Ask Harmonica Expert Winslow Yerxa

Hi, 

I've recently come to this school because I wanted to add tongue blocking to my repertoire, having been on this harp journey for a little over two years and always lip pursed. 

I have noticed that tongue blocking causes me to generate far more moisture but have been told to expect that. However, this is almost entirely about the fact that this seems to be causing the 5 draw reed to stick, no others. I was told that you might be able to shine some light on this, is there any way I can stop this, or is it just a matter of time?

Thanks,

Graham 

Hello,

i bought a G Marine Band.

When i draw hole 1 there is sometimes a metallic sound from the reed.

I went to the store again and they gave me an other Marine Band.

But the same, when drawing or chugging on hole 1 the metallic sound comes, but with the 2nd harmonica not so extreme as the 1st.

So the question:

Do i play the hole wrongly or

did i get 2 harmonicas with a failure

I think there should not be a metallic sound either. 

Greetings from Germany

Michael continue reading...

Hi,

I am obviously missing something. Having gone through your section(s) 3 for tuning I am having some difficulty relating in Frequencies for Octaves and those keys in between. 

The tonic frequency as I understand it should be around 440 Hz and in some cases slightly higher or lower. When looking at octaves In Acoustic laws the next octave is twice the base frequency i.e. 880Hz. The next Octave should be 1760Hz. Similarly, the lower octave from 44Hz would be 220 Hz. Is there a chart or book available that helps me with this understanding?  continue reading...

I'm new to the chromatic after playing blues on diatonic harps for 25 years. I was gifted an inexpensive Swan 1040 and started messing around with it. It did play pretty smoothly and although the slide was a little clunky it sounded good except that it wasn't very loud and apparently not very air tight. You could actually bend some of the draw notes like a diatonic as well. Looking in it you can tell there are no "windsavers". continue reading...

I just bought the MS Series Blues Harp in the key of C. All the lessons by David Barrett are in the Key of A. I know that there are some lessons for the key of C harmonicas but I want to do all the other lessons as well.

I'm looking to buy either one of these harmonicas in the key of A: The Marine Band Crossover or the Marine Band 1896 Classic.

Which do you recommend to get?

Gday Winslow.

Upon inspecting my chrometta the other day I noticed the windsaver for the one blow/draw had curled up. Genius that I am....I decided to cut it off not knowing the effect it would have 

My chromatic is now more airy and I was wondering (price being an issue, with little to no techs where I live) what I might do to replace it? Is it possible to cut some sort of material and glue it in place instead?

Thanks

Gday Winslow.

I've recently purchased a 270 super chromonica after learning to play on the Chrometta 12 for a couple of weeks.  continue reading...

Hey,

We had a discussion a while on this subject but I have a new question. First of all, apologies if you have already covered this but I don't see a search engine.

I get it that the rocket and Special 20 reed plates are alike. However, the Rocket covers have only one set of holes that is nearer to the mouthpiece while the Special 20 is slightly off center which to me, provides a better distribution of clamping force thus creating a better seal. 

Should the Rocket and Rocket Pro be modified or am I missing something?

Thanks

Winslow:

Have you had any experience with slide-less chromatics? I'm curious about the Seydel Nonslider, and imagine that one would have to get used to tilting the mouthpiece instead of pushing the button. continue reading...

I came across a balafon tuned as B C# E G A B C#. It sounds as a pentatonic minor scale on E, replacing the 7th by the major 6th.

I was unable to find on the web a name for this scale (degrees 1 3m 4 5 6), which sounds good (and I suspect this balafon has a special temperament, too). Except "northern pentatonic", but this name seems proper to south american flute playing (only context it appears in). continue reading...