Bending blues....
Ive been working with the harp for nearly two years and am doing okay in a number of areas. Ive increased my practice in the past 6 months and technique is improving. Bending, however, remains a mystery. And it looks to me as if bending is mandatory if you want to play blues....I get that.
My take is that at some point this will become somewhat second nature. Ive done Dave's material, looked elsewhere on the web, looked at books.... my only accomplishment is bending 1 draw down but just a 1/4 note (per the tuner) ...can not get to a c# on the c harp.
How long did it take for you guys to achieve a bend?
Is there any trick or technique that got it to happen?
Ive tried to even achieve a bend using a pucker and holding the harp at an angle to 'cheat' a bit just to accomplish anything good. No results.
I know Dave said to experiment. Frankly its pretty boring to keep trying to learn to bend...also runs my wife out of the house.
Any hints?
Gary
It *is* possible to play blues without bending, as in this Muddy Waters recording where Little Walter plays an octave harp with no bends:
Paul deLay playing octave harp:
And this Little Walter cut, where he uses a slide harp and lets out the slide instead of bending notes down:
In addition to all the blues chromatic work that's played without bends.
That said, yeah, bending is a central technique in blues harmonica.
Is your nose closed when you try to bend? That's essential.
Using your lips to obstruct the hole will produce a type of bend, but it doesn't sound that great and doesn't give you enough bending control to achieve the sounds you hear. The key is to use your tongue to shape and tune your oral cavity.
David's instruction is similar to mine. However, you might find some useful pointers in this video from my book Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition:
Winslow, Ive got your book and your video is most clear. Im thought about this and I have learned TB from David. I note that when I TB all the air on the draw goes to the right of my tongue. When I think about this, this means that the position my tongue may not be allowing the narrowing of the air passage. You state that it works with TB. Okay. I am having difficulty getting the sounds you suggest when I draw. thoughts?
Try this *without* a harmonica:
Put your tongue between your lips, leaving an opening at the right. This is to hold the tip of your tongue forward as you would when tongue blocking. But doing this wihtout a harmonica lets you monitor more closely the rest of the bending action model.
- Inhale through the opening,letting air pass freely. You shouldn't hear any sound.
- Now, as you inhale, whisper (i.e., no voice): KuhKuhKuh
Every time you make the "k" sound you close off the air flow completely, if only momentarily. You do this by raising you tongue to the roof of your mouth roughly halfway back along the roof of your mouth. You can do this no matter where the tip of your tongue is positioned.
Bending is a matter of *almost* closing the air passage, but instead narrowing it to "pinch the pipe"and change the velocity and pressure of the air flow. This in tourn lets you tune the front part of your oral cavity to the bent note.
Now, imagine you have glue (or honey or peanut butter - at any rate something sticky) on the roof of your mouth, so that when you touch your tongue to it, you have trouble pulling it away and can only pull it away a small amount and very slowly.
As you pull you tongue away slightly, monitor both your sensations and the sounds you hear.
- You should experience a slight sensation of suction that tries to pull your tongue back up and close off the passage. You need to use this while resisting it.
- You should hear the air moving through the narrowed passage. If you can hear a specific pitch in thoise, that will help you tune your bend to the specific note you're going for.
Try playing around with this, and then try using this action to bend Draw 4 on a harp in the middle range of keys (I'd suggest a thru D, though who knows - the door might open for you on a higher or lower key).
Yes, I have made an initial step. I could get a E (2 draw A harp) down to c# for a brief moment. And a 1 draw almost down to a Bb. I think Im off the dime. Is the tongue/month movement the same for all the bends or is really experimentation?
E on an A harp in Hole 2 bends down to a little lower than a D but not as low as C#. The blow note is C#. Check your lowest bend against that blow note and youll hear that the bend is not as low as the blow note.
The oral cavity configuration for each bend is slightly different. What you're doing is tuning your oral chamber to the bent note. A bigger chamber tunes it lower while a smaller chamber tunes it higher. So to find the right size for each bend, you're going to have to experiment. Generally the tongue moves forward and upward for higher bends, backward and lower for lower bends.
However, the first step is being able toactivate the bend. Once you can do that for one bend, you can use that to find other bends.
One other consideration: Make your bent notes as full sounding as your unbent notes. They will never have the same tone color, but they can have just as full a tonal quality. Achieving that fullness of tone on a bend indicates full mastery of dialing in your oral cavity resonance.
I'm just a beginner and no expert of anything related to harmonica. However, bending is difficult and I just don't have the words to try to explain. My humble opinion would be that for this battle you do a "skype" lesson with an expert instructor of your choice. It need not be an ongoing thing, tell them upfront that you want a few lessons to help get this bend thing going well. This way, you can talk and look and hear from them and they with you. Much better than someone trying to teach you with written words. Should be well worth the cost too. Good luck and don't give up!
Remarkably I made good progress in bending. I can now bend 1, 2, 3, 4 draws. Not to the point where I can sustain the tone in a stable manner but I can reach the notes. Not much progress on 6 and higher.
Is it normal that the higher tones are more difficult? I feel like Im sucking so hard Im going to inhale the harp, but frankly its now feeling attainable where I trought I would never get it at all.
Im taking it that working up the scale is the way to go. Im sure if I were a trumpet player I have to work my way up to the higher notes in progression. Does that make sense?
You don't need to suck hard to get any of the bends.
The higher bends require you to tune your oral cavity to higher notes, and you do that by making the tuned chamber smaller.
You can make the tuned chamber smaller in two ways:
- Move the constriction point (aka K-spot) farther forward, closer to the front of your mouth.
- Raise the "floor" of the chamber by raising your tongue closer to the roof of our mouth.
The sweet spot for higher notes is narrower than for lower notes, and it's easy to move past the sweet spot for a particular bend on a higher note. So slow down and listen for the effect.
To sustain a bend you need the suport of your air column. It's not enough to control the air in your mouth. You have to be breathing from deep in your lungs, even if very gently. The mass of the air in motion gives you more control over the mass of the reed so that you can beter influence its behavior.
I wanted to comment that I am now able to beld all notes from 1D to 6D. Somehow it just started to happen and its getting much easier. As you said, its just a matter of working with a tuner. Im only making the tones. Sound is not terrific particularly on the 3d's but even the 6D to g# is now at least working.
Tips for other beginners- get a tuner on our smart phone and suggest that your spouse leave the room.
What brand, model, and key are you using. Some harmonicas are much easier to work with.