Re: [Harp-L] Blisters and sore tongue from playing

[JohnnieHarp <johnnieharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Graham,

Years ago I had the same problem. Found it was directly due to the
sharp edges on the combs of marine bands, blues harps and the like. As
DP (Dave Payne) mentioned, sealing and smoothing helps significantly.

My ultimate salvation was discovering Special 20s with their plastic
comb and rounded corners. No more tongue blisters. Probably would have
stuck with them if they had full length cover plates but found that on
low notes, I was always dealing with the cover plate ends, as a right
side tongue blocker. Tried various ways to add extenions to the cover
plates with limited success.

Currently I use Golden Melodies that have the protruding reed plates
shaved back. They have full length cover plates however I do find that
they are harder to use with a pucker embosure, given the wide, flat
shape of the mouth contact area and my facial profile and lip anatomy.
A good solution is the Suzuki Bluesmaster which is similar in shape
and design to a Special 20 but with full length cover plates. They
play very nicely out of the box. Plus they haven't had the recent
significant price increases that Hohner's have had.

One thing I would strongly recommend, given that you're keen on
learning and budgeting for equipment acquisition, is to get one
customized harmonica asap. Probably one in the key of A would be the
best as it is often used in blues music and has a good range of notes
to learn on.

The reason I say you just need one intially is that there is software
available (such as Best Practice freeware; google it) that will play
mp3 format music and allow you to change the pitch to suit the harp
you have rather than having to have multiple harps to suit the music;
for learning purposes.

In the past I spent a lot of frustration-laced time trying to make
stock harps do what ultimately was easy to do on a customized harp.
Bluesmasters are nice and good value too but will work even better
when embossed.

To try and objectively test how much of a difference customization
makes, I tested three identical key of A Bluesmasters, using my
non-playing 8 year old. One had been embossed and minimally regapped
(gapping good on all of them out of the box). All three looked and
played identically out of the box, pre-customization.

I told her that I had worked on one of them and to see if she could
tell me which one. She played in and out for a couple of seconds on
each and was immediately able to tell the difference stating that the
customized one worked better.

Also, if you wish to record yourself as you practice, you can use
Audacity freeware to import an mp3, adjust the pitch where it needs to
be, record your additional track then return the whole thing to the
original pitch so that track sounds normal but with your harmonica
work, pitch adjusted, as well. Various effects can be applied to your
track including a delay feature which is commonly used when playing
live. So you can create a recording as if you were playing through an
amp with effects.

I use a $10 Labtec Verse 514 pc microphone without the base plate
stand removed. It works amazingly well and is really easy to hold due
to its small diameter (half an inch or slightly less).

Hope this helps.