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Forums :: General Discussion

jaw dropping bends

1 reply [Last post]
Thu, 12/13/2018 - 14:09
Monty Wheeler
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Joined: 03/09/2017

I'm sure this has been hashed out a thousand times before but what's one more time between friends?  

I can hit the 1 and 2 draw bends on my D and E specail 20s no problem.  start having more diffiiculty when going down to the C harp.  though I can make the lower hole bends start, can't get the 1 draw all the way down or the 2 draw to the whole step.

I'm finding that dropping my lower jaw helps.  and works better than the old "nigh swallow the tongue to make it happen" method but the different videos that I've  wathched pn those two holes, I never see the people dropping the lower jaw but keep hearing it mentioned.  they make it look easy.

I've already asked here about the full upper denture and yes, the experrt allowed that it changes both size and conture of the mouth so I may have to adjust

my qeuestion: am I headed for problems later on down the road by dropping the lower jaw?

or is it just a question of more pratice?

 

on a side note: I've had good service out of my A special 20 but got concerened. three of the reeds that had quit om me. amature maintenance got them working again, but feared reed to break at a bad time.  popped for a key of A marine band crossover from sweatwater.com and WOW what a difference beween the special 20 and crossover

 

Mionty

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Fri, 12/14/2018 - 15:43
#1
Expert Winslow Yerxa
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Joined: 01/16/2010
To drop the jaw or not?

It's always best to get a result with minimum effort.

As David says, the tongue is the root of all good and evil in harmonica playing. Dropping the jaw is a compensation for not yet finding the effective tongue positions for some of thos lower pitched bends.

Th key concept in bending is that you're tuning your oral cavity to the note you want, thereby inducing the reed to lower its pitch to that note. Lower notes require a smaller tuned oral cavity chamber, while higher notes require a smaller one.

Using your tongue to tune the chamber correctly is the most effective and easiest way to tune the chamber, once you figure out how to do it, something that takes practice and can benefit from a teacher's guidance.

Downsides to dropping the jaw? It has the potential to change the size of your embouchure and thereby change the number of holes in your mouth and sounding. And relying on it may hold you back from fully developing your tongue-based bending skills.

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