Re: [Harp-L] RE: blown out harps

["bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
The players that do that are 98% of the time, the very same players who use too much breath force to begin with, and often taught themselves, and in the newbie stages, trying to learn how to bend, they often played considerably harder in order to force the issue, which is the wrong thing to do. Along with that, they're the same people who bend all the way to the floor of the bend, often blowing out holes 5 draw, 4 draw, 4 blow on D, E, and F's, and 9 blow. To add further, they also are the same ones who have difficulty getting the 2 bends on 2 draw and 9 blow, and the three bends on 3 draw, and also can't hit a vibrato on the bends at all because there is no place for it go, as a vibrato is basically a ptch wavering about 1/4 step back and forth and when you bend to the floor, the note has no place to go.
Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/ 

---------- Original Message ----------
From: fjm <bad_hat@xxxxxxxx>
To: h-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: 
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] RE: blown out harps
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:46:41 -0700

> One factor is bending notes beyond where they comfortably exist - bending "through the natural floor" of the reed's capabilities. 


An apt observation.  You can play loudly and not break reeds.  Where 
I've run into trouble is live acoustic outdoors no amplification like on 
a street.  I overplay and miss the bends and in general lose pretty much 
all of the subtlety in my playing.  Personally I don't feel as if I have 
nearly as much control over my playing.  Mike Curtis used to say that 
getting the vocal tract resonance in line with the harmonica reeds was 
what mattered.  He used the analogy of impedance mismatch to describe 
it.  A reed has a natural frequency it will vibrate at.  There is also a 
range that it will vibrate in if coerced. I'm wondering if people who 
break reeds are using amplitude as a technique to achieve bent notes? 
For my money matching the resonance of your vocal tract to the note 
you're trying to sound is much more efficient.  fjm
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