RE: [Harp-L] Feeling with your tongue (WAS: Position Perception)

["Harmonica Jervis" <harmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Michalek wrote:
> 
> With the harmonica, there is nothing to feel or see. There is only
> sound.
> 
FJM replied:
> 
> You use your tongue.
> 
> Harmonica may be difficult to teach because we lack an approach and
> it isn't something we can visually observe in any meaningful sense but...
> 

I just read David Harp's (...) book "Bending The Blues" (ISBN 0918321115).
It was published a few years ago. I was quite surprised to read his approach
to explain bending notes. He gives some explanation and some exercises, all
based on being aware of the (6!) tongue-muscles and the location of your
tongue in your mouth. It is the first instructional book I've read with this
approach.

E.g. one of the exercises (to start the awareness to all of this) is to use
the tip of your tongue and go back and forth across your teeth, counting
each and every one tooth, feeling the different "feels", etcetera. This
exercise is followed by others like "scratching the roof of your mouth with
the middle part of your tongue", "sliding your tongue in and out like a
drawer", etc. Great stuff!

I am an advanced "bender", but this book really gave me some deep insight in
what I'm actually doing. And it is a great source of inspiration for
explaining this strange and mysterious phenomenon called "bending" to my
students.

And his analogy for bending ("driving a car with a broken clutch") is not
only funny, but more than accurate (if you have driven non-automatic cars..)

Jervis
www.harmonicainstituut.nl