轻柔吹奏是否能延长新口琴的寿命？

　　There is a long established piece of advice that states if you play your new harmonica very gently when it is new, that it will somehow extend its playing life. I know of no reliable evidence to suggest that there is any truth in this. However, this does not stop people going though the ritual of playing them gently for the first week, or even going to the extreme of holding them out of their car windows as they drive down the road, letting the wind "loosen up" the reeds - which to me just sounds like a good way to get bugs in your harp! The most often used explanation is something like "Well, when you get a new car you have to drive it gently for the first few miles, before letting it rip." This is true, but it has very little relevance to how the harmonica works. Car engines have lots of parts that come into contact with each other and everything needs to settle into place in order to work together optimally. A harmonica has free reeds that vibrate in an airstream and they do not （unless there is a problem with the harp） come into contact with other components. Here is a better example - if you take a brand new saw and only cut balsa with it for the first week, will it last any longer when you start sawing up oak with it?

　　在拿到新口琴以后先轻轻演奏一段时间以延长口琴的寿命，这是一种常见的观点。不过我并没有见过任何明显的证据表明这一建议的正确性。当然，仍有人会例行公事地轻轻演奏他们的新口琴一个星期，甚至走极端——在开车时把口琴伸出窗外，让风来“放松”口琴的簧片。在我看来，这正是把口琴搞出毛病的好办法。有人解释说，“新汽车需要经过一个磨合期才可以飙起来”，这是对的，但是这不适用于口琴。汽车引擎有很多的零部件，它们需要一段时间的磨合才能很好地协同工作，但口琴只有一个在气流中振动的自由簧片，除非故障，簧片不会与任何其他部件接触（也就不存在磨合的问题）。举一个例子：如果你有一柄新锯准备用来锯硬木，但是在开始使用它的第一个星期，你只锯软木，那么以后锯硬木的时候它的寿命就会更长么？

　　When I first started playing the harmonica, I used to "break them in" very carefully and my harps would generally last a few weeks before I wore them out. After more than twenty years of playing, I now no longer bother to give them any special treatment when they are new and my harps seem to last almost indefinitely. I am still playing some of the first Lee Oskars that I bought back in 1986 and in the last fifteen years, I think I have only worn out four or five reeds due to playing them （although I have damaged quite a few reeds by experimenting with them）。 This includes several seasons working as a street musician for three months of the year, playing for eight hours a day, six days a week. That's an awful lot of time that my poor reeds have spent vibrating back and forth. The reason that they have last so long is not that they had any magical treatment in their early life, but simply that I play with good technique, that achieves volume and projection without undue stress on the reeds. That technique is something that a good teacher should be able to explain, but it is a little beyond the scope of this web page.

　　刚刚开始学琴的时候，我经常很小心地“开琴”，我的口琴通常会在几个星期后用坏。吹了二十多年口琴以后，我不再为新口琴的做什么特殊处理，至于我的口琴能用多久，这难以确定。现在我仍然在吹一些Lee Oskar最早的口琴。这些琴是我1986年买到的，大约已经用了十五年。口琴中有好多簧片是被我做实验弄坏的，但我认为我真正吹坏的簧片只有四五个。这包括我曾经数次在一年的三个月中作为街头乐手每个星期演奏六天，每天演奏八小时，我可怜的簧片不得不在这漫长的时间里疲于奔命。然而这些簧片寿命很长。这并不是因为它们在使用初期经过了什么神奇的处理，而是因为我有合理的演奏技术，在获得足够的音量时并不给簧片过大的负担。优秀的口琴教师应该懂得这种技术，不过这超出了这篇文章的讨论范围。

　　I have heard many arguments to explain the process of "breaking in", but none of them have been very convincing. People with a better knowledge of metallurgy than I have, tell me that once you start to flex a piece of brass backwards and forwards, you start to fatigue it. Doing it gently for the first few hours merely delays the inevitable fatal fatigue. Of course, if you always play your harps gently, they will last much longer than if you abuse them, but reeds do not become "more flexible" if you break them in, nor do the reeds become "easier to bend". What does happen during the first few hours of playing is that the tiny gaps between the reedplates and the comb start to seal up. If the comb is made from wood, the wood absorbs the moisture and swells to form a tight seal against the brass plates; if the comb is plastic or metals, bits of gunk from your mouth start to seal up any air leaks. These things make the harp more "efficient" as less of your breath is being wasted. This makes the harp more responsive and easier to play, but this is not due to any magical effect on the brass of the reeds.

　　我曾听说过关于“开琴”过程的诸多解释，但其中没有一个有足够的说服力。懂金属学的人告诉我，当你反复弯曲一块金属的时候，它就开始疲劳了。在开始的一段时间里轻轻地弯曲它并不会推迟最终的断裂。当然，如果你总是轻轻吹奏你的口琴，它的寿命会比你虐待它的情况下长出许多。但是“开琴”并不会使簧片更柔软或者更易于压音。在你吹奏新琴的头几个小时里，确实发生的事情是簧板和琴格之间的细小缝隙会被密封住。如果琴格是木制的，潮气会使之膨胀，琴格和簧板会变得更紧密；如果琴格是塑料或者金属制成，你的口水等等也会逐渐密封那些漏气的缝隙。这时口琴会变得更好吹，是因为浪费的空气减少了，而不是因为簧片有了什么神奇的变化。

　　Recently, the advocates of "breaking in" harmonicas have claimed that the procedure is akin to a metallurgical process called "coaxing". However, the following passage is from an authoritative textbook Mechanical Metallurgy, 2nd Ed. by George E. Dieter:

　　最近，有“开琴”的鼓吹者声称此过程类似于冶金学的的“coaxing”处理，但是权威资料显示并非如此：

　　If a specimen is tested without failure for a large number of cycles below the fatigue limit and the stress increased in small incremements after allowing a large number of cycles to occur at each stress level, it is found that the resulting fatigue limit may be as much as 50 percent greater than the initial fatigue limit. This procedure is known as coaxing. An extensive investigation of coaxing （G. M. Sinclair, American Society of Testing and Materials, Proceedings vol.52, pp 743-758, 1952） showed a direct correlation between a strong coaxing effect and the ability for the material to undergo strain aging. Thus, mild steel and ingot iron show a strong coaxing effect, while brass, aluminum alloys, and heat-treated low-alloy steels show little improvement in their properties from coaxing.

