I have been improving my bending for a few weeks now and am able to consistently do it when practicing scales. It is tougher when the notes are thrown into a song, which is what I am practicing. My problem is that I get lip fatigue after a half an hour or so, and I have to quit. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere so I am starting to think that I am doing something wrong. Is this normal and what can I do to help it?
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Hello @theodoreowens ,
oh yes, that can be normal and was already a topic in the forum before.
You have to remember that when you play the harp, your body uses structures that were previously unknown to it and probably hardly needed, especially in the face, neck and breathing muscles. These have to be trained first, like with a new sport.
Make sure you stay relaxed and relaxed! Especially when learning to bend, you tense up, right up to your rib area, because you really want to hit the right note.
Practice for shorter periods of time, take longer breaks, make grimaces with your face to relax. It gets better with patience and perseverance! Sometimes you can achieve more with less 
.
Regards Astrid 
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@theodoreowens CONGRATS on your bending progress!! NO, you’re not doing anything wrong. You’re doing something RIGHT! You’re getting your chops in shape! 
What will help you build up is trying to build more shorter routines into your day if possible. Harmonica is portable so we have advantage (3m in the bathroom, 5m in the car, 5m on a walk, etc.)
Set a timer for 3-5m and just focus on something with bends like
-4’ -4 -5 (repeat)
-4 -4’ -3’ (repeat)
-1’ -1 -2" (repeat)
Or whatever you want. Whatever you ALREADY ARE working on is perfect. The idea is just if it’s 20 notes, take a SHORT excerpt, 3-5 notes where you’re playing that bend a lot more frequently (with a metronome, ideally.)
It’s exactly like any other form of working out. The more often you can do it, the more reps you can get in per day, the faster you’re gonna grow.
Rock on! 
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