No Matter What I Try, I Can't Seem To Tongue Bend
David:
Since I started your lessons almost 2 months ago, I have been getting up nearly every weekday morning and practicing for an hour before I go to work. Your lessons are supreme. Your website is bar none, the very best! I can't thank you enough for this!
On the topic of bending though, I will literally sit for hours trying like mad to keep my tongue on the harmonica and contortion my mouth and tongue into more twists turns and bends than I ever thought possible, with no luck whatsoever. I have learned only tongue blocking so I didn't start as a pucker player like some. I've now learned if I center the hole on my lower lip, and pull my tongue in, I can bend. I can even bend all the way on hole 3. But put that tongue back on the holes where it's supposed to go, and she's gone! I mean I try like mad to bend my tongue in the back and it just doesn't want to bend that way. It is quite frustrating! I thought at first I was bending but once I put an app on my phone similiar to Harp Ninja (freebie one) I could see I wasn't. Now I can tell if I am or not.
Do you ever find people who's tongues literally cannot bend that way? I know! It sounds like the whiner's way out for a question, but I've got to ask. I've even practiced to and from work while driving (looks crazy I'm sure!), most of those two months and still I cannot get any bends with my tongue on the holes.
Thanks for any comments!
-Todd
David,
Not sure, but it might be somewhat important for me to mention, I had my uvula lasered off years ago for medical reasons. I'm pretty sure that body part assists in the amount of air passage the throat requires to constrict enough. What do you think? Where most people have that to block, I have a big gap right in the upper middle of my throat
Im getting Harp Ninja to show very ugly signs of bending with the tongue but feel like I'm gagging trying to hump the tongue to the roof of my mouth due to no uvula. Do you know any harp players without an uvula that can TB bend? I'd be interested to know! BTW. Harp Ninja sure is finicky. I'm mainly playing Lee Oskar Majors and about the only way I can seem to TB bend is by pointing the harp to my bottom lip and then some. In other words the back of the harp to the sky. . Still no green true notes at all On Harp Ninja While bending, otherwise, yes. Nice looking green filled boxes. Trust me. I'm not giving up! But no matter how hard I try to get that tongue to hump, no luck. I've even tried pressing the flat of my tongue over and to the bottom of the holes to create less of an air passage with minimal luck. Some, but minimal. I'll keep working at it, but I think this uvula thing might be part of my problem. Thanks for all your support! Please let me know what you think. Thank you.
-Todd
Evening Todd. A couple quick points...
1) "pointing the harp to my bottom lip and then some" is fine as long as you're not constricting the hole of the harmonica... in other words the bend is not happening by "pushing" your harp to your lips. This will create a slight bend, but is not how bending is done. The tone is bad, depth is limited and not practical while playing.
2) "pressing the flat of my tongue over and to the bottom of the holes to create less of an air passage" same point here, as long as you're not "squeezing" the hole.
Now, the uvula questions...
To close off the nasal cavity, one raises the soft palate. Are you saying there's a hole in your soft palate?
Pretent to blow out a candle... is air coming out of your nose when you're blowing out that candle, or is it all going out of your mouth only?
Here's a follow-on to David's candle exercise: Can you blow up a balloon? If so, you can block airflow to your nasal passages.
Don't have a balloon handy? Try simply closing your lips together so air can't get in or out, and try blowing out. If your cheeks puff out because the air can't get out – or if you try to inhale and your cheeks suck in – then you're closing off the nasal passages and you're good to go.
Thanks Winslow! Yes I can blow a balloon. So...I keep watching every bending video I can find on youtube hoping somebody shares something that I finally pick up. Well I've found a few that have helped more than what I've found on BH.com so I'm getting closer with TB bending. Not pretty, but closer.
Now another question. I feel like some of my new Lee Oskar Majors and even my Special 20 E seem to have holes that almost sound unplayable now. That is, unless I just blow 3 or 4 holes at one time. Especially my Lee Oskar High G. Can I possibly be blowing the reeds out with my bending attempts?
