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Forums :: Ask Harmonica Expert Winslow Yerxa

Just Started - Not sure How to do a “WA” sound?

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Wed, 03/14/2018 - 20:02
kosmicdream
kosmicdream's picture
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Joined: 03/14/2018

I just started harmonica (and music as well actually!) and I am using a Hohner Blues Harp Ms- Series, A Key.

I would really love to make that classic “wah” sound (And I was watching along the lesson videos and got to the Holding The Harmonica and the Wah Wah part in the Blues Harmonica Fundamentals) but I felt really like I was missing a step. I wasn’t sure how to get the wah sound at all in the first place. Is it a tongue thing? A breathing/exhaling thing? Or is it completely just with the hands and i’m not cupping them tightly enough? I included my sound clip to help demonstrate how I’m not hitting the target sound at all here haha.

I felt like I put my hands on the exact places as in the video, but something else just doesn’t seem right about the noise itself.. since its clearly not a wah at all! Any tips on what technique I’m not picking up on (or if it is explained more in detail in another video somewhere?) would be wonderful as I’d really love to accomplish making this sound. Thank you so much!

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