A very helpful hint when trying to play the harmonica well is to create a little tension in the airflow before you play a note. This can be accomplished by the way you breathe air through the harp or, more specifically, by keeping two “nonwords” or syllables in mind that you can use to determine your “attack” on a note — those syllable sounds are “Duh” and “Tuh.”

The term attack refers to the way a note begins. A soft attack would be achieved by striking the note lightly, such as plucking a guitar string gently with the soft pad of your finger or hitting a piano key gently. A hard or sharp attack would be achieved by plucking a guitar string strongly with a pick or striking a piano key with force.

In the case of the harmonica a soft attack is achieved by blowing or drawing gently into the hole, starting with just enough air to make the reed begin to vibrate and then gently ramping up the amount of air to make the note sound fuller. To get a sharp attack on a harmonica blow note, you would build up some blow air pressure in your mouth and then release it suddenly into the hole by starting your release of air with a consonant sound like a “T.” To get a sharp attack on a draw note, you would build up some draw air pressure in your mouth and then draw suddenly on the hole by starting your draw of air with a consonant sound like a “D.”

To get a sharp attack on draw notes on the harmonica, when drawing air through the harp, put your tongue against the roof of your mouth as if to say “Duh” and then release the air flow making the reed vibrate cleanly and strongly from the very beginning of your note. You'll do the same thing to get a sharp attack on blow notes, except when blowing you'll use “Tuh” as your syllable. This will be discussed further in Chapter 6.

It is also important to note that you don't want to breathe through your nose while playing harmonica. Breathing through your nose while playing will make your sound weak and make it harder to get good, clean notes and bends. If you normally breathe through your nose, this will feel strange at first, but it will help your sound immensely.

The exception to this is an interesting technique called circular breathing that horn players as well as Yoga enthusiasts have probably heard of. Circular breathing allows a musician to play a continuous stream of notes indefinitely with no break for air between them. How is this possible? Here's the secret — the musician momentarily allows air pressure to build up in his mouth, cheeks, and throat, and for brief moments every now and then he uses that pressure to keep air flowing through the instrument while at the same time taking a quick breath through his nose, allowing the air to keep going. Some well-known harmonica players have used this technique, including Pat Missin and Howard Levy.

If you are aware and able to control your breathing in this circular way, you already have expert knowledge of breathing techniques, but if like most players you don't use this technique, you will have to learn to breathe in and out at alternating intervals and learn to develop a sense of when to inhale and exhale during your playing. One good place to start is to get used to breathing in or out as required at the end of each phrase you play, a phrase being a group of notes that expresses one musical idea. Eventually you won't even have to think about when to breathe because it will come naturally.

Lastly on this topic, it might interest you to know that in some medical circles harmonica playing has been prescribed to help patients with breathing problems improve their breath control. So making beautiful music just may be good for your health!