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At 1:50 he plays a 2", which is a bend that uses the back of the tongue to necessitate the large chamber needed to tune the mouth to a low pitch. At 1:51 he plays a 3", which is a bend that uses the middle-back of the tongue, further forward in the mouth, due to the fact that it's a higher pitched bend than the 2". At 1:53 he plays 3 draw and moves his tongue down slightly to tune the pitch of his mouth to the 3 draw and then plays 3+ and he really opens up to give that note a big, resonant sound (large chamber = big tone). The 3 draw after his bend holds the secret to vibrato... continue reading...

In our fourth study harp tech expert Kinya Pollard (aka The HarpSmith) walks you through the fine art of reed gapping on the harmonica. This lesson video is for all skill level players. continue reading...

At 0:50 Dr Bahnson states, "the nasal passages are not nearly as important as a resonating cavity as is the oral pharynx (mouth cavity)." The oral cavity... our mouth... is the resonating chamber of our instrument. This is analogous to the body of a guitar being the resonating chamber for the string (mounted on the fret board). Have you ever seen and heard a backpacker guitar? They have full-scale fret boards, but the body of the guitar is very small. This makes the guitar easy to tote around, but the tone is very thin... non-resonant... continue reading...

Take a look at this very cool footage of the inside of the mouth while playing the harmonica. Make note of what you see... I'll discuss this as the week goes on.

Physiology of Playing the Harmonica, by Henry T. Bahnson, MD - heart surgeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTEXSb6duVs&feature=player_embedded