Wow your second easiest was -3. That’s been the toughest for me. -1 and -4 came fairly easy. Then I finally was able to get -2 but the the -3 has been a nightmare. Definitely the hardest for me. I’m 16 months in now and still struggling with it. About 5 months in a switched to tongue blocking so that kind of threw another wrench into things. It’s funny how we’re all different in what comes easier or harder for us individually. I’m really enjoying it. I finally learned buying a different harp wasn’t going to make me better but only practice would! We live and learn I guess. Hope things and your playing are going well! Take care bud! 
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Hi all. I’m on module 3 of JP’s blues course and doing the 4 draw stuff.
I find it interesting. My -1 bend sound like snoring and i haven’t got there yet. My -2 and -3 bend I can do full tone (bends). In fact on -2 I find a half step bend hard to pitch but a full tone fine.
The -3 similar. Half step (semitone) is hard to tune but full step is fine.
On the -4 JP talks about (on a C harp) bending half steps to Db but actually the sound he’s getting is a full step bend. He bends to a C but talks about it being Db.
I can do a half step bend happily, but i can’t do a full step -4 bend. Is that just my tongue shape, the harmonica itself or something else?
Does 4 draw even play both half and full step bends?
Thanks all. I’m looking forward to learning -1 bend next!
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I did the opposite basically because I had no one to show me any different, I was lucky as I pretty much ( after killing a few Marine bands) got all the bends, it was the blow bends that I actually struggled with for quite some time, I was after that Jimmy Reed thing getting the embrochre to get those notes to do what I was trying to do I found incredibly difficult this was before I learned how to gap the reeds too.
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Despite the most recommended bend to start with being the 4 draw, I had trouble with it and the 6 draw when I first learned to bend notes. My first bend was the 2 draw whole step, followed by 1 and 3 draw with their bends. But I got bends a lot quicker than most beginners, only getting down with them for only two weeks into playing. Before I started playing the harmonica, I’d look up tutorials on how to do certain techniques in order to get the movements right before I started learning. Which was probably why I progessed a lot quicker than most.
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I was somewhat intimidated by all the discussion on bending when I got my first harp. Too much pressure was arresting me as I was moving through the sweet spot. I hear you comment about saying KA when I felt the rush of air and then it activated. Now its learning the hard part, playing them as they should be consistently. The 1 through 4 all came about the same time. Another thing that helped was your analogy of an airplane diving and the sound of increasing air speed. It took about 6 months to ease off the pressure but hitting KA when I heard and felt the air rushing because of the press pressure differential was the key. Once I heard it and hit KA things fell into place.
Its one thing to activate a bend but really being able to play them well enough to help your music sound better is another. Its this part that seems to be the real challenge.
In you B 2 B coarse it seemed to be the little things like the airplane analogy that really helped. Another example was when tongue blocking was the topic, dropping your jaw to narrow the spacing was a real help. Most of the rest is learned while the harp is in your mouth, at least for me. Getting the basics down without developing a fault is a time saver and will get a new player moving faster I/M/O.
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@david7 YES! The -3’ is absolutely the hardest bend to play in tune and VERY few people do it well. VERY few people.
The -4 can only bend a half-step. The depth of bends is dictated by how far apart the blow and draw reeds are tuned. (That’s why the -5 only bends a 1/4-step, cuz it’s a half-step away from 5.)
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Luke
I get a 3 bend but hitting the first and second step quickly and correct on a consistent basis is a challenge. I get the first step easiest but still need many hours to improve. I do not bother with the third as it does not sound very good to me and I cannot recall seeing a tune with it. The slightest movement that is wrong seems to throw things off track. When you play the first and second do you use something like a Kah for the first and Kee for the second ?
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Bending does seem to have great mystique to it.
My biggest breakthrough to get the deepest bends, which were previously unreachable, was when I started to draw as if sucking a thick milk shake through a straw. The thicker the shake, the deeper the draw 
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@scott4 I used to think in terms of different vowel shapes for the different bends of the -3, there’s even a video on my old Funkyharp YouTube channel of me teaching it that way:
But now I try to think about more like moving the “Kk” spot more forward backward rather than vowels, because vowel changes the tone. Importantly, totally UNBENT, we can play “ee” or “uh” and “uh” is a much warmer rounder tone. That’s why I’m trying to think more in terms of the where tongue meets the roof of the mouth going forward and back rather than vowel shapes.
