2 Draw Bend, C and D harmonicas
David, I've been at this for a few days and am tossing this out there in the hope that maybe there's something to be tried that will be the proverbial light bulb for me. I have no problem with bends on holes 1, 3-6 on either C or D harmonica. I do find it easier to obtain the 1 hole bend by using a pucker for lower keyed harps, such as A, Bb. And I can hit the half step 2 draw bend on C or D easily. It's moving the tongue back from those half steps that has me feeling like there is no room to draw back the tongue further. I feel that this bend should feel somewhere between tongue placement for the 1 and 3 draw bends, and I'm probably going too far on the 2 draw, but it's hard to sense or control that rise in the tongue so far back. When I hit the 2 draw on the A, or 1 draw on any harp, it feels like my tongue is pretty much back at my throat, like saying "Oh!" or Koo.
Hope this description helps you potentially understand what I'm doing right and wrong. Thanks.
Thanks. I meant that raising the tongue that far back is just harder to get a feel for. I wish I could see what was happening. Anyway, I briefly got to it on the C when I closed my eyes rather than focusing on the tuner. It's there, just need to coax it out!
Yeah, it would be nice to see it, no doubt. You'll get it... reps and experimenting.
Hello JSiegart.
The key element is not in stretching your tongue far back, but in raising your tongue in the back. Your tongue already inhabits the entire length of your mouth, so it doesn't need to move anywhere, it just needs to be raised, and then fine-tuned with slight motion forward or backward.
Drop your jaw slightly, maybe jutting it forward slightly, and focus on raising the back of your tongue in the back of your mouth.
As you mentioned, also be careful to not move everything too much. Most students unintentionally bend the 2 when first playing the 2 draw, and they're not doing anything special... it may be less movement than you expect.
You'll get it with time and experimentation.