When playing in first position most of what you will play are blow notes and chords. Blowing requires that you economize with your breath so that you don't run out of air in the middle of a place where you should be playing. If you tend to blow as hard as you can, two things will happen: first, you will make the harp sound forced and distorted, and second, you will blow out the reeds. This means that either the reed can become permanently stuck or, much worse, go out of tune. If you don't notice that you have an out-of-tune reed, it can be disastrous during play, not to mention expensive to replace.

The better approach to playing first position is to get the sound you want using the least amount of effort necessary. Notes played cleanly and with good breath control sound a lot better than loud, out-of-tune, or forced notes. The emphasis on clear, clean notes rather than loud ones is important because if you are unplugged, there are a lot of instruments that you simply cannot compete with for volume. This will make you want to play as loud as you can, and that will lead to some poor-sounding harp playing. If you are amplified, it is best to let the amp do the loud part while you just play it cool and stay focused on your clear playing. Let your amp create a desirable distorted sound, rather than distorting the sound of your harp out of fear of not being heard.

Lastly, you might find that on a song that has been played with a lot of volume and energy from the beginning, when it's time for the harmonica solo there's an opportunity for you to step up and play a soft, pretty melody to create contrast and bring the dynamics of the music down.

In today's music there's often a lot of pressure to be loud, and it can seem hard to compete against that trend when loudness is commonly equated with excitement. But just as you wouldn't want to eat the same food every day, hearing music at just one volume gets boring pretty quickly, and playing music at one volume only limits the emotional palette you have to work with.