BUT - at the beginning. WHATEVER gets you the differentiation in the -3 bends is GOOD!! GO WITH IT! (And later you can tweak as necessary.)
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Been getting better with bending once I figured out that it was tongue that was the source of being able to manipulate a reed with now opening and pulling back to get down further.
Biggest issue I’m trying to solve now is how to say half step bend on 3, draw 3, half step again on 3 but then heading into 4 letting GO of the bend while heading down to draw again on 2. It’s a bit frustrating as I can sit on a hole, hit at least some sort of drop up to 5, but trying to get that smooth transition so I can actually riff while chugging has me all tied up.
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Welcome to the world of seemingly impossible things to do! 
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@webmetalreese yep. Ain’t nothing to it but to do it! And do it…and do it…and do it…and do it…and do it…
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Right now I can bend a note but making it sound right is another thing. If I was a seasoned player and a new person wanted to know how to get their first one I would ask them if they could whistle drawing air in. It is exactly the same thing I do when activating a bend as my tongue moves into the correct spot. If you can and know what a dove sounds like or a quail give it a try. I did and realized I was doing what I needed to do and not going through the bend. Big difference is I learned to whistle at a very young age and it came easy. Young muscles are easier to train than old ones. Had I tried this when my harp journey started bending would have been something that would come quicker. If I see you at SPAH I’ll have my good harps and replicate a dove and you can give it a try. The tongue movements are identical. Its just an analogy that may help some new B T B players get their first bend quicker and bending less intimidating.
I have come to the conclusion that bending is like anything else that takes skill. Get your first and after much practice actually augment a song with bends. Like climbing a latter the first step is a start but no one ever gets to the top with successive steps. I learn by doing and books are of little to no help. For me its all about practice and every tune I pick to learn involves something I need to improve on. My latest endeavor is El Pasa Condor, which is about 60% draw notes, many are on the right side of the harp. This defeated the dreaded -8 and -9. Now its all about listening to it and playing it as it is written.
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I too have found many similarities between whistling and the harp, particularly when it comes to bending and expression. A piano can reproduce a sound with the touch of a finger, but I don’t think it comes close in expression which can be done whistling, or the harp.
Like whistling, there are many ways to bend the harmonica, but once you got it, and a sound other than something sounding like a dead frog is amazing!
Getting bends consistent and accurate is another story, I’m still working on.
Trick seems to have to do with airflow and where it’s concentrated.
Heep harping!
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I can get distinctive bends in draw 1-4 by changing the angle between harp and mouth (seemingly causing a different airflow direction) rather than, as prescribed, by changing the tongue position.
Is this wrong? Something else?
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If it sounds good to you, then it’s all good my harping friend!
You actually hit the nail right on the head. It’s all about airflow. Very similar to when we whistle or sing. Anything that reduces or modifies that airflow can cause bends.
A much easier way, in my opinion, is to pretend you are sucking a shake through a straw. The thicker the shake the deeper the bend. Thin shake, light bend.
But anything that works is game on 
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just FYI check out my thread where I went through the whole process of learning to bend, then realizing I didn’t “really” bend, then finally learnt to bend and improved it a bit
I feel like I’m ever going to bend on my Harmonica. I’ve watched every video on YouTube and bought a LOT OF HARMONICAS but still nothing with the exception of a 1 hole draw. I can kinda bend it. But in the other holes - forgeddaboutit! Even though I m not on the bending portion of the BtoB course I’ve been plugging away a few minutes a day in attempting to get a handle on this technique BEFORE we get to the bending portion of the course. I’m hoping for an EUREKIA moment. Feeling frustrated in Sonoma County California.
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I felt the same way.
I assume you’ve perused the “bending - I can do it but” thread ( link above)
And I also assume you end your sessions with a really tired/tense jaw.
it’s not about “doing what you are already doing… but harder” - try to bend the “wrong way” to what you are currently trying.
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Hey Yuri, I assume “Fellow Brothers of the Harp” will think I’m just whining…And I probably am. But dang! It looks so darn easy on YouTube - that is until I try it! I have the Bend it Better & Harp Ninja apps on my phone and every day I see that stinkin’ note barely moving when I practice. I’ve tried making the Kee, Koo, Eee, Kay and the Kah articulations and tried inverse whistling untill I’m blue in the face. That being said I’m not giving up. I figure it’s going to come together at some point.
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