5 draw bend
Is there some special difficulty to bend 5 draw? I am studying Take it Easy Now, and find that hard (and also with a A harmonica, to which I am more used).
I can bend 4 and 6 down to the middle pitch between blow and draw. If I could do that for 5, I should reach 1/4 tone, but I don't.
You demonstrate going further down approaching the bottom note, even to the point of being sometimes too low (to my ears) for 4' or 6'. I can't go that far. Is the same skill that is required to really bend the 5? (I mean at least a 1/4 tone down.)
In other words, is the limiting factor the "absolute" pitch distance to the bottom note?
Yes, I'm trying to control the front of my mouth...
My point was: is there some explanation for which I can reach 1/2 tone bend on 4 and 6, but not 1/4 tone on 5?
In my understanding, the required tongue location for 5 should be "between" those for 4 and 6, so if I can reach it for those, I should be able to find it for 5.
Besides, I have the same probleme with all harmonicas, G and A as well as C. So it seems my problem is specific to the 5 hole.
The particularity of that hole is the 1/2 tone range between blow and draw notes. So I was proposing the hypothesis that this could be related to the distance to the bottom notre:
- For 4 and 6, I am unable to go past the 1/2 tone bend, as you do, but it doesn't bother me, as 1/2 tone is what I aim for. Taking the point of view of the bottom (blow) note, this means that I can't approach that bottom note closer than 1/2 tone.
- I can't either approach the 5 bottom note closer than 1/2 tone, which basically leaves me close to the top (draw) note...
- So this could explain my problem: the blocking factor would be the bottom note. Instead of thinking "since I can bend from the 4 and 6 top notes (draw), I should bend from 5 draw", I should think "leaving the top note is not what's hard, approaching the bottom note is, and for hole 5 I hit the wall sooner".
If that explanation is correct, then this problem should be similarly encountered by all people that cannot yet bend very deeply. This is why I asked here. If so, time and overall progress should eventually correct it.
However if I am the only one that find 5 draw bends more difficult than other bends (despite the limited 1/4 tone target), the explanation is in a personnal flaw, and I wonder what it could be.
Sorry for the long explanation, my initial question was not clear.
Hello ÉricD.
I'm happy to go into the weeds of explanation on anything, but in this case there's no answer to search for here, it's just reps.
A player should be practicing sliding smoothly down from the draw reed to the deepest part of a bend. Some bends good deeper (3''' for example), and some more shallow (5 quarter tone bend for example). You're right that the distance between the draw reed and blow reed effects how a bend responds, but there's nothing to mentally adjust, it's just reps.
You'll get it, keep at it.
Just practicing and waiting for progress has proven effective up to now (I first feeled I couldn't bend at all). That seems the way of the harmonica, not being able to see the tongue and get an explanation for everything...
So I have left for now Take it Easy Now, and looked at the Strut and Gary's Blues.
And in the "bending exercices" video for the Strut, you explain why there may be a "gap" that breaks continuous bending, because of the curvature of the palate. This is exactly my current problem! I feel like a sudden "register change" instead of a continuous pitch change.
I love those explanations. Maybe they do not actually speed up learning (if only practice does), but they do provide a focus for me. I would feel more easily discouraged if I had no idea but trying at random. Maybe the difference between what I think I'm doing and what I'm really doing is not so different from random, but the psychological effect is different for me...
You're not asking too much ÉricD. Sometimes I have a good solution, sometimes it's just reps.
Hello ÉricD.
My gut is that you need to use more of the front of your tongue, further forward in your mouth. Try controlling the bend further forward in your mouth and see if you can get more depth from your 5.
P.S., it's the blow note that is the limiting factor for the depth of a bend.