Posted by Jeremy Steinberg on December 21, 2002 at 09:41:36:
In Reply to: right way to bend posted by Chief on December 21, 2002 at 09:12:10:
: Is moving your mouth in the "wee-ou-wee" motions the proper technique for bending? Also, what does everybody think of John Popper (from Blues Traveler)?
Hello. On bends. BEFORE you try to bend a note, can you play all basic tones (notes) on all 10 blow note reeds, and all draw note reeds, going up the harmonica, and back down, cleanly? If so, then you might be ready. If not, learn that BASIC clean single note playing before you go to a bend. THEN, you can find good information on this web site on basic bends, looking under the site map.
You can bend draw notes in holes 1 (far left, assuming you're holding the diatonic harp right side up) thru 7, and blow notes in holes 6 thru 10 (right side holes). Good advice on this on site map too.
Practice, practice, practice. Stay with it! Good luck!
JOHN POPPER plays great harp, but alot of blues harp players don't like him. Why? They complain that he just plays very fast runs, mostly on blow notes, with bends, without any structure (or directon) to his harp riffs. Good blues usually has some kind of structure, like a 12-bar blues structure. Popper doesn't play much blues, but he DOES play very fast, and he does play very well. He just doesn't choose to play blues most of the time, though I'm sure he can. The good thing about him is that he has made the harmonica more VISIBLE by making himself more visible with his fast runs. I've heard him on MUSAK sound systems in shopping malls! That's getting to the mass of people, and that can't be a bad thing for generating harmonica popularity.
He almost always plays Special 20 Hohner diatonic harps.
Regards, Jeremy c/o JSteinberg@ucwphilly.rr.com