Bends, whether draw bends or blow bends, produce notes lower in pitch than the natural, unbent note. I think that part of the "trick" to bending is knowing what note will result, and unconsciously anticipating that sound. If you think about singing for a second, paying attention to your vocal tract, when you sing a low note versus a high note your body sort-of automatically adjusts according to the pitch of the note. You get the note in your "mind’s ear" and your body tends to adjust without thinking about what you’re doing. Try to feel how there are more physical actions than merely your vocal cords buzzing at a different frequency. You tend to "sink" lower and open up "bigger" for singing low notes as opposed to high notes, and it’s similar for harp. What is happening is that your body is naturally adjusting to a shape that is more suitable to the pitch you know ahead of time you want to sing. Bending notes on the harp is much the same way. You have to adjust your vocal tract shape—the position of your mouth, tongue, jaw, throat, and soft palette, to be suitable for the pitch of the bent note. It’s easier to do that if you have a mental idea of what the note will sound like ahead of time. If you’ve never done bends before, that can be tough! How do you know what the note will sound like? It helps to play the note on another instrument, like a piano or guitar, to get it in your ear while you are working on trying to bend. Various computer programs can play different pitches, so that’s another way to try to get the pitch in your ear if you don’t have any other instruments available.
The amount you can bend a note depends on the pitches of the two reeds in the hole. The higher pitch note in the hole can be bent down to just above the lower pitch note in the hole. For example, the notes on a C harp in hole 2 are: blow-E, draw-G. The higher G note can be bent down to Gb and F--and just a little lower. It is best to only bend down to the desired note, and not further, in order to minimize stress on the reeds. When you practice your bends, it is good to use a piano, guitar, pitch pipe, electronic tuner or whatever to check that you're hitting the correct pitch.
Bending is not something that is easy to describe how to do—and it is difficult to show because all the movements are hidden inside the mouth and throat. It takes practice to be able to do bends at all, and lots more practice to do them well. Bends are the first major hurdle in playing the harp, and you should not expect to "get it" in a few minutes. It may take months. That’s okay. Don’t be in a hurry, and don’t get discouraged. If you keep at it, you’ll get it. You’re learning new control of your breath and your mouth, your breathing and your body’s resonance, your tongue and throat, and of your focus. Bends are something you’ll keep working on, probably for as long as you play the harp. Bends aren’t hard, but like anything else you have to get familiar with how to do it. You have to get familiar with how the harp responds to different vocal tract positions, and if you’re just starting you’re not yet familiar with how to set your mouth, tongue, and throat in different positions, much less particular positions needed to modify the air stream to produce different pitches. If you’re not "getting it" don’t get down on yourself! You just haven’t put in the practice to get familiar with what your need to do yet.
There are draw bends available on holes 1 through 6, and blow bends available on holes 7 through 10, each of which require different playing techniques. To make matters more interesting, different key harps require different bending techniques, depending on the pitch range of the harp. Lower key harps (e.g. A, Ab, G, and low F) require more mouth/throat/tongue (or simply "vocal tract") movement than the same holes on higher key harps (e.g. C, D, E, and F). Learning your bends not only gives you more notes and effects, it gives you more control over your notes, air stream, resonance, and tone.
So, celebrate when you finally get your first bends! But remember--that's only just the beginning.
Here are some tips for getting your first draw bends. Remember these are tips to help you get started with bending since I can’t show you what’s going on in my mouth (and if probably wouldn’t help if I could, since you can’t see what’s happening inside your mouth!) These are things to help you get the right feel, to help get your mouth, tongue, and throat in the right bending position.
Think of pulling down on an exercise spring.
