Whistler - Accidental bending?
Hi David,
Throughout my life whenever I've heard music I like, I would whistle it - along with the song, in the shower, on the way to work, while riding my bike, etc. I've never played an instrument until now, so whenever I'm hearing a tune in my head and trying to recreate it, my mouth automatically wants to adjust shape.
I'm not properly bending the note - for one, I don't know how to do that, and I'm still on the first practice song - but just bending enough to produce a bad, airy tone on the low notes (both draw and blow). At least I'm fairly sure that's what the problem is. You see, I can get a nice tone from those holes by following your advice about lowering the jaw and in particular breathing through the diaphragm rather than up in the mouth.
But when I try to perform the whole song for a recording and I'm concentrating on notes, rhythm and dynamics, I very easily fall into the habit of almost trying to whistle the notes through the harp - that is, up in the mouth, with a particular mouth shape. Or when I'm nearing the limits of my breath, sometimes I'll change from blow to draw or vice versa, expecting to be able to make the same note either way like you can when whistling, and you can imagine how that sounds.
Here's hoping that all that whistling does come in handy a bit later when I get to proper bending...! Have you had other students in a similar situation and do you have any advice?
But more importantly, it makes me wonder about whether it is actually advantageous to be adjusting your mouth to the pitch you're playing? Basically beginning to bend the note, but not actually taking it any lower than its normal pitch. Does it make a better, more resonant sound? Or should we play in a more consistant embouchre which is not tuned anywhere near the position of a bend and let the reed naturally go to the frequency it wants to go?
Thanks
Jeremy
PS... I'll be sending my first recording in very soon...
Neat, I've had a couple days more practice and I believe I totally get it now. I just needed to try out your tip of whistling with the tongue in the bottom of the mouth, combined with reading Tip of the Day stuff about tuning the mouth. In that one you said that beginner players should tune the mouth much lower than the reed, because it would sound good for any note, but advanced players would tune the mouth to the pitch of the reed being played.
So then in my practice of Walk With Me I was trying out the technique of 'whistling' while tongue blocking and playing the song, and I noticed it made all the notes sound better, and fixed all my low note issues.
So I started to wonder if I was actually beginning to learn how to bend automatically through my search for better tone... and I was! By making sure I really moved my mouth like I was whistling I could move the pitch in all the holes.
That's when I took a sneak peak at the first bending lesson (not techinically part of LOA level 1...). I found that I didn't need to follow the videos on articulating 'e' 'oh' 'aww'. In fact, when I tried following the videos I ended of doing a bunch of stuff that didn't seem to work for me. But using the 'whistling' trick, after a bit of experimentation I could find ALL of the draw bends. I know it will take some time to go to them reliably without starting up higher and bending it down, and I'll need to start checking my pitch.
I think I also need a bit more practice with tongue switching, since sometimes I struggle to get the right tuning for the 1 hole and bend while using the reverse tongue position.
And now I see why there's no 2 draw in Walk With Me, and why it comes in for Feeling For the Blues. Still, I'm in no rush to practice Feeling since I'll want to get through levels 1 and 2 first.
Overall, I couldn't be more thrilled about how much better my sound is since this stuff fell into place. And I guess that lifelong whistling really has paid dividends!
And while you're here, just a quick question: My A harp has a slight 'buzz' all over the low end of the harmonica, but particularly the 3 blow . It's not nearly as bad on my G harp, and my C harp has no 'buzz'. Is there something I can do better while playing or is it just those harps?
(A and G are Blues Harp MS with a wooden comb, C is Blues Bender with a plastic comb)
Fantastic, thanks so much for sharing. It would be rare to have reed alignment issues with multiple holes, but it sound like it may be the case. Take your coverplates off and look at the alignment of those blow reeds. If they look cockeyed to the left or right, the reed may be hitting the reed slot. Take a look at Kinya's "Harp Tech" series for this. Or... ignore it for now... don't let it bother you :-)... and then play a different harp when playing for someone.
Morning Jeremy. I've had whistler students, but you're the first to think about the relationship of tuning the mouth to the note you're playing. Well done! You're correct, we do tune our mouths to the pitches we play. This allows for quick bending (the slightest movement of the tongue starts the bend) and vibrato (the throat tremolo effects the relaxed tongue and throat to move, and this movement creates the bending associated with vibrato).
Try whistling with the tip of your tongue touching your lower set of teeth, behind the front set of teeth. This will mimic the position of the front of your tongue while playing the harmonica. You may want to play a note on the harmonica that's giving you a particular challenge, then take the harmonica out and try matching the pitch while whistling (again, with your tongue touching your lower set of teeth). Then placing the harmonica back in your mouth and giving it a try.
You are correct that you want to tune your mouth to the pitch, any lower in pitch will create a bend and any higher will give you thin tone.
Let me know how this goes for you.