Bending
I'm just starting my lessons. I'm 63 and learning some new tricks, guess I'm not an old dog. My question is weird but I'll ask anyways.
Can you really tongue block and bend all the notes at the same time? I can bend a little, but only with the pucker. Thanks for any help in this regard.
Sincerely Bill Marshall
I have a question. In Dave's instructions on bending, he talks about tuning your mouth to the pitch you desire. I don't have the skill to do the following experiment, but I know that lots of people here do. Take a C and a B harp. Play the full step bend on draw 3 on the C harp. That note is an A. Hit it again and again, without bending down to the note, but just hitting the bent note right from the start. Then switch to the B harp, and play the same note without changing anything in your mouth. Are you still playing an A note, which is the half step bend on 3 hole? Or are you playing Ab, which is the full step bend?
Thanks!
Phil
I'd suggest using a Bb-harp and an A-harp - more players own those than own a B-harp. Then, the bent note in question would be G on the Bb-harp and either G or F# on the A-harp.
One problem with the experiment that you propose is that it's very difficult not to let your expectations get in the way. "Without changing anything in your mouth" is impossible to verify. An experienced player who expects to get the full step bend on both harps (G nd F#) will get that result. A player who expects to get the same note (G) on both harps will get that result.
One of the early bending researchers, Robert Johnston, actually built mechanical devices (basically just big syringes) that he could tune to a note and then apply to a harmonica to demonstrate that bending was caused by changing the size of the air chamber in the syringe. Using such an apparatus might be the only way to test the result without a player unconsciously changing his/her oral configuration to meet an expectation.
Maybe another experiment is to grab a random harp, without knowing the key, and hit one of the 3 draw bends right off the bat. Can even an experienced player like yourself hit it without knowing the key of the harp, without sliding down from the unbent 3?
The crucial phrase here is "right off the bat." In other words, you'd need to pick up the harp and play the bend without playing anything else first. Because if you play even one note beforehand, you'll create a reference point that will let you pre-hear the bent note you're aiming for.
So I tried it, without having played anything yet today. I picked up a G harp and went straight for the Draw 3 two-semitone bend. Got something kind of between the 1-semitone bend and the 2-semitone bend. Then a few minutes later I tried it on a D-harp. Got it. Then I waited several minutes while writing this post to let pitch memory evaporate and picked up a Bb-harp. That time I got the 1-semitone bend. (If msucle memory from the D-ahrp was operating, it would make sense that I was forming up for a note higher in pitch than a bend in the same hole on a lower-pitched harp)
So pre-hearing your bend through having reference pitches seems, at least for me on this Sunday afternoon, to play a role in forming any specific bend.
I tried that with the Bb and G harps in my pocket.
Hmmm hit the whole step on the Bb.
Then the half step came from the G.
Very interesting muscle memory concept in action.
Hi, Bill. I used to wonder the same thing. And then I learned to bend with a tongue block.
With a pucker, your tongue has more mobility, so figuring out how to place it ito effect the bend is a bit easier. Bending with tongue block is no harder, but figuring out how to place your tongue and otherwise configure your mouth to effect the bend takes more investigation.