after replacing a couple of hundred reeds I noticed some interesting-to me- similarities.
Popular reeds to break are 4 & 5 draw. Lip pursers break more reeds than TBers and position players A & D harps are the first to go followed by C Bb and G harps.
Why?
Okay, A classical musician listened to a blues guys Little Walter records. The blues guy wanted to know what he thought. The classical guy said, "Well, one thing I can tell you is this guy (whomever he is) played very softly."
Being primarily a lip purser myself I can affirm that pursing gives a player a strongly directed flow of air. It can be very precise. They can also have extremely good articulation. Sooooo w/ a very directed air flow and good articulation you can snap a reed w/out drawing very hard. All you gotta due is articulate a bit too strongly.
So, if you want your harps to last longer you can do a few things. Learn 1st and 3rd positions to lighten the load on all the harps mentioned above.
Practice tounge blocking. You will be sloppy at first but at least get to the point where you can blow or draw (you don't need to bend) notes TBing.
Don't always play in 2nd position. 1st and 3rd position are actually kind of fun. After a while it seems in 3rd position you can do no wrong.
Ease up on your articulation. The tongue is a strong muscle. I've broken hundreds of harps. Now my only repairs are removing lint or cat/dog/human hair.
One of my carry harps is a C Golden Melody. I got the plates from Shredder. They were circa 1972 w/ big nails. I had 0080 screws and added a Hetrick comb. This C harp gets way more use than a gig harp. I use it every day. I also have a first run Crossover in A. I play songs like whammer jammer and the creeper creeps again on it. Two sure fire reed busting songs. I haven't bought a new harp in years.
Just some thoughts. Articulation misused is just as bad as drawing too hard on a bend.
If you play amplified let the mic and amp due the work. I remember reading an interview in Living Blues Magazine and that's what little Walter advised.
Have a good day, MP. ---------- I'm out of the Biz for a while till I get over my burnout. You can try HarveyHarp or arzajac, or just look the page nacoran put together under Forum Search. .
Articulating too hard is just another way of playing too hard - using more breath force than the reed can dissipate through normal vibration. In the case of articulating too hard, you're just doing it while making a "K" or "T" or "P" sound - and concentrating it in the explosive blast of air that results. I've never noticed personally that it was hard on reeds. =========== Winslow
New players try to bend the 5 like the 1-4 holes bend. It doesn't go but they play it like it does. That stresses the reed like crazy. They also mistake the 4 for the 3 and try to bend it too far. It only bends 1/2 step, while the 3 draw can be bent 3 half steps. Once you learn licks that work and play them instead of wanking up and down the harp trying to bend everything because you think bending is so cool, you stop breaking the 4 and 5 draw.
I used to keep a stack of replacement harps in every key. And I needed them. One day - I realized I just wasn't breaking reeds any more. You just get better. ---------- *************************************************** /Greg
i like Mark's post. i expect many have their own view about the common breakage of draw 5. i have repaired at least 100 harps so far this year, and a lot have needed draw 5...no doubt it is most common breakage i have seen, followed by 4 draw...often literally, as in...i replace 5 draw and send the harp back, and after a while it comes back to me, needing the 4 draw replaced. i agree with Greg that its the over-deep, strong bending, equating more depth with more force, that fatigues these reeds.
but...i don't think my clients are mistaking the bend-ibility of draw 5. i think they are well aware it doesn't really bend. i believe they bend it largely inadvertently, while doing the very popular 4-5 draw shake, and adding a deep bend.
I have also had 3 clients confess that they particularly ruin the 4 draw in their D harps from emulating Butterfield's 'born in Chicago' wails (as per the end of the album track)
I break harps on an industrial level. Extremely tiresome -- and expensive. I´ve tried just about everything (but not full time TB, was never comfortable with that) and don´t shy from any position, but it seems to be embedded in the very fundamentals of my playing. It´s 4B and 9B mainly, but I´m quite democratic in the matter so it could just about be any reed. However, this far (and I´ve been playing a while) I´ve never had a 2D go bad. Not one. Isn´t that one of the reeds that tends to get more than its fair share of abuse?
Good topic and nothing can be more frustrating than breaking a reed and especially on new harps.
I fix quite a few, too, and among the many I repair include the superstar at reed breaking Mr. James Cotton.
It seems to happen a lot with guys that "have been playing 40 years" Interestingly enough, very rarely do the young guys and newer players break or ruin reeds. The one thing that is common among "experienced" players is that they came up through the years hitting harps that weren't as well built or responsive as the newer ones. I suspect they developed a habit of playing incredibly hard.
I've partnered with Seydel in an effort to keep players and their harps on stage. I have no doubt that reed polishing extends reed life and reduces reed fatigue, even among the experienced players. We can at least stop or slow the bleeding down a bit.
However, nothing can beat practice. All players should be practicing with a tuner. In addition, you should be practicing in front of a mirror, too!
If you are one of these guys that thinks it is cool to make the "skunk" face while playing, you probably stink as a player and on top of that you probably break a lot of reeds.
If you look at the really great young players lately, one thing they have in common is the muscles in their face are perfectly relaxed. They have a deadpan expression even when hitting the 10 overdraw. The goal is to hit every note with as little effort as possible and hit every note in tune.
