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.
