Bending Speed (Part 3)

Play your 4 draw now... any harp... and note where your tongue is placed. For most players the middle of the tongue will hump up slightly. This is the body's way of getting ready to do an action... in this case a 4 draw bend. Play that 4 draw again... now start to bend. If the note starts to bend IMMEDIATELY when you move your tongue then your tongue was in the correct place... it was in a place where it tuned your mouth to the pitch of that 4 draw... so by moving the tongue up and back just an 1/8" for the bending process it started to change.

If you had to move the tongue a lot to start the bending process, some practice is in order. Bend your 4 draw and then SLOWLY release it (releasing a bend is a forward motion with the tongue in the mouth), sliding in pitch until it has released to its natural pitch (a tuner may be helpful)... at the very second it releases to its natural pitch your mouth is now tuned to the reed's natural vibrating pitch. THIS is the place your tongue needs to be when playing a 4 draw. Experiment with finding this very exact place in your mouth.