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Bending notes to play pitches that are not designed into the harmonica is the very essence of blues, rock, and country harp playing. Bending notes on a harmonica is the lowering (and sometimes raising) of the pitch of a note by altering the direction of the airflow and the shape of your vocal cavity. Through the traditional bending technique, you can play 32 notes on your 10-hole major diatonic harmonica, as opposed to the 20 that are available in its design. Here’s how you do it.

The Basics of Bending

The notes available on a C-major diatonic harmonica through bending are shown in the following drawing.

This C-major diatonic harmonica’s range includes most of the white and black keys on a piano, but it does not give you a pure chromatic scale because many of the notes are out of order and in different octaves.

There are a few important things to observe in this drawing:

• There are five draw notes and three blow notes that can be bent on a major diatonic harmonica.
• Five of the notes can be bent a half step down in pitch (the 1-4-6 draw holes and 8-9 blow holes). Two of the notes can be bent down two half steps in pitch (the 2-draw-hole and 10-blow-hole), and one of them can be bent down three half steps in pitch (the 3-draw-hole).
• On any one hole, you can bend only the higher of the two notes available on that hole. For example, you can play a blow C and a draw D on the 4-hole. The D is higher than the C, so you can bend only the draw D. On the 8-hole, you can play a blow G (higher) and a draw F (lower). You can bend only the blow G on this hole.
• The larger the interval between the two notes available on any hole, the greater the bend you can achieve. For example, the interval between the blow and draw notes on the 4-hole is one full step, and you can bend the higher of these notes a half step. The interval between the blow and draw notes on the 3-hole is two full steps, and you can bend the higher of these notes three half steps.
• You can bend the higher note on any hole down to a pitch that is approximately one half step higher than the lower note on that hole. For example, the draw D on the 4-hole can be bent down to a D flat, which is one half step higher than the blow C on the 4-hole. You can bend the draw B on the 3-hole down to an A flat, which is one half step higher than the blow G on the 3-hole.
• Note that the 5-draw and 7-blow are designated as question marks. You cannot achieve a pure bend on either of these holes. You can bend the pitch down somewhere between the draw and blow notes available for that hole, but you can’t achieve a half-step bend. That’s because the blow and draw notes on these holes are already only a half step apart. Remember that you only can bend down to a pitch one half step higher than the lower note on the hole. For these holes, the high note is only one half step higher than the low note to begin with, so there isn’t room to bend a half step.

The Physics of Bending

The flattened pitches you can achieve through bending notes on any hole actually are created by the interaction of that hole’s draw and blow reeds. As the higher reed (in pitch) is bent, the lower reed begins to vibrate as well. This is caused by the alterations to your airflow and vocal cavity that result from your bending technique. The farther the higher reed is bent down, the more the lower reed vibrates until the higher reed eventually stops vibrating altogether. At this point, the lower-pitched reed is almost entirely creating the bent note. For example, if you bend the draw D on the 4-hole of a C-major diatonic harmonica, the reed for the blow C on that hole begins to vibrate. It will vibrate more as you increase your bend until eventually the draw reed stops vibrating, and your resulting bent note is being mostly produced by the blow C reed.

The Technique of Bending

The technique for bending notes is not an easy thing to describe in a way that’s understandable for anyone who hasn’t done it before. Part of the problem is that bending is a somewhat “subjective” technique in that each person might approach it somewhat differently to get the same result. In addition, we’re describing things you have to do with your mouth, tongue, and vocal cavity that normal humans just don’t do. The following tips are for producing draw bends on the major diatonic harmonica. For now, use only the 4-hole draw, as it’s the easiest to get started on. Remember, the goal is to change your airflow and the shape of your vocal cavity so that you change the flow of air over the reeds, thus changing the way that they vibrate. Keep these tips in mind as you go through the exercises.

Ten Tips for Bending Draw Notes

1. Think your notes lower. Much of the success of your note bends will come from your brain in addition to your mouth. Think the notes lower by focusing on opening your throat, enlarging your vocal cavity, and playing the flattened note in your head.
2. Try whistling a high note and then a low note. Then sing a high note followed by a low note. Do you feel what happens to your vocal cavity and airflow? You want to get that same feeling to bend your draw notes.
3. Stay relaxed. Place the harp deep into your mouth. Maintain a controlled, focused airflow.
4. For starters, play a 4-draw on your harmonica. Without doing anything else, tilt the harmonica downward slowly to an angle and then bring it back up. You’ll hear the pitch flatten. You do not want to do this when bending a draw note. As you probably noticed, the tone became thin and pinched in addition to lower. Now you know the effect that changing the direction of your airflow has on the reed’s pitch.
5. When playing a draw bend, focus on dropping your tongue flat against the bottom of your mouth, lowering your jaw, and opening your throat wide. All this creates the right shape for your vocal cavity. A side effect of this will be that, as you drop everything lower, you’ll feel your nose pinch shut. That’s good. You don’t want any air up there. The idea is to change the shape of your vocal cavity by lowering it.
6. You should purse, or pinch, your lips slightly to help achieve the bend. You should feel your upper lip tighten slightly downward at the corners and your lower lip raise just slightly. Don’t overdo this, because you’re not trying to cut off the airflow. Pursing your lips merely helps you control and change the direction of the airflow.
7. Use vowels to help you lower the pitch. Mouth a “weeeh” sound while drawing the note and then switch to an “aauh” sound. This will naturally cause you to lower your jaw, drop your tongue, and enlarge your vocal cavity.
8. Just think about sticking your jaw out there like Popeye the Sailor Man. Stick it out and be proud. If you can get the right jaw action, your tongue, throat, and lip positioning will fall into place naturally.
9. To bend single notes, it’s much easier to use the pucker technique than the tongue-block technique. However, it’s good to learn both techniques because tongue-block bends create a different effect than pucker bends and are preferable for some styles.
10. Do not breathe air any harder. Creating a draw (or blow) bend does not require more air. Blowing or drawing harder only makes your bends more difficult. The reason you alter the shape of your mouth cavity is to increase air pressure on the two participating reeds.

Now that you know how to bend notes on your harmonica you can play rock, blues, and jazz like a pro. Happy playing!

From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing the Harmonica, Second Edition, by William Melton and Randy Weinstein