High Cross Squeak

Funny things, harmonicas. For the last month or so I've been steadily working through my tuition book, doing the exercises and practice tunes, and steadily improving. Even <3 has been complimentary on a couple of occasions.

The thing is that there are 3 octaves on a standard diatonic harmonica, though there are notes missing in the top and bottom octaves. I am learning blues style playing, which is most often played in "second position" (also known as "cross harp"), which means that the starting note for scales is on the "2 draw" rather than the "1 blow". This means that my C-harmonica, for example, is played in the key of G, and has 2 octaves, with a few extra notes top and bottom. (Actually, it's not truly in the key of G as there is no F# available without some clever techniques, but don't worry about that.) Following so far?

So far the exercises I have been doing have been based on the lower of these two G octaves, plus some adjacent notes. This has been going OK, though sounding the 2 draw was initially tricky due to a well documented quirk of harmonica physics, and both notes in the 1 hole are awkward because they are right at the end of the harp and my lips keep falling off the instrument. With practice, I learned ways around these problems. But then I reached some exercises based on the upper G octave, and all of a sudden I could barely make the damn thing squeak, let alone play nice, clear notes!

It would seem this is common, and new players often have difficulty playing the high holes due to puckering up too much and restricting air flow to the holes. The solution is, apparently, to make sure the mouth is well relaxed and ensure the air is breathed up from the diaphragm. Easier said than done, but I am slowly... very slowly getting there. If I can get through this section the next few exercises should be a bit easier.