2 Hole Bend Question

Street Player Dude · Member

RE: 2 Hole Bend Question

Shipwreck49 · Newbie

Hello John B.

My apologies for being a bore with what
has to be the everpresent and reccuring
question. As you have no doubt already
suspected I DID indeed confuse the one
for the two semitone bend.
I bought the chromatic tuner ap for my
I phone right after posting that last mssg
and got a nasty shock. Wish I had gotten
it 8 months ago when I was starting out.
Now that I am disgraced I have returned
to the low register scales and am trying
to unlearn my mistakes by playing the 3
and 2 hole bends at the correct pitch with
the chromatic tuner hanging in front of
my nose.
Thanks for your response.
If anyone else happens to read this
who is also just picking up the instrument
and trying to learn without a teacher, be
warned. Get someone to critique your 2
and 3 hole bends for correct pitch. I think
that the chromatic tuner might also be a
good idea if you don't have a veteran
advisor at hand.
Damn.

John Broecker · Veteran Member

Hole 2 of a C Richter system, 10-hole diatonic harmonica has a total of 4 tones available without the use of overblows: from highest pitch to lowest: a regular (no bending) draw G, and a draw bend Gb(F#),draw bend F, and regular E (blow, no bend).

Hole 3 has even more. Five tones are available without overblowing: regular draw B, draw bend Bb(A#), draw bend A, draw bend Ab(G#), and regular blow G.

Hole 10 has 4 available notes without overdrawing: regular C blow, B blow bend, Bb blow bend, and A regular draw.

More tones are available throughout the range of the 10-hole diatonic, with the use of the overblowing and overdrawing techniques.

With overblowing-overdrawing and bend-draw and bend-blow notes, we can get a complete chromatic 3 octave range on the diatonic, similar to playing a 12-hole slide chromatic.

But the bend-blow, bend-draw and overblow/overdraw are more difficult to control
(to find the correct pitch). The chromatic harps have all 12 notes of the chromatic scale available, with a few duplicates, all usually in tune.

John Broecker

Shipwreck49 · Newbie

I have a question about my 2 hole draw bend on a
C harp. Isn't there a tone that goes lower and
flatter than the 2 semitone bend on the 2 hole
draw? What is that?
I think that I am playing the regular 2 semitone
bend correctly because I am hearing it fit into the
scale properly. I don't believe that I am confusing
the one semitone bend for the two semitone bend
BUT, I am able to go further and get a flatter tone
before I run out of bend. Sounds cool. Know any
examples off hand of how this sound has been
used in recorded blues?