Harmonica Breathing Strategies

"it seems like every time i try to play the harmonica i run out of breath. any suggestions?"

Playing the harmonica is quite unique among the wind instruments, breathing-wise, because it is the only one that is played on both out-breath and IN-breath.

This can make playing the harmonica very beneficial for your breathing because it definitely works your entire breathing process, both inhale and exhale, as opposed to just blow-blow-blow as all the other instruments do.

This does lead to some special challenges though, and some things to get used to.

Harmonica running out of breath 

First that comes to mind is that with the harmonica you can "run out of breath" in not just one, but two ways.
Most commonly thought of when you think of "running out of breath" is for your lungs to run out of air - this is a very common problem with wind instruments that has to be dealt with.

With the harmonica, though, you can "run out of breath" in the sense that your lungs can't function in that direction anymore, because your lungs are too full of air.

This happens most often when playing tunes  that are in 2nd position (blues style) because 2nd position harmonica is based on the lower end DRAW chord instead of the 1st position blow chord.

So, you can be wailing away on a hole that you enjoy and find that your wail done failed :-)  (sorry, couldn't resist there)

There are several things you can do while playing the harmonica to keep
the "out of breath" thing from happening:

1. If a song calls for lots of draw notes (inhale) in a row, plan to blow extra hard on the first blow note, to empty your lungs.  This can be made part of the song, without people realizing that that is what you are doing. The late blues great Sonny Terry was really excellent at this.

2. While playing a song or improvising with music, pay more attention to where your lungs are in terms of their fullness or emptiness. 

Players of the digeridoo, an incredible-sounding Australian aboriginal instrument, must monitor this constantly as they are playing their traditional all-blow instrument, because for them to keep up the instrument's constant drone sound they must refill either their lungs or their puffed-out cheeks - quite a feat!

With the harmonica, though, you are naturally able to replenish your lungs as you play, because every song has both blow and draw notes.  When you play, you keep up a constant flow, such that when you get good at it sometimes people will say "When do you take a breath?!" and the answer is that you actually are breathing the whole time.

So, while you are playing, if it feels like your lungs are getting too EMPTY, then draw in a little more air on your next draw note than you normally would.  Same thing if you are chugging or any other style of chord playing.

And, if it feels like your lungs are getting too FULL, then blow a little more than usual on your next blow note. 

When it comes up again, do it again,
until it becomes a habit.

If all this seems simplistic or mechanical to you, it's really not - its just a matter of building breathing habits by paying attention to the state of your lungs, their fullness or emptiness. 

When the breathing habits are built, then you don't have to think about it any more - it will just become automatic and will be part of your natural flow of playing the harmonica. 

A great benefit of this, besides all the health benefits of practicing breathing in this way, is that you now can concentrate on the more artistic, fun, and expressive parts of your songs - fun!