As you get used to the feel of the device you learn just how hard you have to pull it to get it just to the bottom; how much strength you have to use to just hold it down all the way; how you can use your leverage and balance to gently let it up to the top, without it jerking it’s way up because your strength wasn’t enough to control it at some point, and how to pull it smoothly down the same way. As you work out with the machine your muscles get stronger, your balance gets better, and your coordination improves to give you better and better control of the spring. Eventually you become strong enough and familiar enough with the feel of the equipment be able to quickly pull the spring right down into any intermediate point you want. You can pull it down and let it up smoothly, quickly, in rapid succession, as fast or slow as you want (vibrato). You can pull it part way down and work it up or down from there, or pull it all the way down and work it up and down to the bottom. You can apply just the right amount of force to where the spring won’t quite move down, but it’s right on the edge, ready to move down at the slightest increase of pressure, under your full control.
This is bending on the diatonic harp. There are a row of these springs hanging side by side, and they each pull differently, with different strengths and depths. You first have to select one spring and hold it firmly before you try to stretch it. If it’s swinging or bumping into neighboring springs you don’t have a firm enough grip to try to stretch it.
At first you probably won’t be able to budge the spring. It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just that you haven’t learned which muscles to use and how to coordinate them to pull hard enough on the spring. After a while you’ll finally budge the spring and it will pull down a short way before pulling back away from you. After a while longer you’ll pull it farther down, and a little farther until finally you snap it all the way down to the bottom. Or you may find the right muscles and coordination right off the bat and quickly be able to yank to spring all the way to the bottom. You may move to a different spring and not be able to budge that one at first. But your experience with the other spring helps you learn how to control the current one. As you practice and exercise you become familiar with each of the different springs, and can quickly move among them, pulling each one just the way you want as quickly as you move. Somewhere in the process you’ll change equipment and add more sets of springs that don’t quite act like the ones you’re used to. Some of these new set-ups have springs that you can’t handle yet, so you have to work with them and figure them out too.
Open your mouth wide enough to cover about 3 holes, with your upper lip coming about 2/3 the way back over the top cover. Tilt the harp up in back at around 45 degrees, and let the holes nestle into your lower lip. Relax. Breathe slowly in and out, deeply. First, empty your lungs and as slowly as you can, breathe in, with the harp settled onto your bottom lip. With a little fiddling with the harp position, not trying to force anything, you should be able to easily get a clean single note. Once you’ve mastered that, try your bending from this mouth position embouchure.
The "Oh" articulation should feel like you’re singing a deep full low note. Try saying "Orange", and exaggerate your mouth movement and enunciation. Your throat should feel like the first "Or" part. Whisper it. Orange. Whisper it louder. Whisper it breathing in. Try bending with the mouth/throat position of the "Or" part.
Go back to the "eee" position. Feel how much tighter your throat is. Say "sweet orange" over and over. Concentrate on your throat. Feel how it closes and opens. Accentuate the opening, and drop the pitch on the word "orange". Sing "sweet orange" while breathing in.
Now, play a strong clear draw note on hole 4 with your mouth in the "eee" shape. Very slowly change to the whispered "orange". The pitch not the note should bend down when you articulate the "or" part of orange, and bend smoothly back up as you articulate the "an" part. The final "ge" sound isn’t part of the bend, but the word orange seems to open up the throat more than the name "Orin". (It might depend on what part of the country you’re from…)
Another thing to do is try articulating the word "TOE" to bend and clear draw note on hole 2, 3 or 4. Start with a nice pure single draw note, then suddenly say a deep pitched TOE, still breathing in. The "T" in toe gets your tongue tip in action, and this ticking the top of your mouth with your tongue just as you go to the deep "Oh" mouth/throat/tongue positioning can help get the bend started. Draw with "eee", then pronounce "toe".
Say NO! as if giving a command to your dog. Bark it out there, as if the dog was about to chew up your expensive sofa, or was ready to snatch your favorite harp off the coffee table. Notice how your voice naturally gets lower and deeper in pitch when you’re giving a command? Use that feeling from your diaphragm, the strong breath, the drop in pitch to command your bend to work. Start playing a clean steady single draw note on hole 2, 3, or 4, and then just say No! as if commanding your dog, while still breathing in. If you don’t have a dog, pretend it’s your child doing something wrong, or the neighbor’s kid about ready to pluck your favorite flower from your garden, or steal your newspaper.