　　这一段是《机械冶金学》中的片断，比较专业，感觉不容易准确翻译。大体就是说coaxing可以延缓金属疲劳，延迟断裂，并且低碳钢和纯铁等比较适合coaxing，而黄铜，铝合金等不适合coaxing。

　　So from this it can be seen that coaxing is a very precise process which is not really comparable to advice such as "play it gently for a while before you let rip", or "hold it out of your car window for a few minutes as you drive down the highway". It can also be seen the none of the materials from which harmonica reeds are typically made （various types of brass and in some very rare cases, stainless steel） are known not to benefit from the coaxing process.

　　从上面可以看出coaxing是一个相当精密的处理过程，与“轻轻演奏”和“开车时把口琴放到窗外”并没有可比性。而且口琴簧片的材料（主要为黄铜，也有极少见的情况下是不锈钢）并不适合coaxing。

　　One thing which certainly does happen is that the player becomes more used to the instrument. As you will have noticed if you've ever accidentally put the harp into your mouth the wrong way around （we've all done it!） each reed requires a slightly different playing technique. If you accidentally draw on hole 9 thinking that it is hole 2, the chances are that no note at all will sound. You make an incredible amount of tiny adjustments to your playing technique for each hole of the harp, these adjustments being made almost unconsciously - I believe that a large part of the "breaking in period" has more to do with breaking in the player than with breaking in the harp.

　　确实会发生的一件事是演奏者会逐渐熟悉和适应自己手中的乐器。大家可能都注意到了，如果你偶然使用了错误的含琴方法，那么每个孔的演奏方法都要有些变化。如果你把琴拿反了，以为自己是在吸第二孔，但实际上是第九孔，那么可能不会发出任何声音。实际上，在吹奏口琴的过程中，你会对自己的动作做出无数细微的调整（以使口琴的每个音孔都正常发声），这种调整通常是无意识的——我相信，在“开琴”的过程中，真正改变的是演奏者而不是口琴（与其说是“开”琴，不如说是“开”演奏者）。

　　译注（一些题外话）：一个类似的事实是，初学者往往会被告知口琴的不同音孔其用气的方法是不一样的。要想尽快入门，必须尽快熟悉不同音孔的用气方式，在高音跳到低音或者相反的时候，可以马上调整气息，这样才能连贯演奏。这种调整会随着练习的深入变成无意识的。这个时候就可以说你已经开始熟悉这件乐器了。再进一步，主动地调整气息，有意识地在每一个音孔上找出省力而发音好听的用气方法并反复练习，甚至直到把这种气息练成下意识的行为，这是初学者快速取得进步的一种有效方法。另外，判断一支口琴质量如何的一个方面，就是看它是否有个别音孔太“个性”，比如特别难吹，音色和其他音孔差别过大等等。在这种情况下，要想在曲子中保持统一的音色比较困难，因为每到那个特别的地方，气息的调整就超出了下意识的范围，演奏者就要分心考虑，比如：又到那个难吹的音了，得多使点劲儿……等等。一般认为这样的口琴是不推荐使用的，尤其是半音阶口琴。

　　In the case of the chromatic harmonica, it is probably a good idea not to let rip in the first few minutes. Unlike most diatonics, the typical chromatic has valves which may take a while to settle properly into place. But in the case of blues harps, there is really nothing to be gained from "babying" them in their first weeks. How long your reeds last will depend upon how you play them, as well as on the harps themselves. Some harps （Lee Oskar and Suzuki ProMaster for example） have reputations for lasting longer than others. A harp which is well adjusted to your own playing style will tend to last longer, as you will be placing less strain on the reeds when you play. Good playing technique will also help, but keep your harp in its box all the time and it will probably last forever!

　　对于半音阶口琴，一段时间轻柔的演奏大概是有好处的。因为与全音阶（这里应该指十孔——译）口琴不同，典型的半音阶口琴存在盖膜，盖膜可能需要一段时间的演奏才能处于更合适的位置上。但是对于布鲁斯口琴，“娇惯”他们一个星期并没有特别的好处。簧片的寿命取决于你如何演奏，更取决于簧片本身（材料，质量等等）。确实有些口琴，比如Lee Oskar和Suzuki Pro Master，有着耐用的好名声。另外，一支经过调整，适应于你自己的演奏方式的口琴更耐用，因为这样的口琴在你演奏的时候簧片的负担较小。优秀的演奏技术也会有帮助，当然，把你的口琴装在盒子里从来不用，那么它永远也不会损坏。

　　译注：“开琴”这种事情到底有没有好处是一个比较争议的话题，我这种布鲁斯年龄太小的人没有对这个的亲身体会。事实上我还没有一支口琴是被吹坏的。不知道有没有人做过实验，用一大堆一个牌子一个批次的口琴做对照分组，看看“开琴”到底有没有效果；或者用X光机或超声波什么的检查，“开琴”前后簧片的内应力分布是否有变化。也许可以得到更可信的解释