You’ll get it! ![]()
People have different levels of natural ability. The mental aspect of sports or playing a harp is a big factor. BUT not as big as pulling your boots back up and going for the next ride. Persistence is the factor that separates the players and what to be. The only people that do not make mistakes are those that never do anything. Even the very best do and have their bad days. It only stops when your ticker does.
After a year of 10 minutes of blow bend practice every morning, I finally start to be able to pretty constantly do all draw & blow bends on all my harmonicas from G to F (I don’t have a F#). Although some +10’ and +10’’ are still sometimes challenging with parasite airflow or “hissing” (not sure how to name it) noise. And placing a -3’’, -3’’’, +10’ or +10’’ in the middle of a song, on beat and on tune will be a different story.
Next challenge I have been avoiding so far is tongue blocking bends.
See you in a year?
Good job @Mugen yeah that 10’ takes a lot of finesse and is hard to hit well in afast passage for sure!
I still don’t use tongue-blocking on blow bends, lol. One day! (But maybe not in a year.
)
@Luke I was talking about working on doing draw bends while tongue blocking… One step at a time
Currently I can practice (not in a song) draw bends while tongue blocking on a G harp only up to the -4’. And even the -3’ is hard, going directly to -3” instead…
I feel you @Mugen it’s a slog - but it’s worth it!!! Keep up the good work. I’m right there with you.
First day with my Special 20. First time with the bending tool. Im able to bend the -1, and its fairly “easy” for me, but I cant do anything anywhere else. Thoughts??
This just in……got the -4 to bend!! Much tougher for me but tilting the harp helped alot! Thanks Luke!!
@BigPapa I’m not the best person to be guiding you, but us Papas need to look after each other. I think I also got -1’ first then -4’. The remainder will come to you in time. Some advice given to me was to hold the bends that I can do, for as long as possible to strengthen the muscles that are needed. That was helpful to me.
awesome man, keep at it! Also I found that depending on the hole, the more “abrupt/quick” one has to be with the breath to get it to bend - since you already got two, the rest will come!
I watched Harmonica bending for beginners and I’m now following the Will Wilde free three week beginners course that includes bends.
Do, or do not. There is no try
Ciao
Stefano ![]()
P.S.: Besides being an amazing artist Will Wilde is also a great teacher.
I know this reply is around 2 years late but I think I know what you are talking about. I just got my first bend this week and it felt like the bones in my head were reverberating at the same frequency as the bend. If that makes any sense at all.
Wouldnt it be amazing if someone actually made an x-ray video of bends been done on a harp. Be interesting to see in real time what the tongue is doing.
Jonah Fox has a video with an MRI like that.
Ciao
Stefano
Bending IMO is about articulation using kee koo, Tee too, or ee oo for a softer bend. If you’re off the mind that it’s your tongue then try this out. Bend the tip of your tongue down the middle and back of your tongue will raise up automatically. This should bend the note. Hope this helps.
Cheers Dai, I will try those techniques out later, also read on here somewhere about pushing your lower jaw foward. Will let you know how I get on. Ian
I have determined it is much easier to bend a note if my harps are clean and warmed up to breath temperature. I am now tying to be able to hit a bend consistently and quickly, hold hit and then release quickly. I strongly suspect I have hit the tougher road to becoming good at bending. I do feel its one thing to hit a bend but another to consistently play them well.
When I started it was frustrating. Going through the sweet spot. A year later a quail was in my yard and I whistled back to hear it again. I realized that when I whistled inhaling and effectively bending down a whistled note my tongue was exactly where it is activating a bend. If you can try to whistle inhaling your jaw will drop and move back you can hear the air speed up. It is easy to move through the sweet spot while doing this but trying this at the get go may well help you hit your first bend much quicker. Less pressure is best.
I’m practicing my bends with this audio files: Bending Meditations ( target practice for draw bends) – Hot Rod Harmonicas
I think it’s easier if you got a sample to imitate.
Ciao
Stefano
Stefano
Thank you This may be exactly what I am looking for. I use a C A 2 tuner but it is somewhat limited. I will give it a try.
Regards
Scott
Scott