Also, make sure you have an air tight seal of your mouth on the harp. Any air leaks get in the way of bends, whatever their cause.
Now, hold your head up, look straight ahead, draw a natural note and visualize that you are pulling the air straight from your finger. When you do a draw bend, visualize that you are pulling the air from underneath your finger. The farther below your finger you draw from, the lower the pitch of the bend. Visualize pulling the air from 45 degrees below your finger, then from 30 degrees, 15 degrees, and so on.
Breathe in while making a hard "K" sound, as in Coke. Notice where you make that sound in your throat. That's one place in your vocal tract from which you can get a draw bend. Focus on that spot, and articulate the "Co" part of Coke, or cocoa. The hard K articulation, like the T articulation discussed with saying "toe" above, can help kick-start the bend into action.
Breathe from deep within your body--from your diaphragm. Feel your stomach push out a little bit. This will help your resonance and make bending easier. Lie on your back and slowly breathe in. Put your hand on your stomach and notice how it moves up and down--that's the location of your diaphragm. Draw in your air from there. Try playing the harp while lying on your back, and get the feel of your diaphragm in action.
Try different key harps. The mouth position is different for different pitch notes, and if you're having trouble with one key harp, another key might work better; might be a better fit to the particular degree of mouth changes you’re doing. For example, if you can't seem to get it on a C harp, try an A harp or a D harp.
It ain't as easy as it looks! Don't give up! It can take a while to get it, and you just have to practice, practice, practice. And remember, don't try bending unless you can get consistent pure clean single notes—you have to master that first.
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It is extremely valuable to play simple little tunes you are well familiar
with utilizing the intermediate bends, because you know how each note should
sound before you play it. For example, try it with "Mary Had a Little
Lamb", and try to make it sound good. Don’t forget that part, making
it sound good. Don’t just stumble through the exercise quickly. Take your
time with this or some other simple tune, and work to make it sound right,
and good. Come back to practice like this from time to time, and see how
well you’re doing. Don’t expect to get it sounding good right away, and
don’t get discouraged because is "should" be so simple. It’s not easy to
play simple things and make them sound good. It’s a major goal.
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Here’s something a little blusier. As you get better at it, double up
on each note and swing the beat. Repeat these each over and over, don’t
just play it once and go on.
| 1> 2> 3> 3" |
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1> 2> 3> 3" |
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Start the natural blow note with your tongue flat in the bottom of your mouth. Slowly, keeping the tongue flat, lift the tongue toward the roof of the mouth. Keep the air stream constant, and where you feel the note start to choke--that's the crucial spot. Very tiny changes to your tongue position cause the note to transition from the natural note to the bent note. You have to experiment and remember your exact mouth position. The vocal tract is more constricted in the mouth and throat for blow bends than for draw bends.
Try whistling a note and bending the pitch upwards. A similar tongue movement happens when doing blow bends on the harp.
| 9>~9>’~9> |
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| 7> 8> 9> 10 |
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Bending lowers the pitch of the natural note of the highest reed in the hole. However, since both reeds participate in producing the bent note, the natural note of the lower pitch reed in the hole actually raises while the higher pitch reed lowers in pitch. For example, for a draw bend the pitch of the draw reed gets lower while the pitch of the blow reed gets higher.
The note in a hole can be bent down to about a semitone higher than the lower pitched reed in the cell.
This is the best I've been able to determine on the physics of how bends work on a diatonic harp.
If one uses only mouth adjustments to the resonance chamber, the range of resonant frequencies is smaller than if adjustments to other parts of the airway are included. When the other airways in the vocal tract, e.g. the throat and below, are tuned to the same resonant frequency as the mouth, this will accentuate the frequency energy advantage, and the bending range and tone of the note will improve. This is why it is best to play "from the diaphragm", using as much of the vocal tract as possible.
One of the few scientific papers on the physics of harmonicas is at:
http://www.bs.monash.edu.au/staff/johno/acust2.html
Also, see the section on "Harp Physics" in the chapter on "How a Diatonic Harp Works" for some interesting experimental results.