Why your harmonicas go out of tune! (And what to do about it) 

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4:55 "... when we bend notes we are tuning the inside of our mouth to the pitch of the bend that we want ." This is probably the best description of how to do a bend that I have heard. It is a great insight into what we are doing when we use that little instrument to get the variety of sounds that we can hear when good players play. Will you are a monster!!

Greetings from Poland - thank you Will.

Although I love both Hohner and Seydel harps, the harp that has lasted me the longest (and is still in tune to this day) is a regular Hohner Marine Band (which of course has brass reeds). Thanks for addressing this topic Will 👍

Hi Will, I have played guitar, piano and harmonica (64 chromatic) for many many years, always as a hobby. I have recently become more interested in blues harmonica and was listening to your singing voice and harp vibrato. You have a very good singing voice with a very natural vibrato which, I am sure, is directly related to your ability to produce your very strong harmonica vibrato. My own singing vibrato is not natural but i will keep practicing your harmonica vibrato technique with my 4 Special 20's and my 2 new Seydel C and A Wilde tuned harps. Thank You

2nd problem kind of happened to me, i figured out that when i was playing to hard on 2 draw and 3 n 4 mb and it was outside during cold autumn wind, now i am more cautious, playing this harp still even though reeds sound stressed while all tuned good! Thank you for making this video, Will! I believe this is the first video regarding this topic as a whole on youtube.

Excellent explanation thanks!

Excellent video, great tips, thank you Will 👍👌

Excellent video Will! You are a pro at explaining the idiosyncrasies that may not be Easily identified even by harmonica players who have been at it for years Cheers !

Very good Will! Thank you.

Playing on stage with ear plugs definitely helps if you can't hear yourself in the monitors. I accidentally discovered this by forgetting to take them out before playing on stage and now I won't play on stage without them. Thanks and keep on doing your thing with that harp!

Thanks Will, very interesting. I like the tip about inhaling and tuning your breath. I suppose it could be practiced by whistling on an inhale to find the right pitch. Good stuff, cheers!

I saw you for the first time on Saturday in Laives Italy and it was love at first sight

Great stuff! Thanks

Great advice, sometimes we just need reminding of the obvious. Thanks Will.

I like that you are talking about this. When I started playing I was dead broke, and the thought of blowing out reeds terrified me. Barbeque Bob Maglinte was preaching the 'play like there is a baby sleeping in the next room' gospel, as opposed to the harder players. He said you could get good tone without playing hard. Bob's a great player, but and he can get plenty of dirt in his sound, but he doesn't have that super aggressive sound that you do. I always get push back from players who say they can't get the sound they want without playing hard. It's great to see someone with killer tone saying they aren't a super hard player. For what it's worth, you had another video where you discussed your embouchure, and it was the closest description to what I do I'd heard anyone describe (although I do a weird thing where I angle the harp side to side to isolate notes, even when I have multiple holes open to my mouth... something I've only run into a couple other players who do, the part about getting the oral cavity in the front of your mouth...) First reed I ever blew out I showed up at practice... usually we had acoustic practices, and I didn't have an amp. This time everyone else had an amp, and I had to keep up on volume. The poor little harp was only two weeks old... RIP I try to tell new players especially to start gentle. The metaphor I like to use is to compare the harmonica to an amplifier volume control. The harmonica can play anywhere from 1-10 without any problem, but it's not designed to play at eleven. When you are starting out, your volume control is loose and sloppy. It's numbers are just kind of painted on wherever. If you try to play at 9 you might end up playing anywhere from 7 to 11, because you just don't have that fine control. You don't have the muscle memory, you get excited by a fun riff and stop paying attention, you haven't learned how to adjust your actual amp... whatever. As you get more experienced you 'upgrade' your volume control. It's recalibrated and instead of having a lot of slop in it you have super fine control. You can play at 7.7 if you want, and maybe you might accidentally play at 7.9 or 7.7, but it's going to be much tighter range. At that point you know what the harmonica can do. You can feel when you are pushing it too hard, you know how to turn up the amp when you need to or when to tell the sound guy you need more monitor, you can recognize when you are getting ear fatigue, and you can get get a good dirty sound at 2 if you have to, either acoustically, or by playing with your settings. Love your playing :)

I love herring that testimony from you thank you 😊

Thank you 🙏

2.16 for sixteen seconds > this is great because the reason Im relearning blues harmonica is to help my asthma, I never thought of breathing from below. Great stuff Will.

