Re: [Harp-L] Dental devices and the warm hand exercise

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

They may be wrong.

Playing some wind instruments creates a lot of back pressure as you try to force air past the resistance of  a stiff cane reed or small hole in a metal mouthpiece.

Playing the harmonica is completely different. You pass air over a thin, pliant reed that requires no more breath force than breathing on your glasses to unfog them.

Here's what you tell the dental people. Ask them to try this themselves.

I call this the warm hand exercise and I use it in my teaching.


Place the palm of your hand facing your mouth from about an inch away.

Now breathe on your hand gently, so that you feel the warmth of your breath but not the wind - you can't feel the force of the moving air, only the warmth that it delivers.

That's all you need to activate a harmonica reed - ven when playing an overblow. The same is true for inhaled notes (which they may not even know about).

Once they have experienced the warm hand, ask them to reconsider their stand on this matter.

Winslow

 
Winslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School


________________________________
 From: michael hines <otisharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 2:12 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] (no subject)
 

I am soon to receive a full upper plate. Both my dentist and the oral surgeon have told me that I will not be able to play harp anymore because the physical act of blowing will cause air flow under the plate and cause it to dislodge. Has anyone else dealt with this issue? This is rather disheartening. 
                                                                          Thanks, Mike