Re: Practice exercises...?




On Mon, 27 Sep 1993, Chris Pierce wrote:

> <gmayhew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> >Any questions?
>
> OH YEA!
>
> To be blunt, my bending sucks!  I have a really hard time bending the
> 3 draw at all, much less to more than one level.  Whenever I try to do
> a bend the 3 draw a full step it just sounds like the half step bend.
>
> Any suggestions for improving technique on bending (I know this is an
> old topic, but I do NOT have the resources to buy books and tapes, so
> any help you can give will be appreciated).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chris

When I was learning to bend the 3 draw I used a technique I learned in a book.
While drawing on the 3 begin to tilt the back of the harp up slowly, first
at around 45degrees and then make the angle even steeper, you'll have to
draw harder as the angle gets steeper. If you can already bend it one
level this may not be helpful to you though. What it did for me was it
gave me a feel for bending the 3 draw. Then I worked on it till I no
longer had to tilt the harmonica. One other thing that always helps me
with my bending on my marine bands and blues harps (wood interior harps)
is to soak them a few minutes before I play. It doesn't seem to decrease
the life of my harps (atleast in my experience) and makes the reeds feel
looser and more sensitive.
	Again, this may be old news to many but for those who don't know I
can only say it helped me a great deal. One other resource ofcourse, one
I've used often, is finding a library in the area that has some good
harmonica books that you can take out for several weeks.
	Hope some of this was of help!

						-Todd






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