blues harmonica breathing tips - for beginners
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- Опубліковано 4 січ 2018
- Maintaining in-and-out breath equilibrium is one of THE most important challenges a beginning blues harmonica player must confront. Here are some invaluable tips. With Adam Gussow of Modern Blues Harmonica.
www.modernbluesharmonica.com/b...
While you're at it, check out my new book about a fascinating blues topic:
www.modernbluesharmonica.com/b...
Adam is the best harp player in the world... I been playing 30 years and can't begin to blow as he does .I will never get tired of listening to his expertise?Second to none ###
Look into Will Wylde, the chap is amazing
Happy and harpy new year, Adam!!!
Most helpful video ever. Thanks Adam!!!
Thank you for explaining this to a beginner like me.
good lesson adam....I have to work on this
Great tips.
You're such a genius :D thanks a lot and greetings from germany :)
I will check your sight out!
wish me luck! nice videos, greetings from Uruguay!
One of the first videos of yours I saw was where you showed how to sneak air out over the top of the cover plate when you have too much. The only tutorial video I ever did actually combined that with a trick I learned to save your lips on warbles. (The video meandered. I was going to go back and re-shoot it and edit it down. I left it set to private, but ADHD has a way to get you off on another topic pretty quick! (I've got a novel that needs about 5000 more words to finish. When my computer broke right before X-Mass I was doing 2000 words a day but I haven't touched it since.)
Happy New Year!
Do you sell your own books of music I find that your a very good teacher and I would definitely buy your music!
Why is it hard to draw on the two on a C harp? You have mentioned it in another video and I am experiencing that problem. I am a beginner.
Just a thought about a slightly different technique (slightly more advanced). How about (for cross harp) using the mouth cavity to draw (not the lungs) and exhaling through the nose. Takes a LOT of practice but it is achievable. Thanks for all your great videos.
Circular breathing uses that. Christelle Berthon has a video where she holds a note for 5 minutes.
Hi, Mindrover and nacoran,
Let me make a few comments on that.
To start with, there is no point in learning circular breathing to play harp for it takes too much practice for an instrument that makes sounds both inhaling and exhaling, which to some extent makes breathing possible to keep alive by itself.
Circular breathing is essential for playing instruments like didgeridoo, and even though not necessary, could be of much help for instruments that work blowing only, like sax, trumpet, trombone or the like, whose notes are altered through pressing buttons but keeping a steady embouchure. But on harmonica you've got to switch holes to play a different note, except for bending notes on a same hole, which would spoil that non stop note, no matter how good circular breathing technique is.
On top of that, who wants to hear a 5 minute steady note? What does it express but dragging about? That's musically worthless, for music is feeling, not sport.
Lastly, circular breathing takes mouth cavity mostly airtight, which would make a deep fat tone impossible because it takes the whole vocal tract (mouth cavity, nasal passage and throat) as a resonating chamber.
To sum up, do as Adam say on the video for that's the real deal... and A LOT easier ;-)
I agree that circular breathing is more useful for other instruments. Actually, the closest I do to it on a regular basis is to isolate my mouth to get some effects on low reeds. I'm not circular breathing, but I do isolate the back of my throat from the rest of my mouth as if I were. On low tuned harps opening and closing your mouth behind the harmonica you can get some neat effects. Actually sustaining a note for five minutes is mostly a party trick. Christelle pointed that out in her video. She's a great player. She picked 5 minutes just to prove beyond a doubt that she wasn't using just one breath, because on UA-cam people always doubt the real stuff and believe the fake stuff! ( I once saw a piano player get accused of faking it because A) she was really good, and B) on a couple of her first videos the video software she used didn't sync the audio and video properly. It was off by a second or so.)
Circular breathing is not as hard to learn as you might think though. There are some tricks using water that sort of help you visualize it. I got it after a few minutes with the water. I didn't stay in practice with it though, because, your right, on harp you switch back and forth a lot so you can manage your breath other ways. Every now and then you'll have a song with a long string of just draw notes or just blow notes... one of Adam's first videos actually suggested using the 2 draw/3 blow being the same note to sneak around that a bit too. Remembering that you have a mouth and a nose is really useful for breath management too. It's not circular breathing, but that first step, isolating the mouth from the rest of the tract, is useful so you don't accidentally play when you catch a breath through your nose!
I have a theory on fat tone bit and why it's easier with the longer vibration chamber, and with medium breath strength. When you have the harp farther out of your mouth any small change in your mouth is a bigger change percentage-wise to what you are doing. If you have the harp gently against your lips you can get a real pretty sort of floating sound, nice for the final note of a pretty melody, but you have to have nearly perfect breath control on it or it pulses. Shove the harp farther into your mouth and you have your throat involved and you have a wider margin for error. There are some times when fat tone isn't what you want, although that's maybe 1% of the time.
nice, thanks.
What can you say about how you control the air coming in and our your nose.
Do you close off your nose in the back of your throat? Or do you use a mix of air flow thru your nasal passages and blocking it off, depending on the sound you are trying to make?
"Oxygen debt" I love it.
thanks,what key is johnny lang's good morning little school girl?
12:54 thanks good explanation
Perhaps I'm too dimwitted to see the problem, but I have basically developed my breathing so I just use that thing over the harp - the nose - to either inhale or exhale when extra air is needed, or has built up. The notion that purging extra air through the mouth, around the harp, without affecting the tone or sounds, and introducing the risk of breath sounds hitting a microphone, seem far more problematic than what I am doing. It is not "circular" breathing, where needed air is only inhaled while cheek pressure continues to blow out, because that is only required for horns or woodwinds where all music is from outflowing air. I'm just adding or subtracting air via the nose without altering the diaphramatic breathing going into the playing, and it helps avoid the too-hard playing pitfall many mistakenly think is needed to play loud.
I have copd, do you think playing the harmonica will maybe help a little? I love your playing
@billmiller7613
Have you started with harmonica playing? How is it playing out? Hope you are well!
Im just learning ... And after making the beginner scale 4B up to 7B and then 7B down to 4B... 3 times... I feel like i ran a damn marathon. It might be because of my 20 daily cigs ? Or im using my air wrong ? Any help here ?
Using blow 3 instead of draw 2 here and there may sometimes make the difference
I have always played this way unless I am moving from the b7. Works well for me.
I don’t understand the whole concept. What is a draw note exactly? I can’t draw in a note and have it make a sound?
in-and-out breath equilibrium - inhale when possible and exhale when possible through your mouth regardless of 1, 2nd, 3rd positions, etc.... Is this correct? Also, should we ignore our noses? Paper clips do quite well on the nose.
Gussows i enjoy your tutorial. Plz tell me which is the best key Harmonica to customise. I am from GOA, INDIA
i seem to have to tilt the harp upward to hit single note,any suggestions?
That's an acceptable mod. I know people who play like that.
Cleaning tips
I found out that I can exhale the air throgh the nose.....
Duh teach me more
F
My lips burn
I actually have a video for that! I need to edit it down, but I have a video for how to play warbles without ripping up your lips! It's the only harmonica video I ever recorded. :)
(The trick is to leave a small air gap between your top lip and the harp cover, and then to sort of let your bottom lip be all loose and go side to side instead of sliding along the harp.)
Spanish please, please