Hi, i just started playing harmonica about a month or so ago and I started off with a 10 hole Horner BluesBand in the key of C. Anyway It seems to be playing fine except for the draw on the 2 hole. Everytime I got to play a -2 it just sounds awful. Is there anyway to examine the harmonica to see if there is something wrong with it?

Thanks for your help.

It could just be the harp, but the draw 2 is a hard hole to play. Also, keep in mind it's a G, not an F. It's tuned to match the blow 3. You may also be unintentionally bending the note which can sometimes be corrected by breathing in through your nose at the same time as drawing through the harp. The other option is to unscrew the coverplates and see if anything is blocking the reed.

On a C harmonica, the draw 2 is the hardest unbent note to play.

I still fake and blow 3 when I am forgetfull, because I didn't play the draw 2 well for my first couple of years, and I just forget the note exists sometimes.

Zephyrazure said recently about breathing, and it is written again above and it really is a great tip, as you draw 2 open up the airways and breathe in through our nose at the same time. Imagine your nose and mouth are one single airway.Whilst this lets you run out of breath very quickly, it also helps the note sound.

Honest. This is at first sight an easy thing to do, but is one of the most important step improvements in your harmonica playing.

Thanks yall. I guess that its not broken now that yall have told me how difficult it is to play. I thought that it would be strange for something to break after only a month of playing. I have tried several different ways of drawing out of the 2 hole and I can get a note sometimes, and it sounds very simiar to the 3 blow as was said. So, since the -2 and the 3 are the same would you recommend playing a 3 when it says -2.

In general, that is an acceptable thing to do. There are 2 reasons for using draw 2 instead of blow 3, though:

Reason #1: Breath flow - Sometimes it makes more sense for the comfort of the player to place a draw in some places rather than a blow & vice-versa.

Reason #2: Bending - You can't bend a blow 3 on a regular diatonic harp. There are some new harps out there (the XB-40 for one) that will allow you to do so, but on the whole, low blow notes can't be bent. Using the draw 2 allows for bending to add color to the note. Also, it's the only way to hit Fa in the low "octave" of the harp, just as bending the draw 3 is the only way to hit La in the low "octave."

Thanks for that info