Bendings on different keys
Tue, 08/19/2014 - 04:23
Hi Winslow, I’m a beginner with the blues harmonica and now dealing with the bendings. On a C harp it seems to be more easy to bend, than e.g. on a G Harp. Therefore I have a question: Is it right, that it’s more or less difficult to bend some notes, depending on the key that I’m playing? And do harp players decide which key they use for a song according to the playability of a certain bend? Thanks for and short answer and excuse my poor English.
Hi, Emilio.
Think of it this way. When you bend a note, you tune your mouth to a note lower than the note in the harmonica.
When you bend Draw 2 on a C harmonica, you are tuning your mouth to a note below G (like F or F#). However, when you bend Draw 2 on a G harmonica, you are bending down from a lower note D, and you're trying to sound notes below D, such as C# and C. So you need to tune your mouth for notes that are lower than D. That's much lower than notes below G, so you need to adjust your internal mouth cavity to be bigger.
If you learned the bends on a C harp, your next key of harmonica could be closer to C. A G harp is much lower. Instead of going directly from a C-harp to a G-harp, why not try a B-flat haarp instead. This is lower than C, but still pretty close. ONce you get good at bending on the B-flat harp, try an A-harp and then maybe go for the G-harp.
But maybe it's too soon for you to spend money on all those different harmonicas. So here's another way to approach the problem. Find the names of the notes that bend on the C harp.
Now look at the notes on the G harp. Which bendable notes are close to the bendable notes on the C-harp? They may be slightly higher or lower, but that's OK, as long as they're close.
Once you find the bendable notes on the G-harp that are cloe to the ones you can already bend on the C-harp, you will have a way to start bending with success on the G-harp. You will still ahve to develop your ability to bend the lowest notes (Draw 1 and 2), but you wiill hve at least a good beginning.