does a brand or kind of harmonica affect your ability to bend notes?

does a brand or kind of harmonica affect your ability to bend notes? And how long would I need to practice it. And How to bend notes?

Answer
Absolutely. But eventually, your own bending ability will determine which harmonicas are bendable. Even a Bluesband can overblow (however crappy it comes out).

For diatonic harmonicas I recommend the “Hohner Marine Band 1896″. The Hohner Special 20 is great as well.

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Chromatic harmonicas bend, but cannot go as far down in a bend as the low-mid holes on a diatonic. They also cost a buttload of dollars, so I don’t recommend buying one until you stop breaking tons of reeds on diatonic. A reed broken on a $30 diatonic is a lot less painful than one broken on a $150+ chromatic! Though, you can replace those reeds with ones from a diatonic (so save your harmonicas!).
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Practice as you would with any musical instrument: learn basic music theory and use your ear to copy phrases and songs from the ones you hear. Getting a music teacher will be very useful, even if they don’t play harmonica.

Practice and study everyday, in increments throughout the day. Your brain encodes information much more effectively this way than one big session everyday.

As with fields like mathematics, the key is to think about it all day. You want your brain involved fairly regularly, even if you don’t have your instrument on you. Simply by thinking about or imagining the act of playing can produce physiological changes similar to those found when actually playing.

How long you need to practice depends on the goal in front of you. Is your goal to get a clear strong note? To bend? To become the greatest harmonica player in history? Don’t worry about the time it takes, just do it. The exact time it takes is almost Always undefinable. You can squeeze the datas all you want, but it is mostly never translatable on a case basis, the major reason being that learning these things is an all day, everyday, when you eat, when you poop, etc., thing, and individual routines and focus are highly variable.
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How long to bend notes? I was bending the first day I picked up a harmonica. But, I had also studied harmonica-based music materials for over a month before the first time I bought one, so I had a handle on the basic concept. Did I have great Big Walter Horton tone? Hell no. More like Howdy Doody.

You learn to bend by way of wishful thinking and trial & error. Seriously though, it is very difficult to explain, as the changes causing the bend are taking place inside our body, and much of it is simply a difference in air pressure, and the physical positions needed vary from person-to-person.

Good luck to you sir!