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I built a simple harmonica practice app that shows real-time pitch and bending targets for each hole. It helps blues harp players visualize their technique and improve intonation.

No tracking, no ads, open source (MIT).

The app is available on F-Droid and GitHub. You can find more details here: https://letsbend.de

Feedback welcome!

Comments (7)

abdullahkhalids · 20m ago

This is great. Would have loved it when I used to have fun with the harmonica.

Here is a suggestion. Display a graph of played-frequency vs time. Then I can compare visually how my bending performance improves over time.

SOLAR_FIELDS · 1h ago

Bending takes a bit of practice but it’s not terribly hard. Here are some general tips for absolute beginners that are based simply on my anecdotal experience as an amateur player:

1. Don’t start with a wooden harp like marine band. The metal and plastic ones are typically a bit easier to bend.

2. One hole at a time. Ensure you can exclusively blow in a single hole to practice

3. Lower notes are generally easier to bend than higher notes

4. Make an O with your mouth and have the tongue float in the middle. Start by pulling, not pushing, in my experience bending on intake is slightly easier than bending on blowing out.

5. Tighten the lips and decrease the size of the O to increase pull force on the reed to create a bending effect, and also tighten the airflow chamber above your tongue by pulling your tongue back and up, then loosen it by moving your tongue forward and down

This tool looks great for helping improve once you’ve been able to perform the initial bend. Excited to try it out!

LorenDB · 1h ago

> Don’t start with a wooden harp like marine band. The metal and plastic ones are typically a bit easier to bend.

OTOH I find the Marine Band Crossover (with a bamboo comb) to be probably the best bending harp out there due to it receiving detailed factory setup.

> Lower notes are generally easier to bend than higher notes

Additionally, you'll probably find a lower key harp to bend better, at least to a point. I feel like an A harp is the sweet spot for bending really well without being so low that it starts becoming difficult. G harps are good too, but require you to dig deeper to get a good bend.

collingreen · 58m ago

I love seeing projects that shed a little vignette on a wide world I had no idea about! Thanks for posting!

jimmar · 34m ago

I suppose your target audience knows what “bending” means, but I had to google it after visiting your site. Maybe a sentence or two on your site explaining what bending is, or a demonstration on your intro video, would be helpful.

philip-b · 55m ago

When I was learning bending, I like the app "Bending Trainer" available for both Android and iOS, with a blue on black icon

LorenDB · 1h ago

I love to see that you've added overbend targets! Overblowing is one of my more favorite things to do on the harmonica, but due to it being an advanced technique it's often overlooked.