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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Practicing Bends
Practicing Bends
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HandicappedHarpist
27 posts
Apr 23, 2019
3:34 PM
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Okay, I know how to bend a note. Sometimes, I can get a good, hard bend. But here's my issue. I can easily play just a bent note. I can also easily start with a bent note and then unbend it. But I am having difficulty with starting with a straight draw, and then bending it.
I know a lot of this has to do with muscle memory, and I am sure it also has to do with the duration of my inhale. I cannot inhale for very long without having to exhale. I know these are things I can work on.
But beyond that, what tips do you guys have for me in this regard?
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BrotherJohn
2 posts
Apr 23, 2019
7:39 PM
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Hello Harp friend,
Do I understand you correctly?
You can bend a note.
You can bend and release the bend.
You can’t go from a straight draw to a bend.
First I do a normal draw.
Then What I do is place the tip of my tongue in the hole. Then I raise my tongue towards the roof of my mouth leaving a small gap about as big as a straw. Then I suck in strongly to get things started. Then I hold the bend by maintaining the air pressure.
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HandicappedHarpist
28 posts
Apr 24, 2019
2:46 PM
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@BrotherJohn,
Your advice is helpful. Although, I probably should have clarified. It is not that I absolutely can't go from a straight draw to a bend. I've just been having trouble with doing it consistently.
Obviously, when we bend, we're doing something different with our mouths. That may mean using the tonuge, or it might be just tightening up the jaw. KudzRunner has noted that his jaw goes down and back.
Either way, we're doing something different. And going from a straight draw to a bend--or from a bend to a straight draw--means making a transition. I've found that making the transition from the bend to the straight draw is easier than the transition from the straight draw to the bend.
I will say that, just now, I did a fairly good job of it, by not holding the harp with a less conventional grip. Recently, I've been working on holding the harp with the index finger along the top of the harp and the thumb along the bottom. I've been thinking that since this is what many teach as the "proper" way to hold a harmonica, I should make myself more comfortable with it.
But since my note bending is easier when I don't do that, then maybe I should say, "To hell with the 'proper' grip."
HH
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Jaybird
342 posts
Apr 24, 2019
6:35 PM
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"Practice makes perfect."
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HandicappedHarpist
29 posts
Apr 25, 2019
3:50 PM
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Just watched Gussow's YT video on the Lazy Lester riffs in the Geico commercial. I got some encouragement from him while he was talking about the 2nd riff, which is -5 -4/ -4 -4/ -3 -2
Talking about the bend, he said, "If you're a beginner, you can't do that. If you're an advanced beginner, you're working on it. If you're an intermediate, you should be able to do that, and to make it sound that smooth."
But then (and this is where I got the encouragement) he said, "I've been playing for 44 years. So it takes a couple of decades to get the smoothness. For YOU, three to five years."
Though I've been playing harmonica for many years, I haven't been working on my bending for very long. So I'm not going to get it right away. It'll take a while, and I need to remember to not be discouraged by that.
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Mustang
21 posts
Apr 25, 2019
4:07 PM
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I slightly tip the harp up as my tongue goes against the roof of my mouth with tip of tongue aim d down as to restrict the air flow. Try pulling in air a bit harder than usual to see if the pitch changes at all. I’ve been working a lot of bends and transitions too so I know how ya feel even though I’m only playing 4 months. Every time I listen or read up I learn something knew that changes my technique so it’s just trial and error for me atleast.
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The Iceman
3832 posts
Apr 26, 2019
7:12 AM
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The instructional videos in which one is told "It takes years to learn to bend correctly" were most likely created by folk who didn't learn the essence of bending, but spent years trying to figure it out.
The truth is that once one understands that it is merely a positioning of the tongue, one can learn to bend to correct pitch within a few weeks - even a rank beginner.
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The Iceman
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tomaxe
157 posts
Apr 26, 2019
11:34 AM
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Something that helped me learning to bend was to find melody lines that are very familiar, and that use bends. It doesn't have to be blues. Something like "Happy Birthday", for example, in 2nd position (starting on hole 2)will use several bends on hole 3 either starting with a bend or hitting the draw and then bending it, to get right. "The Start Spangled Banner",something like that. Maybe a song you know and love well....
It does not matter that "Happy Birthday", say, is something you probably would never play in cross harp as it sounds kind of sad and bluesy that way—what matters is that the song is in your DNA and it helps your muscle memory figure out how to achieve that note.
Practicing blues tunes to learn bends may be difficult because when listening to professional blues playing, the bends are very expertly finessed and often combined with other techniques that make it hard to figure out at the beginning. Sometimes the bends are not even spot on, they just work amazingly well in the blues context of that song. It can be a bit daunting until you can get those bends down right, and figure out what they are doing. that may be what Adam Gussow is referring to?
You'll know when you screw up "Happy Birthday", though, and what you need to work on.
Hope that helps.
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Rontana
531 posts
Apr 27, 2019
7:50 AM
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I agree with Tomaxe 100% on this. While tongue placement and embouchure were my first priorities in learning to bend (in terms of technique alone) knowing how the note should sound in the context of a song was very high in importance as well.
Happy Birthday, Mary Had a Little Lamb. etc . . . most everyone knows exactly how those tunes are supposed to sound. Playing 2nd position melodies of folks songs, some gospel standards and 70s era rock worked best for me.
For some reason it seems just about all CCR songs were great for bending practice . . . most likely because I was always a CCR nut and knew the melodies backward and forward. The point, is to practice on songs that (as Tomaxe said very well) are in your DNA.
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The Blind Doughboy Music Factory
Backwoods luthier specializing in resonator guitars
Last Edited by Rontana on Apr 27, 2019 7:53 AM
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Cotton
114 posts
Apr 27, 2019
9:44 AM
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Playing the major scale on the low end also helps. All the notes are are already in your mind, and you can always play it in the middle of the harp to check your pitch.
Last Edited by Cotton on Apr 27, 2019 9:44 AM
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nowmon
208 posts
May 02, 2019
2:59 AM
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To draw in on a note ,than drop tongue a bit ,causes the note to flatten...
Last Edited by nowmon on May 02, 2019 3:03 AM
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SuperBee
5928 posts
May 02, 2019
4:48 AM
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There are no end of ear-training exercises. Playing the first 5 notes of a major scale up and back, as in do re mi fa so fa mi re do in different positions is good, and also making it minor by flattening the 3rd a semitone, where you can, and hearing the difference, feeling the difference, is good. It’s a neat thing to do because the bent and natural notes occur on different scale degrees as you switch positions
I’ve heard a few instructors push this idea: that it helps to train the movement which produces the bend, by doing an exercise which starts with the natural note and smoothly bends to the deepest bend available, holds there a moment then proceeds in the other direction, back to the natural note.
The idea is for this to be a smooth progression and at an even volume. You can also perform it as a volume swell and recede exercise but at first the aim is steady and smooth.
You can do this on all the draw bends and the blow bends too I suppose.
I found it to be very helpful in getting control of the process. If you have a place in the bend where it jumps, work back and forward over that point and be aware of what you’re doing, smooth it out. If the volume drops out, same deal. Go to that point and go across it, being conscious of what you’re doing with tongue and breathing.
I believe this was very useful for me. Of course, ymmv
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