bending question
Hi David,
this might sound like a strange question...but :
when I'm bending drawnotes on the harmonica and move my tongue up my adam's apple also goes up or down.
After a while it even starts to irritate a little in that area. Is this normal? Now, I'm pretty slim and muscled so my adam's apple is kinda pronounced. I try to check with other players and with you in your uploads and I don't see this happening with other players as much, I think? It could well be that I'm still using to much force from the throat when I'm bending drawnotes. The mechanism in bending drawnotes is exactly the same as when bending blownotes, right?
When bending blow notes I've noticed that there's far less tension in my throat and I can get the bends by using my tongue only. When bending drawnotes I seem to be using more force from the throat.
I'm thinking of asking Ben Bouwman, who's Dutch like me, to give me some bendinglessons because I'm afraid of learning it the wrong way. Thanks for your answers.
Thank you for your detailed answer David!
Sure! It's a challenging technique... anything that can help direct you forward is time well spent.
David, I've tried and tried and tried to bend drawnotes by raising my tongue only but I just can't get a drawbend that way.
When analysing what happens when I'm bending drawnotes it seems that I move my tonge up and at the same time my soft palatepart inside my mouth comes down a very little bit. If I don't bring the soft palate down this tiny little bit the note just won't bend, it won't drop in pitchbut only sounds thin.
You talk about raising the tongue only when bending drawnotes. Are you really saying that your soft palate does not come down ever so slightly at the same time?
If the soft palate lowers it opens your nasal tract, making bending almost impossible. There could be some movement for you in that area without opening the nasal cavity... so no harm, to foul. For draw AND blow bending, all that is needed is for the tongue to move. With that said, if you're achieving a good sound and have good control in your bending, then cool, there's nothing to fix. Due to the blind nature of bending, we just keep working on it until we get it... and it takes many, many years of focused attention to dial in. So... experiment like you're doing... you'll get it.
Thanks. It's driving me absolutely crazy. The thing is I'm not getting the tone I hear great players play and I don't know what it exactly is that I'm doing wrong. Would you mind if I ask on the forum if other students on this website think that it's also only the tongue that moves when they are playing a bend or that little other actions in the mouth are happening when bending? Bending is the only thing that keeps me from progressing as a harpplayer.
Please always fee free to ask the BluesHarmonica.com community for their opinions... there are some passionate and helpful students here (many are pro players). I recommend you contact Dennis Gruenling, he does Skype lessons.
Thanks. Yes I know DG offers skypelessons but I am planning to meet up with Ben Bouman and hopefully he can tell me what it is I am doing wrong. I've asked my questions in the general discussion forum and I'm hoping some guys will answer my questions.
You are correct, blow and draw notes are bent the same. You're also correct that the goal is to not have tension in the throat... though this is a process over time.. it's hard to relax while you're learning something that's challenging. I have not seen any issues with the Adam's Apple moving (and I have experimented with this), but do resist the tendency to "squeeze" or add tension in the throat.
If you're open to experimenting, take your G Harmonica and C Harmonica blow reed plates and swap them. The harmonica with the C draw reed plate will bend on all draw notes... the one with the C blow reed plate will bend on all blow notes. These two special harmonicas will help you to focus on similar technique... and of course start with your blow-bendable harmonica since that's where you have much less tension.
ALSO... go to the harmonica note layout for all keys of harmonica (you can find it in the Understanding Position Playing lesson... a PDF) and compare a very low key of harmonica (blow bend) with a very high key of harmonica (draw bend). Find the same note combination for the blow bend (low harp) and the draw bend (high harp). This will give you the EXACT same pitches, which equals the SAME tuning in the mouth to achieve the bend. In this case both blow bend and draw bend movement and tuning will be the same and you can see what you're body's trying to do differently while draw bending.