So I got an F harp in order to play 'If You Wanna Get to Heaven' by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. A major part of the rhythmic pattern involves repeatedly bending the 3-draw.
From the first time I did the bend, I got a buzzy unpleasant feeling in my nasal sinuses, on either side of the bridge of my nose. I kept up the bending for a few minutes trying to get some kind of control over the airstream, in order to avoid the feeling. Slowing it down a bit helped a little but not completely. Now I've got a bit of a headache. Nothing major, but it's weird.
I have not experienced this with any of my other harps. . . the highest pitched ones I had ever played before was my D harp.
Has anyone ever experienced this with certain pitches? Is there a way to work through it? Makes me not want to play this harp anymore.
Yep - had the same thing, only when bending, but I have it on a number of different harps on a number of different bends. I just play through the pain ;-). I am sure what is happening is that your (our) sinus cavities are resonant at certain frequencies. When we hit those particular notes, the sound waves bouncing around in the empty parts of our heads reinforce the original vibrations. I have found that on some of these pain-producing notes, when I bend to that particular note, the sound gets much louder as well. I expect it is because of the same thing - resonance reenforces the original vibration.
Here is a video of what is going on inside your nose...
I agree with TheATL. The resonance frequency range of the sinuses appears to be between 1 and 2 KHz (this is what I found: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1545314). The 3-draw bend on the F harp is an Eb, around 1.245 KHz. The fact that TheATL also experiences the same sensation with different bends on different harps would also make sense under this hypothesis (the 1 - 2 KHz frequency range pretty much encompasses a B to B octave).
@lynn: are you in an area with high pollen counts at the moment? Hitherto undiagnosed (or unrecognized) minor (or major!) allergies might also be sensitizing you at this time of year.
I get that feeling when I sing notes within a certain pitch. My vocal teacher explained that the "mask" or the bones of your face help resonate the sounds and that by using different muscles in your face, you can influence the timbre.
Whatever.
The practical use for this is that if I grimace when singing those notes, the resonance does change and I can avoid that awful feeling behind my nose and in my upper teeth.
Maybe you can grimace when bending the 3 draw on an F harp?
hey @lynn- it might be, referring to @yonderwall's question, that your sinuses are actually kind of subcllinically inflamed and the resonant ferquencies are irritating them. if you are more holistically bent, try the netti pot with a little salt in the solution to irrigate and soothe the sinuses, or waterpic has a sinus attachment... or you could spray with a nasal saline or even a decongestant like vicks or afrin just once to decongest your sinuses and see if the high F bend still tweaks them. other answer is to buy a low F seydel makes one which is an awesome key!! let me know if you do any of this stuff and it helps...
Hi little onion (cute name), thanks for the suggestions. I've been using a neti pot on and off for many years, usually during flu season. What you say makes sense though about the inflammation, never thought of that, will give it a try. I actually do have a Seydel in low F but not digging it too much. Gorgeous sound, but the coverplates have a sharp little edges that scrape and irritate my lips . . .almost to the point of blood. So I'm looking around for another low keyed harp (Lee Oskar, Hohner Thunderbird).
try sending it to greg jones who works on seydel's. he is in texas. let me know if you can't find his contact info. he is here on the forum a lot too. he is a good guy, a master craftsman, and not too much monsy. the edge does not sound acceptable. thanks re my name- my name comes from the zuni indian people when they adopted me (long ago)- was one of the names they gave me... long story but i guess they were impressed by teh fact that i liked to sit and eat their little onions with them in the morning dipped in locally harvested zuni salt. anyway it's stuck and hundreds of folks there know me by the zuni word for little onion. thay also dig blues harp too although most of the kids' tastes run too far into metal rock.
I think that's just the way the Seydels are made cause I have the same problem with both my Seydels (low C, low F), maybe I am playing them wrong I dunno. I don't have this problem on my Special 20s. So far those two brands are the only harps I've tried. I'll look into that guy.
