[Harp-L] Lip block and pucker

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Pierre <slavio@xxxx> wrote:

Eh??? I'm really surprised to hear that there are two non-tongue 
blocking  styles. Based on recent posts to this thread I guess I am a 
lip blocker. My  understanding was that the straw hole approach was 
just a way to teach  beginners to play single holes and in fact not 
a "real way" to play as it  was said to produce weak tone. This 
thread implies that the pucker style may  be a 'valid' way to play 
which is news to me. 

======Winslow says:

The "weak tone" argument is nonsense. It is usually advanced by those 
who maintain that anything but tongue blocking is bad. Good tone is 
available with any embouchure.

=============Pierre:

Note that people may think they pucker when in fact they don't. I 
used to  think I puckered to get single notes (i.e. straw hole 
approach), but one day  I realized that my lip openning was way 
bigger that a single hole. I was  really surprised, no shocked that I 
could play single notes that way; seemed  to me air should have 
leaked into adjacent holes. 

======Winslow says:

What you describe is typical of good pucker embouchure; many have 
reported the same phenomenon.

=============Pierre:

Is the pucker style a valid style? can people get good tone that way?

======Winslow says:

Yes and yes.

=============Pierre:

Are there benefits to puckering; can I get new 'sounds' by puckering?

======Winslow says:

The tongue has greater freedom with puckering than with embouchures 
that require the use of the tongue to create a single note (tongue 
blocking, U-blocking).

Greater tongue freedom makes certain articulations easier. It also 
allows for greater freedom in forming the size and shape of the oral 
cavity. This can impact both the ease of bending very low and high 
notes and the available palette of tone colors.

Winslow



		
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