phogi
493 posts
Jan 02, 2011
5:42 AM
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Good or bad? Do you hold your nasal passage shut when you play? I don't, as it helps me manage air. I'm curious what everybody has to say about it.
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Philippe
60 posts
Jan 02, 2011
5:55 AM
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I started it last week because I'd get full of air playing Walter's Boogie (I'm sure the copious amounts of food didn't help me with this).
So now I blow air through my nose on blow notes.
Good or bad? Good to me!
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hvyj
976 posts
Jan 02, 2011
7:09 AM
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Whether you play with the pharynx open or closed effects tone. To begin with, keep it closed for consistent air pressure/air flow. But this is something that can be varied to effect tone as one employs different playing techniques.
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OzarkRich
311 posts
Jan 02, 2011
8:28 AM
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I have to breath through my nose while I play. For the same reason, I have to let air out while holding my breath under water. I think it's all psychological on my part.
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wolfkristiansen
77 posts
Jan 02, 2011
8:53 AM
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For the most part, I don't breathe through my nose while I'm playing. For my style of music, and for my preferred notes, I breathe in more than I breathe out as I play. In other words, I play more draw notes than blow notes.
I've learned one trick to deal with my draw/blow imbalance. On some blow notes, I blow partially through my mouth, to sound the note or chord, and partially through my nose; the latter being simply to empty my lungs for the slew of draw notes that I know are coming.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
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nacoran
3538 posts
Jan 02, 2011
9:30 AM
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I breathe through my nose to help manage how much air I have, like Wolf said. I've played around with circular breathing, and gotten it to work a couple times, but I can't do it consistently. Adam had a video where he described letting extra air pass from above the harp, still from the mouth, as a way to manage air supply. Just playing around here for a second, my tone seems to be steadier with my nasal passages open. I'm thinking maybe if you accidentally pulse with your breath and it has another easy way out it may go through the nose. But that's just a theory and the fact that I'm observing myself may be skewing my results.
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oldwailer
1481 posts
Jan 02, 2011
9:33 AM
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As long as it sounds good--it's good. I close the nose off for a big draw note--but let it open up a bit and just do its thing the rest of the time.
Lately, I've been doing a lot of recording for a CD I'm making--and I've been noticing another problem with breathing--it can get excessively noisy when a mic is involved--so I've been working on that--the noise, I think is mainly from inhales and exhales through the mouth--so I guess that's OT--but related, in my mind.
Are heavy breathing noises a problem for anybody else? How do you deal with it?
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Kyzer Sosa
936 posts
Jan 02, 2011
1:36 PM
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For me, it has always been a necessity. Blues harp requires so much on the draw, it's essential for getting all that air out. Honestly I can't see how anyone could NOT exhale through the nose and still play the blues on harmonica. Heres a test for you all. Hold your nose and gently blow through your lips. Do it again and intermittently release the grip on your nose. Even with the gentlest of breaths, air, however minuscule, still comes out your nose. it's almost unnoticed, but it's there.
When I blow the 1 up to the 4 in a change of chord playing the blues, I exhale nasally, quite a lot.
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LeonStagg
217 posts
Jan 02, 2011
3:21 PM
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I breath through my nose quite a bit while playing, never really thought about it much until I was working on a version of Stone Fox Chase.
I was so full of air from all the draw notes, the few quick exhale notes weren't enough by themselves to maintain respiration.
Pretty much the same as wolf said, it changes the tonal quality slightly, so I usually take the opportunity to balance breathing out on chords, letting some of the excess air escape over the top of the harp.
Also using the proper amount of air helps, BBQ Bob would be proud of me.
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mojojojo
61 posts
Jan 03, 2011
12:23 AM
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You can get a nice sound on 2 hold draw if you breathe in through the nose a bit as you draw.
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LeeEdwards
106 posts
Jan 03, 2011
5:28 AM
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I think that for cross harp exhaling through the nose when playing blow notes is essential. Inhaling through the nose whilst drawing is not a good habit to pursue and can lead to huge pitfalls. The main pitfall being that it will affect a players capability to accomplish lengthy and smooth draw note runs because they fill up their lungs far too quickly. This usually results in the player resorting to the 'draw,blow,draw,blow,draw,blow' style of moving around which doesn't sound very good.
@mojojojo - You should be able to get an excellent tone with good intonation on the 2 draw without breathing through the nose.
For any beginners reading this: If your 2 draw sounds flat or choked work at relaxing your embouchure, open your throat and simply breathe in through the harp lightly whilst making a shape inside your mouth as if you are saying 'eee'. Any tension will usually facilitate a bend so relax.
Stay away from breathing in through your nose as a way to play your 2 draw. It may seem like a successful way to instantly solve a problem, but only leads to much larger problems down the road. Problems that by then may be too difficult to solve.
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"You will never get every possible thing out of an instrument, but the instrument will get every possible thing out of you" - Ray Charles.
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Greystonesman
2 posts
Jan 03, 2011
8:29 AM
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I've only been playing a couple of years, but since I switched to 2nd position, I've had to exhale through my nose at the same time as through my harp. I can't seem to get all the air out through my mouth only.
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oldwailer
1484 posts
Jan 03, 2011
12:49 PM
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In one of Adam's lessons he covers the "cough"--a way to get a lot of air out in a heartbeat. I've never been able to get the timing of it down--and I think he he basically said that if you think about it, you can't do it--but it does get rid of a lot of air, and it's the old time blues guy way to do it. . .
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