Michael, if YouTube harmonica technique videos and specifically your harmonica videos had been around when I was learning the basics of playing diatonic last century, I would have saved years of uninformed experimentation spent figuring out bending and high note blow bends. There were no teachers in my area and the only book was Tony Glover's book.
In the '90s I spoke with a couple more advanced local players who referred me to listening to CDs, but who didn't teach. On the plus side, figuring things out my way over decades helped me develop my own approach. On the minus side, it took forever and left gaps in my range of techniques and knowledge of theory.
If Adam, Ronnie, and you had been putting info out there on YouTube for free back when I was learning basics (pre-internet), I could have found my way from chromatic to diatonic much more quickly.
The Harmonica Meatball approach of incremental steps in small portions is inspired. I hope that those just learning high blow bends find your videos. It will save a lot of time and frustration for the players, and save the ears of significant others from prolonged exposure to high pitched failed attempts. My wife would probably not be nearly as annoyed by harmonica had I learned high blow bends in a much shorter time. ----------
Every harp player of a certain age can tell the story of asking a pro harp player how to do something and being told to figure it out for yourself.
By the time I started Jon Gindick's book was out there and Steve Baker's was hard to find but available.
I think harp players were tight lipped (pun intended) in an effort to protect their gig. There are only so many bands willing to hire a harp player. As time went on we realized we got paid more for lessons than for gigging and became free with our info.
I am only partially joking. I am sure everyone here knows I love harmonica and would talk your ear off for free if we met by chance. When I give a lesson, I am not getting paid for the information, I'm getting paid for my time.
I end up cutting off the sound when I try that. I'll keep working on it though.
It's interesting though, because on the blow bends I do a weird thing (some other notes too). I've described in a post before and got a lot of people telling me I wasn't doing it the way I was describing. (Finally someone else was able to replicate it.) I am doing a U thing, but it's farther back in my mouth. The corners of my tongue are on my top teeth. (From just behind my cuspids back). When I'm playing faster licks I'm actually aiming at a single hole by angling the harmonica left or right, but with several holes 'open' to my mouth. Seems to save wear and tear on my lips, but aside from one person being able to replicate it for all I know I'm the only person on the planet who does it.
