Q: Should I break my harp in?

A: Some people say it's necessary, some people say it isn't. Anyway it couldn't hurt to play softly at first and don't bend the notes too far. Then after the first hour of playing or so you could start playing harder. This could lengthen the life of your harps -- BB

Some purists take a new harmonica apart and re-tune and re-gap each reed to optimize it to their playing style before they even start to play, and then break it in (more on this below) ! -- HA

((FMI: "Reed Fatigue" 26 Mar 94 RJ (FMI: "Re: Breaking in revisited" 27 Mar 94 TA (FMI: "Tongue Blocking Again" 31 May 94 WY (FMI: "Why do reeds fail?" 22, 23 May 95 RE, DT (FMI: "Reed fail follow-up" 27 May 95 RE

Others finish the reeds in a special manner to minimize transverse scratches and thereby prolonging life. Pretty involved -- HA

(FMI: "re:Classical Harmonica and long lasting reeds" 21 Apr 95 DT) (FMI: "Classical Music and long lasting reeds" 21 Apr 95 DT) (FMI: "The Tate Method" 25 Apr 95 DT)