I'm curious, as someone new to the harp, I read a lot about tongue-blocking and I listened to the interview with Magic Dick (my childhood hero) and he uses tongue-blocking. All I know about playing the harp is what I've learned (so far) from Adam and I'm curious if there is advantages to learning tongue-blocking. It seems to me that it would just be another tool that I could use in my playing, but it also sounds much harder to learn.
Do most of you use the tongue-blocking method or not? Are there advantages one way or another? A little insight from some experienced players would be awesome.
Thanks
---------- Chris
"I'm not trying to hit the 4 draw and the 10 blow at the same time....honest!"
I originally learned by puckering and I am primarily a pucker player. You can get a lot of the TB effects with a pucker: e.g. tongue slaps can be simulated by playing the chord and then quickly narrowing the embouchure to sound a single note so that the single note/chord grooves of Big Walter for example can be approximated this way. I can't bend the 2 draw very well with a TB and I can't get 3 distinct bends at all out of the 3 draw with a TB.
On the other hand, you need to TB to get the large-interval double stops, esp octaves. Also, I can't mimic tongue slaps on the high >6 holes by puckering BUT I wouldn't even try to blow bend with a TB.
I like the chord accompaniment you can get with a TB for non-blues stuff. "Black Velvet Band" and "When the Saints" are two tunes where it works well.
Like anything, it gives you more tools to work with so I'd say it's worth learning right off if you have no preference and maybe after you can get good single notes and bends if you start out as a pucker player. It does force your lips to be relaxed so I think beginners probably are more likely to get good tone on the single notes if they TB, but I don't believe that anyone can tell a single note blown by a pro who puckers from one who TBs, no matter what the True Believers say.
I'd highly recommend both because you are missing half the fun of playing if you only do one or the other. I made the decision to learn blocking after only a couple of weeks of playing (largely because of Adam's You-Tube videos and buying Portnoy's Master Class CDs as my second instructional harp purchase. As an aside, Cheryl Arena once told me that she went to Portnoy for a lesson and he asked if she could tongue block. When she said no, he told her to come back when she could [apologies to Cheryl if I got that story wrong]).
Anyway, trying a new lick in both styles usually leads me to a new lick or a better way to set up for the next lick because of where your lips and tongue end up.
I think you can improve quicker if you challenge yourself to do something you can pucker pretty well using blocking.
If you are trying to copy off records, sometimes you can easily see which way the original artist was playing if you can try both to see what happens. This seems even more evident when playing amplified licks.
Lastly, if I can't hit a note on pitch, T-blocking makes me focus on proper breathing and takes lip-tension out of the equation. Playing harp in the rack also makes this even more evident.
Do yourself a favor and learn both.
Now, somebody tell me if this kind of logic applies to overblowing. I've tried a bit, but am sure I'll destroy many harps with my current attempts. May be time for a custom harp or proper lesson. I'm two years into playing for what it's worth.
Good Lord! That is some cool sounds. I happened to hear one of Jason's vids on the Harp Gear today--like I told him--if I had a sound like that, people would think I'm taking too much Viagra all the time!
I just gotta figure out how to afford one a those babies!
Ok, you've convinced me to learn tongue blocking. Now, where should I start. Right now, all I can do is spell tongue-blocking (is that spelled correctly? lol). I saw a Blues Harmonica Level 1 book and DVD on Dave Barrett's site. Is it good, or is there something better? Obviously, I would like something where I could hear it and see it on paper. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
---------- Chris
"I'm not trying to hit the 4 draw and the 10 blow at the same time....honest!"
cproctor: Try this and see if it works. Start on the one hole draw where there's no tongue blocking involved, and get a clean note. Next, move the harp over and try just tongue blocking the one hole draw and getting a clean two hole draw note. If you can do this, move to the three draw, blocking the first two holes ect. From there you can hopefully progress to all the draw and blow notes. I've always been a TBer and I can't for the life of me remember how I learned, but maybe this will help. Good luck.
Great vids here, you two guys! I began as a U-Blocker, just because that is the only way I could coax out a single note from the darn thing. The more I developed, the more I was convinced that I was getting a good tone and one that was fairly close to TB--until a mentor type person got to know me enough and listened to me enought to explain to me that "I just wasn't getting it!" Once I began to practice TB methods, it was very clear to me just I was missing out on. Of course, I had always TBd octaves, but the percussive sound of the tongue slapping down on the comb was an epithany for me and I've never quit working on it since. Of course, the mentor implored me to work on puckering also, just to see what I could do with my tongue off the harp. Puckering still challenges me. Anyway--
