Here is tongue blocking perfection. This song--the faster version called "Creeper Creeps Again"--changed my life. Cotton is hitting it VERY hard. His tone is perfect on the vocal mic. This is why I encourage players not to worry quite so much about amps, mics, or, for that matter, technique. It's about the sound: the pure, raw sound produced by harp, lips, and tongue. Cotton makes a sound at 5:23 that no other player I've ever heard can come close to--and I've heard a lot of them. It's a TB double stop with powerful vibrato. If I'm not wrong, he's playing through a solid state PA. Nothing vintage here--except his natural sound, of course.
@Budah "These kinds of threads are dumb. Focus on music not technique"
These threads are only "dumb" to the people that already know both techniques. When a lip pursing beginner hears that Tongue Blocking give the tone and style that is needed to play "Chicago Blues", he needs to decide where to spend his time learning. No one wants to say, "if I had only known this years ago I would not of wasted all that time."
After 9 years of lip pursing, I am just now getting into tongue blocking. So far, I do not consider tongue blocking to be the answer to everything (as some may sugest), but I am glad that I am learning it.
Adam, that is something I keep telling players all the time. The last all tube PA was the Fender PA100, which was discontinued in 1985, and PA's are just about always solid state. Like I've always said, if you got your tone, chops, and resonance together acoustically, it ain't gonna matter what you play thru because that will always shine thru and Cotton's a classic example of that. On the other hand, if you've never bothered to get that together before getting into the gear, the PA will quickly expose you.
The single baddest harp tone I've ever heard was from Howlin' Wolf, who I saw several times before he passed away, and he always blew thru the PA and there was no mistaking that fabulous tone and slow, deep vibrato he had. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I tonuge block on on holes 4 and above so I can get a full chord as rhythm with my lead note or a full chord when I'm tongue slapping. It's a nice effect which sounds like a chord being punched through one hole. You can get a tongue blocking type sound on the 2 hole by lip blocking. That's simple to do. You put your mouth over the 1, 2 and 3 holes and say TUH-DOO. You are playing the chord on the TUH sound and when you say DOO your lips naturally block out the 1 and 3 holes and you're only on the 2 hole for the DOO sound. It's a nice effect that works well on the I chord.
I just flipped back and forth by clicking on the red bar of nastyolddog's first video. I got completely lost as to which one I was hearing on the four hole draw. I paid no attention to the time on the right side and just did the flipping as soon as he said that was his comparison.
Sorry, I hear no significant tonal difference in these examples except a tendency to breathe through the harp more on the blow between the notes when you TB'd. It was clearly on the outbreath and not a tongue slap on the draw, as the notes were lower and not the bent 4 draw either. I only figured that out after going back and listening to the whole demo again to see which one it was. I have no preference whatsoever anyway, and am currently working on tongue-blocked octaves and slaps after a year of almost exclusively lip "blocking" or whatever you prefer to call the deep relaxed embouchure.
In Adams youtube videos on tongue blocking, I generally heard more of an "effect" than a tonal difference in the big scheme of things. That works for me. I guess i don't see the big deal here. I'll admit I am not as passionate about the harmonica as i am about music as an art form. Vibrato on an extended single note is more important to me than how to cover up the holes next to it.
Wow Bro's Talk about stimuluse thanks, i asked a question seeking an answer i was taught that i must seek my own anwsers,,,,,,
where do i find these answers, i had to dig deep down within and find a passion my answer was waiting, let the Harmonica sing,
thats what i did with my last Vid clip i played with a little Bit of fire well maybe a lot of fire,and passion let the Harmonica sing, after doing the clip and lisnteng to it 1000 times now i hear no differing tones,
thanks Buddha for the Mp3 Good Onya Mate!!
persons saying it was a stupid thread would be foolish i have learnt so much from replys good and not so good,
I now know what Lip Blocking is, and Modern Blues players anrn't full time LP'ers,
so when some one now askes me what Adam or Jasons Harmonica techinque is do they LP or TB, I will say no there Hybrid players,
yes i will have to explain to the person what i meen,but it will allso give them a better understanding of them as Todays Modern Blues Players,
and it's help other persons have a better undestanding of one another inclueding myself, so we should never be afraid to ask that Stupid question,
Ok may thread was a Bit confronting and see that i may be conceived as a person, that Advocates Toungue Blocking as the only method of playing Harmonica,
this in not true i started out as a U blocker then Lip Purser now a Full time Toungue Blocker, why because i can't switch between to two playing styles,
so when one question is answerd another question is asked,
when a person says they can hear i difference in tone from one to the, i now know it's not a difference in tone what is it they are hearing,are we getting Pitch confused with Tone,
Bro's no i don't realy want to know the answer to this one just yet,maybe some one else can grab that one and run,
Im the one that taught Denis how to TB in 91 .. I have friends all over the world who do one or the other ... And some both ... i say i TB 96% cus the 1 Hole draw .and the 8,9,10 blow and the 6 draw i LP ... i can do both .in them holes . Everyone has diffrent tone , diffrent phrasing diffrent timing .. that is what is so good about the harp ... nobody that ever played it any good, Sounds the same ... In my experince in TB is i lost my speed in articulation ... and if you want to articulate fast notes you have to LP ..single notes i mean ...I think anyone that winds up with great tone ... Has all the bells & whistles .. right throat right naisal lungs exc ...it shure aint in the amp or what mic u use ...and anyone can get good tone ....TB LP HY any of the above ....I like TB cus i can ride with the drummer ....
