Whistle-pop
Tue, 03/10/2015 - 00:11
Hi David,
Working my way through LOA 1. Regarding Solo Harmonica Study 1, Ex. 2.8....
when I am trying to bend 3 draw before going into a regular 3 draw... I am commonly
getting ' whistle -type sound/ soft of like mic feed back ' then a ' pop' sound ( must be the reed
snapping ? ) .. Not sure about this...suggestions on what I may be doing wrong to
be creating such noises ? It feels like am taking in too much breath ?
Thank you for your time
Steve
Good morning Steve.
The goal with bending is to use same amount of breath that you use for standard draws and blows... this takes a couple of years of diligent practice, but it's the goal. With that said, a harmonica that's not optimal set up will make this hard to do. If you play harps as they come, then it's a luck of the draw on how well a particular harp is setup from the factory. If you work on your harps (reference the HarpTech series of lesson in Equipment), then you can improve their playability yourself. If you play custom harmonicas (customharmonicas.com for example), you expect them to play great.
The "whistle -type sound" is not uncommon to someone learning how to bend, it means you're very close to a good-sounding bend.
The pop sound is not normal. If you're playing at normal, or slightly louder volume, you should not hear this. This is not my expertise (Ask Harp Tech Expert Kinya Pollard in the Forum is the best place), but I believe it may be from a very dirty harmonica, and the buildup around the reed slot is causing the reed to stick... or the reed is misaligned... or there is a burr left over from the manufacturing process. These are my best guesses.