Re: Bending hole 5

[Robert Johnston <JOHNO@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can't resist getting invloved here. I am "the guy who worked out
bending from the hpysics point of veiw" or what ever the statement
was is a previous post.

According to my theory you cant bend draw 5 very far and this is in
accord with experience. As for wrecking harps this is interesting. My
theory about how harps get damaged by bending (I have posted this
before) is that when you are playing at the bottom of a draw bend you
are actually vibrating the blow reed and because of the geometry
there is now limit to how far you can vibrate it. In normal playing
(closing reed) there is a limit to how hard you can blow because
eventualy the reed goes right into the slot. Therefore you can damage
the reed while bending.
Perhaps this is the answer - because the bent draw 5 is so close in
pitch to blow 5 you can inadvertantly spend a lot of time playing the
blow 5 reed as an opening reed and damage it.
Question. When you blow out a harp due to bending to hard which reed
is damaged - the blow reed or the draw reed (in the case of draw
bends)
johno