playing with a cold?
Thu, 06/02/2022 - 14:25
I came down with a cold this week, and I assumed that congestion and harmonica don't mix, but I wanted to know - do people practice with runny noses? Does the harp get gross and clogged, and if so is it fixable? I don't mean anything ridiculous- I'm not coughing nonstop or anything, but I was on a roll with regular practice and it's frustrating to sit idle because of germs.
Thanks,
Bob W
Hello Bob W.
You can practice with a cold.
The hard thing about playing with a cold is that you can't breathe through your nose. We often open our nose while playing blow notes to help get rid of air (since we play a lot more draws than blows). For this reason, I don't commonly play when I have a cold. You could always use the time to study music theory, or something that doesn't require a lot of breath balance.
If the breathing doesn't bother you much, go for it. In regards to gumming up the harp... you're not going to hurt the harmonica. You may want to rinse and wipe the harmonica after each play.