If so, this is going to get pretty expensive real fast, unless I can learn to be a harp mechanic as well. LOL.
Thanks.
-Todd
I'm glad you're making progress Todd. Bending is not rough on harmonica, but someone learning how to bend is... so yes, you're going to go through harmonicas unfortunately. In most cases it has to do with playing too loud, so try to keep your volume in check.
The fact that you can blow up a balloon means that you can close off your nasal cavity, this is good news.
I have had students that had their uvula removed after already knowing how to play the harmonica and they (two students) reported after the initial soreness that it did not effect their bending, not vibrato... that's more good news.
The fact that you're feeling like you're "gagging" when trying to bend is the indicator that you're humping your tongue too far back in your mouth. On an A harmonica none of the bends will have your tongue hump up that fat back. Explore the "she" "key" "koo" I teach in the bending lesson, the humped range is in there. This is more good news... as I state in the lessons, if you hump your tongue too far back... no bend. If your tongue humps too far forwards... no bend.
We're narrowing it down... keep experimenting.
I've been watching everything I can get my hands on with bending on YouTube. I'm sure different strokes for differnt folks, but for me the Jon Gindick video has been very helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MZqnWXxI9I&ebc=ANyPxKo4IKuNtdZdYDsY5Zb2...
You'll probably ask yourself, so what is any different from what Jon Gindick said versus what all of my staff and I are teaching? I'm not sure what it is exactly? Maybe it's the constant attempts and I've finally begun to hit bends AFTER I watched his video. But I think it's the way he has you practice with the rythms he's using and the fact he shows both pucker and tongue block. Anyway, YES! I'm starting to get it.
Hole one is a breeze (no tongue). Hole 2 is showing up on HarpNinja (not perfect green but showing). Hole 3...Ah...now thats where the difficulty is now. Can't seem to get my mouth to make a good seal. Seems I have to twist the harmonica at about a 45 degree angle to get my mouth to close off the holes.
But as always...Practice...Practice...Practice...
I'm trying to practice with Danny Boy to hit third note (bend) on "ling" in the lyric "calling". So what note is that that I'm supposed to hit? The song being played on an "A" Harmonica, starting the song with hole 4 (A). Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are ca-al-LING. Of course my bends are very week right now but I can't figure out what note that's supposed to be? At this point, no note melodically sounds correct.
As always, Thanks again to you and your staff for helping me both in technique and with the moral support! Both are very important! Much appreciated!
-Todd
Hello Todd, I'm glad to hear you're making progress.
I'm not familiar with Danny Boy (I know of the song, but have not played it myself). This website says 3" http://www.wildflowerharmonica.com/tabs/danny-boy/, I don't know if it's accurate, but it's a start.
P.S., resist the urge to change your angle of play on the harmonica for bending. Whatever angle you use for everyday play should be the angle it stays at for bending. I personally always tilt the face of my harmonica downwards about thirty degrees.
David:
Thank you. I'll push forward. Thanks for the tab to Danny Boy. Guess I play it by heart but leave out a couple of the more finer detailed notes? You ought to play it if you haven't. Unless you're strictly into Blues, I bet you could make it sound really nice. Not trying to sound like the teacher! Just a beautiful song. Stay happy!
-Todd
Good evening Todd. Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying the lessons.
When you center the harmonica and use your lower lip to create a single note (and most likely tilt the face of the harmonica down slightly) this is called the pucker embouchure. The pucker embouchure is not a bad embouchure, it just doesn't have as many options to it. There are players (I was one for many years) that would TB for the TB-exclusive techniques and pucker for bending. This is not a bad way of playing, though it does require you to switch between embouchures while playing.
The key to TB bending is in humping up your tongue. No strange contortions are needed, just experimenting with what part of your tongue you hump up, and how far forward (higher bends) or how far back (lower bends) you hump your tongue.
Experiment with raising your tongue and see where this gets you.
Report back after a couple days of practice and let me know how it's going.