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DATE: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 16:24:04 CDT
From: hip~quest.com (Hugh Messenger)
Subject: Bending [LONG]

At 1:10 9/13/94 +0700, Tan Cheng Ann wrote:
>Hi everyone..
>
>I've sent a request asking for help in learning bending (and all related
>stuffs to blues harp). I have tried searching the archive (spent about
>an hour) but there are no specific and thorough explainations about
>blues technique. Can you guys please me out?

Bending. Hmmm. As nobody else has stepped up for this, I guess I will. I
look forward to getting shot down over this - I'm mailing to the list
rather than direct so that folk can correct me. I don't want to go
spreading mis-information.

DISCLAIMER - all of the following is my experience only, but comes from a
background of teaching diatonic to beginners. Please mentally prefix
everything with IMHO's and FWIW's.

First thing - there is probably as many techniques for bending as there are
players.

Second thing - different holes on any given harp will require different
techniques to bend.

Third thing - the same hole on different key harps may require different
techniques.

Fourth thing - I don't use tongue blocking much, so all of the following
assumes you are 'straight shooting' - ie. pucker up and blow/suck a single
hole.


Having said all that, I'll try and tell you how to get a bend on hole two
draw, which is a good place to start. I'd recommend using a lowish key,
say between A and C. Outside of that range it seems to get progressively
harder for beginners to bend.

First you've got to think the note you want. Sounds silly, but it helps.
Find another instrument and play the note. There are three notes on this
hole. On a C harp these are G (no bend), F# (first bend) and F (second
bend). Probably easiest to go for the F, which doesn't require too much
control of the bend - you more or less bottom it out and there you have F.

If you aren't using a C, work out what the three notes on two draw are. A
useful exercise in itself. Having a keyboard handy helps. They are the
two notes of the chromatic scale missing between blow 2 and draw 2 (sounds
too obvious to mention, but there you go).

Before you can bend you need to make sure you have a good, clear single
note. Make sure the harp is at right angles to your face, not angled off
in any way. Eat the harp - the better your lip seal around the instrument,
the easier it is. Make sure when you draw a single note you get no
'bleeding' through the holse either side. Sometimes this is not obvious -
you may be getting air through the holes either side but not enough to
sound the note.

Make sure you have an 'unobstructed air passage'. This really just means
sitting or standing straight, not slouched, hunched or doubled over. Your
body (mouth, wind pipe, diaphragm and other assorted bit and pieces) are a
part of the instrument.

Now put your harp down and try this. Whistle. Stop whistling but keep
your face arranged as for whistling. Now whistle in reverse, ie. sucking
rather than blowing. Whilst whistling in reverse, draw your tongue slowly
back and down. The note should change - lower in pitch and 'fatten up' a
little. Get that tongue back and down as far as it will go. Now try
dropping your jaw as well - try and make the cavity inside your mouth
bigger, but carry on whistling.

Play around with reverse whistling, see how you can shape the sound by
different combinations of jaw and tongue drop. Remember how your face
feels while you do it.

Before trying each time, make sure you empty your lungs good. You'll be
needing to hold notes for as long as possible if you are going slow, and
you need that space to suck the air into. Also make sure you have your
nose 'closed'. You can bend notes with your nose 'open, but it's more
difficult.

Now try it with a harp in your face. It probably won't work at first, but
just keep experimenting the same way you did with whistling. One thing to
watch is the back of the tongue. When you whistle, the back of the tongue
has to constrict the airflow coming from your throat. Say the letter "K"
on an in-breath - thats the area of the mouth I'm talking about. Most
times you don't need quite this amount of constriction, so try 'opening'
that area up a bit.

If it still doesn't work, slow down. Take it real easy - make small
adjustments to your face at a time. Keep a nice steady air stream going,
not too hard and not too soft. Increase breath pressure a little as you
try and bend. Be aware that you are pulling the air down to your diaphragm
- bottom of the lungs, stomach area.

The point where a note 'breaks' down is easily overshot - until you know
how to do it, you can go past the point where the note will bend very
easily. If you are going slow, you should feel a point where the note is
changing in tone, 'fattening up' like the whistle did. That means you are
very close to bending it. Hold your face there, then progress real slow.

Try bending different draw holes (one to four. five doesn't bend, six is a
bit weird, 7 to 10 don't bend) (until you start overdrawing).

If none of this helps, get back to me. There are a number of things to
try. Just to get a feel for how it goes you might try an inward, implosive
'pop'- don't use your lungs, just 'pop' the note by suddenly doing the
jaw/tongue drop thing. Try it without a harp first, then do the same with
a harp in place. The note will usually bend when you do this. If it
works, do it a couple of times, remember how it feels and try the above
stuff again.

Last thing: don't get discouraged. Keep trying. You'll do it.

Once you can bend, try and work out where all the notes of the chromatic
scale are, and which ones you are missing. Hint - there are ... two notes
on 6 draw, one on 5 draw, four on 3 draw, three on 2 draw, two on 1 draw.
The rest you have to get from overblowing (bending blow notes up) and
overdrawing (bending draw notes up). Personally I have a hard time with
some of the latter techniques, although I am now only missing two notes
from a full, three octave chromatic scale on a diatonic. Whoop de doo.

Good luck.

-- hugh