Now check out our Beef Up Your Bends series (see the mini-menu on the right of the screen). You can find it on Amazon and eBay. Throw away your crutches as soon as possible and learn to play each one cleanly. Where two harmonica reeds equate to two white keys on the piano keyboard, if there are one or more other keys separating them you’ll find the equivalent bend, or bends, in the harmonica. There are two bends on the 2 draw, the semitone and the whole tone. As for the bending of the notes with tongue blocking, everything I explained above still applies, with the only difference being that the tongue remains on the surface of the harmonica holes and you only move its back. Which reed bends when we play a draw bend? Two reeds with the same pitches of C and D, sharing the same channel in a harmonica, would facilitate the same semitone bend of Db/C#. While you draw, try to listen to the note you want to produce in your mind, then pull your tongue slowly toward the throat, almost as if you wanted to swallow it. Accurate direct bending marks the difference between those who think they can bend, and those who know they can. In contrast, if our two reeds were B and C, or E and F, we wouldn’t find a bend as there is no key between these two keys on the piano. This technique is the beginner’s dream, and one of the most discussed topics in the study of harmonica. Replace the cover plates by pinching the cover plate tabs (saves time from having to install the fasteners) and test your work. To distance the harmonica from the oral cavity, use your lips, or tongue if you’re doing tongue blocking. Unless we can already play individual notes cleanly and with tone, we’re on a hiding to nothing with reed bending. To turn that nice clear Draw 4 into a bent note, do this: As you play Draw 4, use your tongue to form the “eee” sound (the note will start to sounder brighter when you place your tongue in the “eee” position). Speaking technically, bending is a downward change in pitch. You may find it helps to trigger direct bends by placing your tongue behind your teeth and sounding a short reversed ‘tuh’ to get things started. But here’s the surprise – while the sensation of bending feels like we are dragging the higher reed down with our breath, the truth is the exact opposite. Playing just the unbended notes, this position gives the mixolydian scale between 2 draw and 6 blow. Countless intermediate students have arrived at Harp Surgery lessons or workshops believing they can already bend. Or is it possible that my 3 draw … In holes one to six, the higher notes are the draw notes, so we encounter draw bends. In this regard, if you want to improve bending once you get the new pitches, you can do so using my online school bending course. Knowledge is power. When we blow or draw the higher reed normally, it vibrates in pitch. Looking at the draw bends, notice that a single extra note is available from holes 1, 4 and 6. 1 in 1, 2 in 2, 3 in 3, 1 in 4, 0 in 5 and 1 in 6, How to bend a note on Harmonica? Bends are a distinctive part of the blues sound. The technique involved is almost exactly the same as changing the pitch of a note when you whistle. And it feels good! 3 Draw Bend. Now hold this contact point and pull the ‘K spot’ backwards as you breathe in through pursed lips. There are also some specific exercises that can be done to improve the use of the tongue when playing harmonica, and I’ll be talking about this in a future lesson. How bends happen For example, the tablature for the diatonic harmonica (or blues harmonica) indicates the cell number that we have to play (between cells 1 and 10) and if we have to blow this cell, draw it (inhale it) or bend it. Basically, the harmonica is further forward, whereas to bend wider, the harmonica is further back toward the mouth. But that hole just seems significantly harder to bend down than holes 1, 2, and 4. • For half-tone bending, you can push the harmonica a little forward with the lips. • The more you work at the back of the oral cavity, toward the throat, the more you get bending of low notes – for example, on hole 3, the bending of 1 and a half-tones. On a diatonic harmonica, hole 1-6 can draw bend, and hole 7-10 can blow bend. Here’s the chromatic sequence starting from A: A Bb B C C# D Eb E F F# G Ab A. Bending Notes on the Draw Familiarize yourself with holes you can bend on the draw. This the case for holes 1 and 4 on a C major harmonica. The ‘H’ spot is the control area you’ll be transferring everything towards at the back of your vocal tract. Craigslist has listings for harmonica in musical instruments in the Dayton / Springfield area. Your passport to heaven Or better still, record yourself and listen back. Finally, try whispering ‘hello Harry, how high have you hopped?’ or make a fake laugh ‘ha ha ha ha’. The airflow across the higher reed slows and the lower reed starts to vibrate in sympathy. Look at this one! For example, you can’t reach a C# on a C diatonic harmonica … Let’s put that another way. The 3 draw bend is the biggest of bends going down one and a half tones (3 semi-tones), that means that you can get a total of 4 notes out of the 3 draw hole! On holes 1 and 6, you can draw bend just one half step below the normal draw note of the hole, whereas on hole 3 you can draw bend three notes in half-step increments below that hole’s normal draw … Overbending (red squares) fills in the remainder. This skill makes our instrument unique and we need to understand how, why and where bends occur before we start to experiment. Welcome to today’s harmonica lesson, where I’ll be teaching you how to bend the draw notes. But the hole 3 draw bends are killing me. In simple terms, whether drawing or blowing, regular bends move from the higher note to the lower note. The bend we want to get today is the second one – the whole tone bend as this is the one we use most in 2nd position blues playing. Bending 4-Draw: This Note Wails! However, bending the 3 draw allows the player to play a minor third (or a blue third), allowing a player to use a C harmonica … In hole three, the blow note is a G and the draw note is a B, so there are three semitones between (Bb, A and Ab) and correspondingly three draw bends. Don't you own a harmonica yet? We know that without any bending at all, we can produce 19 different notes on the 10 hole diatonic harmonica. Overbending (red squares) fills in the remainder. Once you learn how to bend one hole, it is only a matter of time before you learn how to bend all the holes of the harmonica. You’ll be glad you did. The reason is the greater difference between the two hole blow and the two hole draw notes, compared to most other holes (e.g. In time you will also learn to economise your effort, getting more bend for your pound per square inch (psi). Craigslist has listings for musical instruments in the Ann Arbor, MI area. holes 1, 4, 5,6). It takes two reeds to bend a note. And fair play; bending is what gives the diatonic harmonica it’s signature sound. One final reminder, the phenomenon known as reed bending, is a symbiotic relationship with both the blow and draw reeds (separated by at least one half step), so work in pairs; first the #2 Blow, then #2 … In short: 1 in 1, 2 in 2, 3 in 3, 1 in 4, 0 in 5 and 1 in 6. Don’t pull too far back. With fluent use of the 12 regular bends (blue squares) and 7 over bends (red squares), it is possible to produce 38 new notes on the diatonic harmonica, simultaneously turning it into a fully chromatic instrument. It’ll also save embarrassment on the bandstand. Where are they all? More often than not the two draw bend can be elusive and the three draw bend can be hard work. All 38 notes are the chromatic scale over more than three octaves. After hours of perseverance, we’re punching the air and yelling ‘woohoo’ like Homer Simpson. By bending the notes of a diatonic harmonica, you can sound notes in half-step increments below the normal blow or draw note. Why bends happen Do be thorough. There are many types; we use a SEIKO Chromatic Tuner Model SAT1100 that uses two AAA batteries. In our bid to master the art of draw bending, first it’s important to quantify the task in hand. We want to start a band too. 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