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From: Mike Curtis
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 12:37:51 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Two different bending techniques

On Fri, 29 Nov 1996 j~im.enterprise.net wrote:

> On Thu Nov 28 21:39:41 1996 CST, Mike Curtis wrote:
> >
> >I just tried an experiment regarding bending and opposing reed action.
> >I tried a regular draw bend, but two vastly different ways.
> >
> >First, with my normal "large mouth volume" resonant-valve-bend technique,
> >I did a bend on draw-4 of the coverless harp. Sure enough, when I muted
> >the opposite (blow-4) reed
> >
> >But when I constricted my mouth into a small volume as many newbies are
> >prone to do, bent the note, then touched draw-4 reed, it had virtually no
> >effect - the bend was on the opposite reed.
> >
> >This may sound trivial, but I believe knowledge and understanding of this
> >can be used in instructing beginning and intermediate harmonicists.
>
> I could have sworn that it was you that told me this just over a year ago
> when I first joined the list.

I did, but it's just something I noticed empirically. I had never tried
it with coverplates removed. Someone questioned me on it, and I promised
to eventually do some research into it, time and whim permitting. Time
and whim just permitted. I found the one uses the opposite reed and the
other uses the same reed, basically. I was a bit surprised that this was
so clear cut and drastic.

> The two methods, which I like to think of as
> 'forced' and 'co-operative' bending, can be used against each other to teach
> a newbie. This was how I learnt.

Excellent nomenclature. While resonant (cooperative) bending requires
more work to master, it is actually a lot less work. I can play harp 12
hours a day without fatigue, as long as I'm reasonably conservative with
the use of my diaphragm. I might need a little Chapstick, but that's
another subject :-)

> In a 'normal' diatonic bend it is the path of the airflow which 'forces'
> the reed to resonate outside of it's natural frequency. Wether or not one
> method is better than the other I neither know nor care. But the whole idea
> of getting the reeds to co-operate, as opposed to forcing them feels more
> 'right' to me. Beside's, I need all the co-operation I can get.

Both methods work. But resonant bending gives a much fuller, louder
sound, and makes the bends much more controlled, at least for me. This is
why my opinion is that bending via resonance is much better than bending
by force.

I've said before that valving a diatonic is an excellent way to master
resonance because the valved bends will not bend unless one is resonant.
It may possibly be that a coverless harp may well be another good way to
learn resonance. Muting (by GENTLY touching) the opposing reed will kill
the bend if one is using nonresonant bending.


-- IronMan Mike Curtis
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