When Do We Learn to Bend
Thu, 03/14/2019 - 15:24
Hi, Dave. I had to take a few weeks off to focus on work, and now I'm continuing my LOA 1, which I've been on since November. I am working on the LOA Program PDF, Level 1, and right now I'm doing Movement Exercises Study 2. I feel like I am missing out by not knowing how to bend. Every blues riff I see involves bending, and every Movement Exercise in Essential Scales involves bending. Now I know we don't HAVE TO be bending at this stage, but it would make practice a lot more fun. Would you recommend a sdie trip to a bending lesson, or should I just stick to what I'm doing?
Hello dmenken.
I teach you how to bend in the middle of LOA-L2. I recommend you wait to learn it until then.
Those that learn how to bend too early don't give themselves enough time to develop a big, resonant tone. At first, we're fighting the natural tendencies of the mouth and harmonica to give us thin tone, so work, and time, is needed to develop good tone.
Bending involves squeezing in the mouth, which is the enemy of good tone. Focusing on bending before you've developed the skill to play with good tone commonly leads to players that struggle with thin tone (and intonation) issues for many years.