Harmonica Bending and Other Beginners’ Techniques

by: Kyle Vallone

Make it clean

The most important technique for a beginning harmonica player is to get good clean notes. If you cannot do that first, then nothing else will matter. The technique that I learned as a beginner was the pucker method. Pucker your lips and make a hole big enough to block air with the end of your pinky.

Then tip the harmonica at a 45 degree angle while pushing the harmonica into your lips. Then I hold the harmonica in my left hand between my thumb and my index finger, and start at the hole number 1. Then blow and draw on the harmonica. The key is to get a clean rich and full sound by keeping your lips centered on the number 1 hole. It is important to avoid any leakage from the number 2 hole.

Make it sound clean. Then slowly move up the harmonica, blowing and drawing on all of the holes up to hole 10. Again, focus on getting nice clean notes. Then, starting at hole number 10, work your way down the harmonica back to hole number 1. Do this slowly and only increase your speed once you have achieved playing good clean notes on the harmonica.

An added benefit to this technique is that your memory for playing the harmonica will get better. You will memorize the distance of travel between notes while utilizing your mouth and your hands. With a harmonica, unlike a guitar, you cannot see the notes you are playing. It is a feel. The more you do it, the better you will get.

Once you have accomplished this, another technique is to draw and blow notes on different positions on the harmonica. So if you play a 2 draw note then jump up to a 4 draw note and then jump up to a 6 blow note and finally a 9 blow note; and then go back down the harmonica. Again you will memorize the distance of travel between notes while utilizing your mouth and your hands. Make up other note combinations and practice them. Remember: start slow; speed will come.

Standard Songs

Once you can blow and draw cleanly, you can practice playing many of the old time harmonica standards like Shenandoah, Ole Susanna, Swanee River etc. Then you can move on to more intermediate and advanced techniques of your study, like bending notes and playing in positions.

Hand Wah Wah

Another useful technique for the harmonica is the hand Wah Wah. While holding the harmonica with your left hand, put your right hand underneath the harmonica creating a sealed cup. Then, while playing the harmonica, use your wrist and move your right hand up and down this should create a “wah wah” sound. This is a classic tool for a harmonica player, since the Wah Wah can add a special vibrato-like sound to what you are playing. You can play the Wah Wah fast or slow, depending on the effect you are trying to create. Use this for any song you have learned and it will add a lot to your overall tone.

Bending Notes and Positions

I don’t like to say that you cannot play the harmonica without learning to bend notes. But you will be limited to certain styles of harmonica playing (mostly playing first position) and ultimately you will not be satisfied. Bending notes on a harmonica is difficult and can be frustrating for beginners, because of using muscles and techniques that we do not think of in our normal walk of life.

But once learned, a whole new world of opportunity will arise. Bending notes on a harmonica is accomplished by relaxing the muscles in the throat, mouth, and lips and changing the direction of the air as it flows over the vibrating reed of the harmonica.

There are a number of books and a great set of DVDs by JP Allen that describe in detail bending notes on a harmonica. Once you get the hang of bending, life will never be the same. This technique is heavily used in blues and country harmonica playing. It will open up a world of playing you never knew existed. If you want to make the harmonica wail, you need to learn how to bend.

As you can see from the chart below, with bending you will have many more notes available for you to play that you did not have when simply blowing and drawing.

Notes available on a C harmonica by blow and draw bending:

|D |F |A#|

|B |D#|F#|B |

hole: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

—————————–

blow: |C |E |G |C |E |G |C |E |G |C |

draw: |D |G |B |D |F |A |B |D |F |A |

—————————–

|C#|F#|A#|C#|E |G#|

|F |A |

|G#|

Harmonica Positions

One you have learned to bend, you will need to understand the different positions that you can play the harmonica in. In other words, playing in different positions allows you to plug in all those notes you learned to play by bending. The first three positions cover the vast majority of harmonica playing, and these positions have names as well as numbers. They are:

1st position (or “straight harp”): Ionian mode. Playing the harmonica as it was intended, in its main major key. On a diatonic, starting note is hole 1 blow. This is the main position used for playing folk music on the harmonica.

2nd position (or “cross harp”): Mixolydian mode. Playing the harmonica in a key a fifth above its intended key.

3rd position (or “slant harp”): Dorian mode. Playing the harmonica a full tone above its intended key. This gives a Dorian scale between 4 draw and 8 draw, though once again using bends gives harmonica players a variety of options.

As you can see, there are many techniques for the beginning harmonica player to learn to master. But there is no greater feeling than playing a piece of music that you love.