You can deviate from this, but it should be a musical choice not a habit. Follow this suggestion and you will not only improve your playing, you will extend your harp life, too. ---------- Greg Jones 16:23 Custom Harmonicas greg@1623customharmonicas.com 1623customharmonicas.com
I used to blow out a lot of harps. Wrecked one in 10 minutes once! Then i found this really cool thing called a tube amp and a friend gave me a bullet mic he found in a junk car. Fender DR and 707A! Since then the harps have held up much better. They still break but not near as often... Greg, could we polish reeds with a pencil erasure?
Last Edited by Barley Nectar on Aug 19, 2015 9:13 AM
@Greg: Could you give me some sort of indication of what the "skunk face" looks like? This particular mammal is not endemic to my region (Sweden). Also, do you have an idea on the, to me, somewhat intriguing resilience of the 2D reed, as I hinted at above?
The classical musician's analysis of the fact that Little Walter played softly is actually correct (tho he did at times attacked harder, and since much of his stuff was played soft, it SEEMS like he's flooring it in terms of breath force, tho he really isn't), that very same analysis can be made of Big Walter Horton as well, who I got to see and hang out with many times during the 70's.
AS I've posted before, in an interview he did together with Louis Myers that was done by Bill Lindemann a few months before he passed away that later appeared in an early issue of Living Blues magazine, LW's main reason for liking to play amplified was, and I quote DIRECTLY from him, "so I don't have to be blowin' so hard." Unfortunately, most players don't get that message at all and many, ESPECIALLY the self taught players often play much harder than they think they do.
I've met plenty of TB players who blew out reeds quickly because of the harp player's number one problem, which is using far too much breath force and I've met plenty of players who don't TB but have learned to take control of their breath force and don't blow them out frequently.
BTW, the harp players who you can always count on to feedback the fastest when playing amplified are ALWAYS the same ones using far too much breath force all the time, plus they almost always have really horrible tone to go along with that. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by barbequebob on Aug 20, 2015 10:38 AM
I think I must be in a contrarian mood this morning:
It is possible to play guitar and seldom break a string. It is possible to play harmonica and seldom break a reed.
A guitar player can exercise control and pick and strum gently. A harmonica player can exercise control and blow and draw gently.
A guitar player can use the amp for volume. A harp player can use the amp/PA for volume.
When a guitar player or harmonica player is playing with emotion and using the entire dynamic range of the instrument, sometimes strings or reeds can break.
I would suggest that while we should not make a habit of always playing at the physical limits of our instruments, there is nothing wrong with sometimes pushing the limits (and sometimes accidentally exceeding the limits and perhaps paying the price of repair or replacement).
If you want to play always in the "safe zone" of dynamics to preserve every reed, it is your choice.
After all, moderation is a good thing.
I enjoy using the entire dynamic range of harmonicas, and in a performance, will sometimes push limits.
I believe in moderation in all things, including moderation.
Learning to use our bodies and cupping to project sound is important. Octaves, chords, and high notes can help our little instrument be more easily heard. It is good to suddenly drop your volume to lower levels after a loud passage gets the listeners' attention. If people are actively listening, you don't have to be as loud.
At SPAH Kim Wilson walked into the audience and played 1st position without a mic while the band played at a lower volume. He was audible throughout the room.
*****************************
Amplified: Be sure you have good monitoring in an amplified music setting. If you can't hear yourself, reed breakage is MUCH more likely.
Acoustic: At SPAH (which was fantastic!) there was a large blues jam circle in a large room each night. There were many well played, interesting solos played by many good players. There were also contributions by pros and by beginners.
Sometimes I could only hear faint portions of a solo across the circle because the player played softly without projecting, with their cup smothering the volume. These were solid, skilled players as far as what notes and chords they played, but to a great extent they could not be heard.
If you decide to play acoustically in such a setting I would suggest that you consider this:
Are you playing your music for the group, or just yourself and the nearest 2 or 3 people? For me, music is played to be heard. If your music is just for you to hear, why go to a jam?
Don't protect your reeds to the extent that you cannot be heard. ----------
Doug S. Edited for spelling
Last Edited by dougharps on Aug 19, 2015 3:57 PM
Thank you Bob. GM7th, Barley and Aloha SuperBee!, and everyone else. Doug, you are not being contrarian. Winslow, I think it is only a matter of semantics. I stand by what I say. I was a reed buster myself. It's funny about James Cotton still breaking reeds. He hasn't had to care about breaking reeds for a long time. I knew the reed breaking players. Many became friends. I, heard, taught, fixed, and saved a lot of people a lot of money. The last bit about saving people money i'm rather proud of. You shouldn't be penalized for learning. Have a good day.
PS. Still in burnout faze. I still do not want to receive boxes of broken harps. I began to understand why most guys would rather sell the Caddillacs they build rather than fix your old car. Nothin wrong w/ that. I like Caddillacs. I was never good w/ feeling I didn't do orders fast enough. ---------- ---------- I'm out of the Biz for a while till I get over my burnout. You can try HarveyHarp or arzajac, or just look the page nacoran put together under Forum Search. .
Last Edited by MP on Aug 19, 2015 3:07 PM
