Why do I get a better tone on 1 and 2 draw if I breathe a little thru my nose at the same time, I am guessing its not good practise so I should be getting the sound another way. Could it be that it reduces the airflow over the reed and so I just need to learn better control.

tks george

Try loosening your emboucher a little more and make sure your blows and draws feel a little more like natural breathing than sucking and blowing. And maybe tilt the back of the harmonica up some.

i always breath thourgh my nose, always will. i am a very agressive player and if i did not id burst. so if you getting good tone and it dosent matter to you if you breath through your nose then stick with it, but if it does bother you what gene said will pretty much clear it up. im so tense when i play and when i do relex it clears up, But thats not the way i play, i stick with whats natural to me, and thats tense and aggresive.



Post Edited (2008-12-20 18:58:37)

You gotta breathe sometime, right?

I used to be so tense when I played that I'd actually collapse the sides of the harp, squeezing so hard that is.
And Justice, I think you're right, one does have to attack the song. A lot of songs are rhythm driven these days and require an aggressive attack.

Hi Walt,

did you find that you started to relax the more you played or was it a conscious decision over time.

george

WaltP wrote:

> I used to be so tense when I played that I'd actually collapse
> the sides of the harp, squeezing so hard that is.
> And Justice, I think you're right, one does have to attack the
> song. A lot of songs are rhythm driven these days and require
> an aggressive attack.

I guess I'd have to say both. But to give you a modern example in my playing. I've always been a tongue blocker. Recently I've decided to learn to play more from both sides of my mouth. It was easy enough to play two holes lower for a note. Just slide my tongue over. But when I tried to move around from the left side, my jaw would become "wooden". It probably took a year for it too stop being uncomfortable. My goal was to force myself to keep at it until it happened without thinking about it. I'm almost there, or perhaps next year.

As to the issue of breathing, I find that on the bottom end of a chrom, I do have to change the shape of my mouth, as well as flare my nose a bit to unchoke the note. On the diatonic you pretty much have to also breathe through the nose. The deeper you can get the harp in your mouth and the larger the resonance chamber you can create, the louder and better it sounds. That way, even just breathing through the harp can make lots of noise, I mean music.
Walt

Tks Walt I guess the key is just time on the harp. I remember reading years ago when getting into running (ha whats that) that someone said the best way to learn to relax things like shoulders and arms is to just run till your tired and eventually the body un-tenses (new word of the day) as it gets to tired to stay tight .... the body naturally adopts a relaxed position and I think this might be the same.

Play enough and you will find a natural position from the mouth to the arms/shoulders to the hands.

george

There was a gentleman, and I mean that in the best possible way, who wrote a book entitled:

Play The Harmonica Well Advanced Instruction for the Chromatic Harmonica

his name is Douglas Tate, and his info is second to none. A great deal of what he has to say can transferred to the diatonic. I bought the book for about $10. Message me specific questions and I'll try to give you his take. Mr. Tate had the distinction of hand-building what was considered by many the best chrom made. His presence on Slidemeisters was the greatest. His instruction is quite meticulous.
BTW he also wrote a book on harmonica tuning and upkeep.
Walt