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Exhaling Through the Harmonica
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jnorem
569 posts
Sep 28, 2014
8:48 PM
There’s a great deal of inhaling required to play the harmonica, drawing in air until you need to exhale or you can’t inhale anymore, you must blow air out before you inhale again, ideally without interrupting the line you’re developing.

Do you exhale/blow out air through the harmonica, or do you turn away and blow it out into the air?

Just wondering.



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Call me J

Last Edited by jnorem on Sep 28, 2014 8:51 PM
slaphappy
34 posts
Sep 28, 2014
8:58 PM
I always overblow for exhales (that's a joke;)

I like Adam's "junkyard dog" blow chords where you dump air above and below the cover plates for blow chords. Still perfecting this although it sounds so simple.

Filisko talks a lot about the nose push but I don't have this completely dialed either. + there's the cough exhale right thing right before starting a phrase.. Good thread!

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Mirco
208 posts
Sep 28, 2014
9:09 PM
It seems Cotton generally exhales through the harp. He's not shy about it, either. Listen to "All Walks of Life" and that huge chord tone before his solo.
STME58
1109 posts
Sep 28, 2014
9:25 PM
There are a lot of ways to do this. I saw a Stone Fox Chase tutorial by Hakan where he talks about getting rid of air as you play the multi note chord.

I tend to breathe out through my nose if I am playing a quiet blow passage and I know I have a big draw coming up. Some say this impacts tone but I have not noticed it when I have tried to compare between allowing air to flow out the nose and not allowing it.

I will also sometimes allow air to spill over the cover plates and out the sides of my mouth. I can get some interesting tonal changes this way.

You could also do a Sonny Terry stile Whoop if it fits.(or you can make it fit!)

Last Edited by STME58 on Sep 28, 2014 9:26 PM
nacoran
8036 posts
Sep 29, 2014
12:03 AM
I do a little bit of all of the above, but most important, I think, is to know where you are in the music and plan the logistics of where you are going to need air and where you are going to have too much air and balance it out in advance as much as you can, and using the above techniques (plus circular breathing, which I can only get right occasionally) to manage your air supply.

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BronzeWailer
1469 posts
Sep 29, 2014
2:48 AM
I happily blow a bit of air through the harp as an extra chord from time to time.

Lee Sankey's Country harp series has some on little tips and tricks for exhaling among other good stuff.

BronzeWailer's YouTube
jbone
1776 posts
Sep 29, 2014
3:12 AM
Mostly I exhale through my nose unless I can fit a chord or octave in where it's needed.
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Philosofy
608 posts
Sep 29, 2014
4:51 AM
Learn to exhale through your nose while playing a blow note.
Martic
96 posts
Sep 29, 2014
9:25 AM
I exhale through both my nose and my mouth at the same time. It's an efficient way to exhale a big amount of air very quickly.

Just have to take care of not being ill: once I did it on a gig with my band after I caught a cold and spilled my hands with a beautiful shot of mucus.
jnorem
572 posts
Sep 29, 2014
7:19 PM
Yeah, I can't exhale through my nose for the fear of clearing my sinuses all over my harp and mic.
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jpmcbride
70 posts
Sep 29, 2014
7:51 PM
I play better if I don't think about breathing. It just happens naturally. Sometimes I learn a song and struggle with breathing on a particular passage and then as I play it more and more it just works itself out.

I find the same thing with my bass playing with regards to counting. If I try to count measures or beats to know when a change is coming, I tend to make mistakes. For me its best to just feel it.



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Jim McBride
www.bottleoblues.com
jnorem
574 posts
Sep 30, 2014
6:37 PM
But breathing naturally is not very applicable to playing the harmonica, or any wind or brass instrument. It requires unnatural breathing to play, say, the oboe, unnatural in the sense that the instrument requires you control your breath specifically for the playing of the instrument, a way of breathing that isn't required anywhere else and that you would never have encountered had you not taken up that instrument, no?





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Call me J

Last Edited by jnorem on Sep 30, 2014 6:46 PM
JJ Harper
21 posts
Sep 30, 2014
9:09 PM
In his cool instructional video about harp tips and tricks, Rick Estrin says to breathe through the harp.
Georgia Blues
128 posts
Oct 01, 2014
12:07 AM
I breath out though my nose and harp at the same time. I can move a lot of air this way without interrupting my line.
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