Hi! My name is Mike, and I am currently taking the Beginner to Boss course. I am on Module 3 Single Notes, Lesson 8. I am learning so much from this course!
My topic concerns how I hold my harmonica in order to isolate a single note. I learned the technique of holding the harmonica at an angle, and I have been very happy so far with my results. It took some practice and patience, but I can keep up with Luke on the fast session of Low Rider now.
However, I stumbled upon a YouTube video Luke did on helping beginners learn how to isolate notes, and Luke tilts the harmonica up. When I learned to tilt, I was tilting the harmonica down, and I can isolate notes well. My concern is if my technique of tilting the harmonica down will inhibit my ability or growth at some point? Is there something that I may have trouble doing in the future, or is it OK to tilt the harmonica down?
@cochranmr - Sorry I missed this! 3 weeks later, how is it going for ya? Is it still feeling like you have to tilt the harmonica down in order to successfully isolate notes?
This is my second attempt to learn the harmonica. The first attempt was with an online/cd based course. I started off with trying to isolate notes, but you’re method of basically getting us comfortable and quickly learning tunes we know and like is much better!
I can isolate notes cleaner and with good tone if I have the harmonica tilted slightly down versus when I don’t. I really don’t have anything against the tilt since it works well for me, but I know sometimes bad habits can be hard to correct. My concern is if using this tilt to get the cleaner single note will be something that comes back to haunt me…
In short, nope play how you feel comfortable, when I play the bloody thing is almost at a 45 degree angle especially when I’m tongue blocking, I’ve no idea why I do this, if I were to break it down I’d probably say it gives me the tone I want. It’s just a habit I got into many people have asked me over the years why I do it at first I really didn’t know I was doing it until it was pointed out to me. As long as your comfortable and getting the sound you want I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. Just watch a Paul Butterfield vid or a Sonny boy Williamson and watch some of the weird stuff they did with harps. I’ve not done @Luke’s course but I’ve heard him play on YouTube and I can definitely say you’re in very good hands. I wish this had been around 30 years ago when I started playing it would have saved me a ton of headaches!!
You may run into issues tilting down. Mainly, condensation getting trapped inside the air chamber.
When the harp is tilted up, any moisture generated would run down the sides of the chamber and back towards your lips. It has a chance to leave the harp when you pause playing or simply remove the harp from your lips.
Tilted down, it would simply pool at the back of the chamber. You could still tap it out, but that might not always be practical.
Yes I play with my head up, but I hold the harp at a strange angle as I’ve said never get much moisture but I do collect moisture in the bottom of my mouth a trick I learned off Howard Levy as he does this too and then I take a sip of something to clear it. I’ve been doing that since I was solely puckering, but I’ve found it works well tongue blocking too. If I looked down when I had this pool in my mouth yes my harp would be washed out.