Newbee.... how to find the holes
Fri, 02/13/2015 - 12:19
Ive been at it about 3 weeks and practice at least a half hour day. Is there some technique to orienting your mouth and accuratly finding the holes for single blow/draw? I can find my way with nearby notes but if I just pick up the harp and try a 5 blow for example I stuggling. In trying to play Walk With Me I continually get two holes or a leak into the next.
Questions- Is proper technique to drag your tongue around to sort of feel the holes or is it better practice to lift and place the tongue for each note?
I suspect it just a matter of putting in the hours until you get oriented much the way a trombone playere finds 3rd position for example.
Hello gwknopp. Your tongue will stay on the harmonica, lightly touching the face of the harmonica. Your tongue can come off whenever you want to, but you'll then need to reset your tongue and hope you have a single note waiting there for you. In the next lesson you'll learn the slap, which has you placing your tongue on and off the face of the harmonica, so you'll commonly be resetting your tongue for every note you play soon anyways, so don't obsess over this right now.
You'll notice that "Walk with Me" starts very conjunct (no leaps), which is on purpose... it IS challenging to jump up the harmonica, or start in the middle of the harmonica, and achieve a single note. The further you go in your studies the easier this will become, and the more I will challenge you by providing you with licks within songs that have even larger leaps.
So, this is common, just keep doing it... after 1,000's of reps you'll get pretty darn good at this. This is common on all instruments, so just hang in there, you'll get it.