to hear it again and enjoy it even more. When you repeat something, you tell the audience, this is important and it will have a greater impact. One great way of using repetition is to use the pattern, play something, play it again, play something different. Come back to what you originally played. This is how many popular songs are structured for the simple reason that it works and it gets people interested in practice.
This is what you do. At the start of the round of the 12 bar blues you play to bar riff. Then you repeat it. Now you've played something across the entire one chord. When the four chord comes, you play a different riff. And then, when the one chord is come back, you play the same riff as you originally played.
Then to finish it off, you play something what is known as a 541 turn round riff I have put a PDF in the reading section with a couple of suggestions for a 541 turn around riffs. Another pattern you can use mimics the structure of many blues lyrics. First, you hear a lyric line, then that lyric line is repeated, and the round is finished off with a nother lyric line that rhymes with the first two. The way to do it is to play a four bar riff over the one chord. Then you repeat exactly that four bar riff over the four and the one chord and you finish the round off with a 541 Turn around. If you want to go all out on repetition, you can play a one bar riff, a two bar riff or a four bar riff and simply repeat it as many times as you need to complete the 12 bar blues.
It actually is more exciting than it might sound Especially if you follow it up with another round which is one of the other patterns I mentioned before. There are other patterns for repetition you can use, but these three will give you a good start.