David's Tip of the Day: Nose - How To Close It

Before you can explore how to use the opening and closing of your nose to balance your breathing while playing the harmonica, you first need to learn how to close it. Here are some ways to explore closing your nose. Try all them, you may find one that works better than the other. If you're not sure if your nose is closed while trying one of these (in other words, if the technique is working or not), simply plug your nose to see if there's a marked difference. Another way to check is to place your finger under your nose. The fine hairs on your finger may feel the slight air movement, or at least you'll feel the temperature change on your finger.

1) Yawn

2) Whistle

3) Blow out an imaginary candle - When we blow, we commonly unconsciously close our nose to increase pressure on the candle.

4) Sneeze - Stop the imaginary sneeze right before the actual sneeze... we unconsciously close our nose so that snot doesn't fly everywhere.

If you have some tips of how to close the nose that I missed, please share it on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bluesharmonica

Give this a try this weekend and we'll resume our study of the nose next week. Have a great weekend!