Bending a note

This is an attempt at demonstrating note bending with the harmonica. It is achieved by moving your tongue at the base of your mouth into a deep curved position and then to a flat position. This alters the speed at which the air moves over the aperture which affects the air speed over the reeds, or so i believe.



Below is a link to a video where other explain how to achieve note bending:






You can find more videos on bending on this pearltree:

Time constraints

Lately i have put very little time into the harmonica, a mixture of work, rallying and other things that had to be done. i have however, found a few opportunities with and without the harmonica to practice bending. I will attempt another podcast of how ti sounds. I am still have a little difficultly in matching the sounds I make with an "F" harmonica when most demos are done with a "C". So i have bitten the bullet and ordered another harmonica in "C" and hope that gives me better feedback on how i ma doing

Clocking up the hours

Lately the harmonica has taken a back seat. Finding time to dedicate to practicing the skills has been difficult and I know now I have lost what little skill i had developed. I am wondering what factors affect my motivation. Do I need a deadline to deliver to? Do i need feedback from others to spur me on? Will aim to put a good few hours in this weekend and then create another podcast.

I have noticed that feedback is a bit difficult with the "F" harmonica as many of the videos are of people using a "C" and I can not replicate their sounds.
Also there appears to be a much more subtle approach to blowing/sucking in order to achieving a pure sound from the top end of an "F" harmonica.

Reflection

A thought came to me as i was practicing "bending" without the use of the harmonica.... if I can pratice techniques without the instrument from time to time is it possible to do the same in developing leadership skills? Can i practice some of the elements of good leadership in contexts where I am not leading?

Challenging week

Its been a strange week for me and as a consequence of distractions of a professional kind I have not put much time into the harmonica. However, I have noticed that I have been practising mouth and tongue movements to develop bending and I regularly use tucka ticka when I am walking the dogs. Despite PJ's advice to learn the rhythm fits I felt the need to try to play something that resembled a recognisable tune. Spent about an hour on the Beatles song - love me do. It's not very good yet but I will continue to improve it and produce another podcast. Clocking up 10,000 hours is clearly tough when you have other things in your life. I give great respect to those who exel in any field, their personal commitment and dedication to their area of excellence must never be underestimated.

Reflection

At the moment I am reflecting on two aspects of this experience:
1) I am amazed at the huge array of materials, videos and most importantly other people who want to share their knowledge and experience of harmonica playing.
2) This vast array of materials on a whole range of aspects of playing create their own problem, where do i start. Someone once described this feeling as "rabbit in the headlights". Not sure what to do or where to start so the feeling is of shock, surprise uncertainty.

Interestingly this is the same reaction I witnessed in a group of learners I was working with who embarked on the Transforming Learning in the 21st century course I designed. In that case they expressed the "rabbit in the headlights" feeling but by the end of the course the learning journey they had been on was very powerful.

So how do I make sense of this......
If I have to take responsibility for the choice of my next step how does this affect my drive/motivation.
If I have a teacher to tell me what to do next is this to ensure small steps of success to maintain motivation
Or as in my other work being the one with the knowledge and experience have I identified key concepts that are essential before moving onto more complex themes.

If I focus on single note in the harmonica will I still get to my destination?

Harmonica - how much I do not know

What has become clear today is there is a lot I don't know about Harmonica's and at the moment I am not sure where to look or possibly where to start. Having watched a number of videos I now appreciate i will have to modify my peartrees to be more specific about their contents such as "bending" , "pucker or tongue blocking". I guess the best players can use all of these techniques and so in time I will have to try them all but at the moment I am not sure where to start. My inclination is to focus on the single note - I assume all music is fundamentally made up of single notes or collections of such notes but at the moment I find it difficult to create a single note because the holes are so close together. i will persevere.