Bending Notes on Harmonica

Video Transcript

" Hi this is Jim Luke again and now we’re going to talk about bending notes. Bending the notes on a ten hole diatonic harmonica is what blues is really all about. And even a lot of rock and roll and some country music relies on the bends you can get with this kind of harmonica. We are going to show you how that’s done. Now, I’m going to play a little bit. Now grabbing those bends and making those work for you is when you have a pucker and that’s how you play requires using your tongue. Your tongue is going to go to the bottom of your mouth, all the way to the bottom and probably curl a little bit for the air stream to come down enough and give you that bend. You are bending the reed. Now one of the things we have to say here, if you are bending a harmonica and you are doing it for the first time don’t do it with a brand new harp. You have to get a harmonica that you’ve broken in some already by playing the train or the shuffle that we talked about earlier. Now as far as that bend is concerned, a good place to start with it is usually on a three draw. Remember not only do you drop your key you have to raise your jaw up so that you can play the oo the wah oo wah that you’re trying to play. That’s what the bend is; and then the blow note. So give it a try, do the best you can and blues on."