bending drawnotes, please all read
Hi all. Some of you may have read my questions to David about bending drawnotes and I'm sorry for asking about bending drawnotes again. But, please read my question and answer my questions if you can.
Allright, I'm playing all notes tongueblocked and I can bend. But, David B instructs in bending by moving only the tongue up to achieve bends on drawnotes. When I bend drawnotes on the harmonica there seems to be happening more then just movement of my tongue. I bring my tongue up and at the same time the soft palate in the back of my mouth seems to come down some. When I am trying to bend drawnotes by only bringing my tongue up then there is not a drop in pitch but only thinning out of the note I am playing. I feel that I am not bending correctly but I can't get what I am doing wrong. Please tell me what you think happens inside your mouth when you bend drawnotes on the harmonica. Do you get the bend by only bringing your tongue up or is there more going on?
I hope some of you are willing to answer cause it's driving me absolutely crazy. Thanks.
" Your tongue and your palate *interact* to bend notes.
When you raise your tongue to narrow the air conduit during a draw bend, you create suction. That suction pulls the tongue and the soft palate toward one another, so the soft palate will lower slightly. "
Thank you Winslow. I think that's exactly what's happening when I'm bending drawnotes. It's just that David ( sorry David ) never mentions the soft palate thing but only mentions raising the tongue and therefor I understood that I was doing something wrong because when I only raise my tongue a bend will not happen.
Now how come I can bend some drawnotes by not moving my tongue at all? On the 2 hole for instance I can also bend the notes down without moving my tongue if I want to.....
Jack -
Only raising your tongue will not do the job. The raised tongue needs to narrow the airflow, and when you feel the suction pulling the tongue and soft palate together, you know that you've narrowed the air passage.
If you're bending without moving your tongue you must be making some other change in the air flow when you move from an un-bent note to a bent note.
Carefully observe what happens. You may feel something move or be pulled, or a sensation of suction at some point.
Some player claim that they bend with the throat and not the tongue. I'm skeptical of this claim - my take is that they simply use the tongue farther back in the mouth, which creates a less obvious sensation.
Thanks again Winslow.
"Some player claim that they bend with the throat and not the tongue. I'm skeptical of this claim - my take is that they simply use the tongue farther back in the mouth, which creates a less obvious sensation."
Yes, that's what's I'm claiming as well ;-) There really is no need to be skeptical there.
When "throatbending" it's not the use of the tongue further in the back of the throat that creates the bend but it really is a narrowing of the throatopening / soft palate muscles . I can feel it happening and I can feel that my tongue sits still and does not move in the back of the throat, at all. That's what I'm using as well to create vibrato on longer notes.
My guess is that's thats why some players ( like Mitch Kasmar ) call it choking the harp.
Your tongue and your palate *interact* to bend notes.
When you raise your tongue to narrow the air conduit during a draw bend, you create suction. That suction pulls the tongue and the soft palate toward one another, so the soft palate will lower slightly.
What you don't want to happen is for the tip of he soft palate to disengage rom the back wall of your throat area and open up the nasal passages. The nasal passages should remain closed for effective bending.
Here's a way to test whether you can keep your nasal passages closed during a bend.
Open your mouth and press your lips gently to the back of your hand so that you create a seal between your hand and lips.
Now exhale with your nose closed. This is like blowing up a balloon. If your nose is closed, your cheeks will puff out because the air has nowhere to go. If you try to inhale, your cheeks will suck in.
If you can successfully suck your cheeks in as you try to inhale, take it a step further.
Touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your hand to emulate a tongue block. Suck you cheeks in again to verify that your nose is still closed.
Now inhale again, and hold your cheeks sucked in. As you maintain this system, try touching the middle part of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, as if making a "K" sound.
If you can do this while your cheeks remain sucked in, you have successfully set up th conditions for a tongue-blocked draw bend. To bend a particular note, you need to size the chamber by moving the "K" spot slightly back or forward in your mouth, and also raising or lowering the "floor" of the mouth chamber by raising or lowering the level of your tongue between the K-spot and the tip of your tongue.