3 Hole Draw and Strawberries.....
David
I can see now why you always ask the artists you interview about the 3 draw half step and full step bend..and how they learned to do it.
It looks to me that this is what separates the men from the boys in harmonica study.
I am having a heck of a time…getting anything to sound…mostly sucking air…and if I do hit one of the required notes….man…is it ugly sounding..!
This brings to mind the late Norton Buffaloes…DVDs…entitled “Harmonica Power”(isn’t it ironic that he should die so young and by throat cancer..?)…in which he describes the art of bending being similar to drinking a strawberry milkshake and imagining sucking the strawberries up threw the straw….lots of powerful sucking.
After trying everything else and having no success I have decided to employ Nortons technique and after sucking so hard to the point of loosening cover screws I got some sort of note on my Chromatic tuner.!
I could hit all the notes on a C harmonica but when you moved me to the A .. wow.. Whole different story…much harder…
Another point of interest Norton Buffalo use the curled tongue technique….
What do you think of the strawberry milkshake technique?
Steve
I'm really getting frustrated gaining any real control of my bends - even though I'm practicing them like crazy. I can't get the two draw two-step worth a damn, and my three goes straight to the bottom. And of all things, four is giving me trouble, too. I'm switching from pucker bending to tongue block bending - now I can't do either one right. It even is effecting my ability to trill - and I had that down pretty good before I started dipping into it. Right now I'm on "Feeling for the Blues." It's really frustrating listening to how smooth you make it, and having mine sound so much like I'm sucking on a cat.
I know your answer will be practice, practice, practice - and I'm doing that. I guess I'm just looking to blow off steam. But all-in-all, this sounds like a pretty common problem.
I'm just really looking forward to the day when I think: "Wow, I can't believe I ever thought this was so tough."
You have the right mind set. We're all capable of great things, we just don't know how long they will take. Stay on the path, you'll get it!
Hi David,
I thought i might mention the Korg LCA-120 Chromatic tuner...I got it on Amazon for $35..list is $139..you can get a contact mic (optional) which snaps onto the Harmonica like a clothes pin and it will sound back what note you are hitting. You can also use headphones with it.
Works even in noisy locations...I have found it very helpful.
Question..is it possible to make my lesson recording with my Tascam DR-1 and send that file to you for your listening pleasure for review and comments. I am not too computer savy and have not sent any lessons to you as yet...
Thank you Master..
Steve
Steve, you can also plug in your bullet mic to that as well. I do that when practicing my bends and it helps like you said - especially when I've got my 4-year-old running around hollering in the background. It's amazing the pitches and notes he can hit.
This is the first I've known that Norton had passed. I'm heartbroken and hope there is another Roy Rogers in heaven. I've listened to his recordings over and over and over again. I still listen to his music and up until a few years ago I was visiting his website pretty often. As for the strawberry shake, I heard it once from Sonny Hudson that you should pucker like sucking on a straw. I don't recall if it was to bend or just to get a clear note. I never asked Sonny if he tongue blocked or puckered. I think the first time I heard Norton was on an album by Bonnie Raitt - "Runaway".
RIP Mr. B.
Randy
Sure... as long as you send it as an MP3 it doesn't matter what you use to record.
Most bends sound strongest at the bottom off the bend, but on the 3 draw it is especially noticeable -and troublesome if you're not trying to sound like a snake charmer. It always wants to shoot past the middle bend and dive straight to the bottom.
But you can use this annoying tendency to learn how to control your bends and also to make them tonally fuller.
Try this:
Play the Draw 3 bend, pulled all the way to the bottom. Sustain it for a moment, then let it rise S-L-O-W-L-Y to an unbent note. Try to make the transition ans gradual and as smooth as you can. As you slowly release the bend, listen to the tonal quality. Listen for smoothness and listen for toanl fullness.
Do this for a few minutes every day and pretty soon you'll have a lot more control over this bend and the tone will sound relaxed and full instead of sounding like you're having a tug-of-war with a duck call. And you'll be able to play the first three notes of "Three Blind Mice" in second position (starting on unbent Draw 3) and nail the bend precisely.
That's quite a workout!
Good bending technique has got to be the most frustrating part of learning the harp. (If it's not, and I get this down pat to find something even more frustrating, I'm going to jump off a roof).
That analogy is fine to get someone to achieve a bend for the first time... to force the technique in... to get something to move... to get a feel of it happening, but this is not what you want as someone who already knows how to bend... this will regress your skills. Reference my bending help videos in the FAQ section.
The "U-Block" technique is fine to use, but has no advantages over puckering. In my experience when a student comes in with this technique, and it's soon enough to switch them over, I get them off of it... it can make learning how to tongue block down the road very difficult... their tongue has a heck of a time getting out of the scooped shape (we use the opposite shape for tongue blocking). So, by its self it's fine, but can make it challenging to add tongue blocking to your arsenal down the road.
P.S., Norton was a monster of a player and an angel of a guy... R.I.P. brother.