Thanks!

I just checked out your band, Bad Luck Friday, and I'm an instant fan, you guys are so good and anyone who hasn't heard their songs needs to

Thanks Will.

Thank you❤❤❤❤😊

Great discussion topic! My band mates always tease me saying "harmonica players only suck half the time".

Thanks so much for this, Will. Two questions: 1) Do all harps blow out at the same rate or do some withstand more of the kind of abuse you refer to here? Obviously cheap harps will go out of tune more quickly, but what about good harps? 2) Do you recommend retuning reeds? (Note: I've never attempted that and I don't plan on doing so, unless you tell me it's a piece of cake 🙂.)

Nicely explained Will, you may have saved me a few quid 😅 Love your Freebird bye the way ❤

Spot on! I will be passing along this wisdom to my Harmonikateens 🏄‍♂️ #missionharmonicacircle

Hi Will I thought I would come back on my comment about my 1847 silver in D being stiff on 3 draw. I emailed a guy called John Cook who advised me to close the gap on 3 blow reed as much as I could without choking it off. I did this and my 1847 D is now perfect😄. There was too much air leaking until I did that - Also this is probably silly but I have found on the 1847 you can bring the cover plates completely flush with the comb rather than have them as intended much more comfortable😎

The monitor issue when playing electric on clubs with rock bands has been the culprit for me a few times for sure

Ah there it is. Thanks, Will!😎

Thanks for the advice prolonging the life of the harmonica. Keep up the great work!

I don't know if this is a flex or not, but I've never blown out a reed on my harps. I play Hohners most of the time (mainly pre-2023 Golden Melodies and Special 20s) and I know brass doesn't last as long as steel, or so they say, but I never blew any of them out over the course of playing over 4 years on the instrument.

I customize harmonicas including, replacing and re-tuning reeds, so if y’all have old harps that need work let me know!

Can a homonica get out of tune that has been sitting if so what should you do? Someone said rinse in hot water and tap it out.

Sehr gut erkärt ich bin nicht so Fit in Englisch und spiele auch am liebsten SYDEL

I have a diamondback C chroma and I can’t bend notes at very much. It mostly sounds like a timbre change. Are keyed harps made to bend more?

My harps tend to last a long time. Having said that, there has been two or three occassions in the past 7 years where a reed has literally snapped off. The ramifications are a little disconcerting, if you know what I mean?

Good advice Will..Keep your reeds dry also

V cool 😎

Will, you are amazing at harp and the physically fittest of all the top harp players. Do you think that helps? I'm thinking with the breathing side, but also the raw muscular side of things to be able to do those intense killer energy-gigs that you do when you're doing all that power rolling. Plus, good diet. Most of the top players are out of shape and would be in a heap if they shared a stage with you.

I bought your ultimate course, I also have Wilde tuned 1847s in C and A. Is there a section in the course on hitting that high electric guitar note you hit twice in this video? which holes are you drawing? I couldn't figure it out on my own harp.

Because i don't have it

Draw 1 is my nightmare

So... as long as I use the correct air pressure and intonation my harps will never go out of tune?

Sometimes one of my notes starts in tune just fine, but then kind of sounds like it's shaking out of tune and goes weak or something. Any idea what this could be? I'm wondering if maybe something got stuck on the reed or something. I'm a beginner and have no idea

Thx Will, wish I new that years ago, guitarist with Marshall stacks have killed a Lotta cowboys

Beginners blow out reeds a lot ? I guess thats a good reason to start with a session harp instead of the 1847.

Second!

Nowadays they use Cheap reeds so they can sell more Harps they used to last forever

Seydel with steel reeds stay in tune for a long time. Brass reeds get out of tune pretty quickly.

Ты лучший! Как же мне научиться делать такое вибрато?