Hold the harmonica between the thumb and the index finger of your left hand, the low notes on your left.

Place your right hand behind the instrument to form a cup with the fingers of your left hand.

Choose a comfortable position : the right hand should be able to move easily to modify the sound or activate the button on the chrom.

The lips

Wrap your lips loosely around the mouthpiece of the harmonica and pronounce the letter " O ".
The harmonica should rest on the wet inner part of the lips. This way you get a better air seal and the harmonica slides without hurting.

The tongue

Studying the harmonica will prove without a doubt that the tongue is a wonderful instrument !

- In "normal" playing, the tongue is loose and " flat ", the tip touching the bottom front teeth.
- Tonguing is using the tip of the tongue to articulate syllables (TA, KA, GA ...) varying the attack of the notes : from legato to (very) staccato.
- To bend the notes, pull the tongue back toward the throat, and let the tip drop down below the bottom front teeth...

Other tongue techniques :

Trills
To make trills, cover two holes and move the tongue rapidly from side to side which alternates the air flow between the two notes.

Harmonizing
Cover several holes with your mouth and use the tip of the tongue to block the central ones, splitting the air in order to play selected notes simultaneously.

Tongue blocking
Cover several holes with your mouth, play the melody with the corner of the mouth (more often on the right side), use the tip of the tongue to rhythmically block the other holes (generally the ones on the left).

Bending

The bending technique adds life and expression to your playing but most of all gives access to notes that are not in the original structure of the harmonica.

This is particularly effective on the Marine Band ten hole, single reed, diatonic model.

By changing the shape of your mouth you can lower the note you are playing while drawing on the first six holes and blowing on the upper four ones.

The explanation is simple even if it will take a little time to apply: start on the fourth hole drawn, for instance. Imagine the air is a ping pong ball that you are trying to pull (to the back of your throat) with your tongue. Or, still while inhaling, pronounce Ahhhhhhh quietly, then KOUH very loudly. Try the same thing but instead while blowing into the ninth hole.

The result is that both of the reeds in the same hole vibrate together to offer you the intervals between them. On a C harp, the fourth hole drawn bends from D to C ; the ninth hole blown bends from G to F etc...

The jaw

The lower your jaw, the fatter your sound, the higher the pitch. Note how the sound becomes more piercing when you tighten your teeth.

The throat

You can get a deep vibrato effect by using the throat as a rhythmic valve:
pronounce Ah Ah Ah Ah... (without vocalizing !). Try to modulate intensity and speed using the mood and the tempo of the music.

The nose

The nose helps you to regulate the flow of air when you play. Be careful to not let the air leak through the nose or at the corners of the lips when you blow.

Overblowing

Overblowing (or overdrawing) allows you to achieve a complete chromatic scale on the ten hole diatonic by blowing in a special way into the first six holes and drawing the same way on the four upper ones ; exactly where you cant bend !

Overblowing (or overdrawing ) gives you extra notes over the highest one in the hole. For example on a C harp: Eb overblown on the fourth hole or Ab overdrawn on the ninth hole.

This technique is similar to bending but a little more difficult to master because you can’t pass gradually from the original note to the overblow.
Try this: blow softly on hole six of a C harp (G) pronouncing Ahhh, then blow harder in the same hole pronouncing Veeee. The gap between the reed and the reedplate should not be too big to obtain overblows easily.
Try this chromatic scale :

Difficult... but exciting !

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