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Bending. Hard to learn aint it?
I am not gonna teach you how to bend notes.
Mostly, have to figure it out for for yourself, but a detailed explanation of the technique can be found HERE. One day you will just bend a note after struggling with it for a long time. Then you have to figure out how to repeat what you did and eventually control it. Usually you will only be able to bend notes 4 and 5 draw at first. In fact, you may bend them so much and so often you will wear those two reeds out!
One thing to keep in mind is that bending notes doesn't have to take a whole lot of wind. Experiment with making it happen with less wind. SUCK LESS!
Eventually you will be able to bend all the draw notes 1-6
Here are simple exercises that incorporate bending all 6 of the draw notes up and down the harmonica.
The number is the hole
D = Draw
B= Blow
b = Flat or bent
First try it down:
6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1
D D D D D D D D D D D D
b b b b b b
Here is the exercise played slowly:
And here is how you should be able to play it with some practice:
More difficult, but essential is learning to hit a note already BENT.
In this exercise, each note is played bent, then played straight (no bend).
Let the bend come up until the normal tone of the note is heard.
1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 D D D D D D D D D D D D b b b b b b
Here is the exercise played slowly:
and here is the way it should sound when you have mastered it:
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