RE: [Harp-L] Why am I killing the 4-blow reed so quickly?

[Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow wrote:

<Howard Levy was not the first to show that the blow reed  
participates in draw bends. That was shown in a scientific paper by  
Robert Johnston ("Johno") published in Acoustics Australia. Dr. Hank  
Bahnson illustrated in video what Johno had already documented  
through experimentation, by using fiber optics to demonstrate this  
using Howard Levy as as a test subject.>

I'd like to point out that the fact that the opposing reed is  
actually the one which produces the bent note was documented (with  
diagrams to illustrate exactly what happens) for the first time in  
harmonica literature in the Harp Handbook, which I wrote in 1989.  
While the first edition was at the printers I met Robert Johnston at  
a harp workshop I gave in Melbourne. He confirmed my account of how  
it works and told me about his paper in Acoustics Australia, which I  
referred readers to in subsequent editions of the HHB. Bahnson &  
Antaki cite both Johno's paper and the HHB in their later work with  
Howard Levy on this subject.

I reckon the reason for the frequent reed breakage is that you're  
forcing the reed to bend. My experience is that opening reeds (bends,  
OBs) require no more air pressure than closing reeds. They do  
however, as Johno describes in detail in his paper, require an air  
column in the player's vocal tract which exactly corresponds to the  
wavelength of the pitch of the opening reed.

If you create the appropriate throat shape, you need use no force at  
all and the reed will open immediately. If you use an inappropriate  
throat shape, where the length of your air column doesn't really  
correspond to the wavelength of the note you're trying to play, you  
may well stress the reed. I only break opening reeds through playing  
too loudly on stage and have harps I've bent and overblown like crazy  
for literally years without reed breakage. Try creating the bend in  
your throat above the larynx and whatever you do, don't try to "suck"  
it out of the harp. Whistling the true pitch of the bent note is a  
help in getting the air column right. If you find the right throat  
shape you can bend at any volume level, from very quiet to very loud  
without damaging the reed,

Steve Baker
www.stevebaker.de
www.bluesculture.com