Re: [Harp-L] Re: U blocking, embouchures



Leo Diamond also used a u-block type of embouchure on chromatic, I was told by James Mackenzie.  He also said Leo arranged for his instruments to be tuned quite sharp, as his style and embouchure bent the notes pretty flat.

======= At 2008-05-18, 19:24:26 Damien Masterson wrote: =======
>     There's quite a bit of controversy around embouchures, not any less
>with the chromatic harmonica.
>
>      I use a form of embouchure that could be called U block, or  
>channel blocking.
>It doesn't in any way look like someone rolling their tongue like when  
>people try to
>show how to do it. The tip of my tongue stays on the bottom rail of  
>the mouthpiece, and I
>articulate the air with either my teeth on my tongue or epiglottal  
>stops, like when you make a "coo" sound.
>There's other stuff involved, but I try not to think about it too  
>much. I came to this approach through
>thousands and thousands of hours of practice, trial and error, and  
>emulating different instruments.
>I wouldn't sell a technique book pushing this embouchure, but I always  
>show my students what it
>looks and sounds like.
>
>    I've run into lots of players with strong opinions about "the  
>right way" to play the instrument. I would be weary
>of anyone trying to impress their approach, and only that approach, on  
>a new student. It's just not fair. Even
>if a student tries to emulate everything exactly the way their teacher  
>or idol does it, there are no guarantees.
>I learned this the hard way with the saxophone: Everybody has their  
>own sound. You can buy all the same gear
>and even marry your idol's widow, you're still going to sound like  
>you. We all have different mouths and bodies,
>and they make a big difference.
>
>     As Robert said, for any approach, there are advantages and  
>disadvantages. I feel that with my approach,
>I have a fuller sound, a thicker tone, and more expressive control  
>than many players; but at the expense of speed, and in some cases,
>dynamic control. If I want to play a fast staccato passage, I have to  
>switch to pucker, which alters my tone.
>If I want to play harmonic octaves or wide intervals, I have to use  
>tongue blocking. If I wanted to play a very fast succession of rising  
>or falling
>octave intervals, I would have to practice my corner switching more,  
>like Robert tried to teach me years ago!
>
>     When I teach beginning students harmonica, I never teach them  
>that one embouchure is better than the other.
>I tell them each one has its merits and shortcomings, that they should  
>experiment and find the one they are most comfortable with.
>I also tell them that, inevitably, as the late Doug Tate used to say,  
>they should "learn all of them"!
>
>     Most instruments have different schools of how to approach them,  
>in classical and jazz/pop. Ask around, get different perspectives.
>Ask yourself what your strengths and weaknesses are, and once you've  
>exhausted the possibilities through practice, try someone
>else's ideas too. The more open minded you are in music, the more  
>possibilities will exist for you.
>
>Thanks guys
>
>D
>
>
>Damien Masterson http://www.damienmasterson.com
>or enter my name in any search engine
>http://www.myspace.com/damienmastersonmusic
>http://cdbaby.com/all/damienzm
>415 305 7138 dzm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Damien Endorses Hohner Harmonicas and Audix Microphones
>
>
>On May 17, 2008, at 8:01 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> Message: 12
>> Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 08:10:16 -0400
>> From: Robert Bonfiglio <BON@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] U-blocking
>> To: "john" <jjthaden@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc: dennis moriarty <dmoriarty@xxxxxxxxxx>, harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>> Message-ID: <AD4BBA77-7B30-43E4-AB05-0AF0560172F2@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=US-ASCII;	delsp=yes;	format=flowed
>>
>> Dear John,
>>
>> I actually said I use u-block and sometimes whistle position for the
>> center part of a left-center-right switch and also to play all three
>> notes at the same time, i.e., A-D-A which is the octave with the
>> forth in the center.  The u then covers the B and the F.  I use that
>> center corner switch in the Tcherepnin Harmonica Concerto to play
>> legato from left to center to right.
>>
>> The U-Block does color the sound making it difficult to get the deep
>> sound of the corner, my sound, or the round sound of the center,
>> Toots' sound, but I find playing the pinched sound, Stevie's sound,
>> easier in U-Block.
>>
>> My point about U-Block is that as a main embouchure it takes away the
>> tongue switching and the use of tongue articulation that you get from
>> tongue block and whistle respectively.  It makes certain things,
>> especially for the student, harder to do and my whole way of playing
>> the harmonica is take the easiest route and spend more time making
>> music and less time on technique.
>>
>> Start a student in tongue block or whistle and the road is easier  On
>> diatonic I find the highest notes easier to play on the right in
>> tongue block, but I mainly use whistle.  On the chromatic, I am
>> finding more and more use of the left side on low notes.
>>
>> I remember once at Toots' apartment in New York playing "When Sunny
>> Gets Blue" and using a corner switch.  He said, "Your'e switching
>> corners" and I said yes.  He said "I don't do that."   But just
>> imagine if he did!!!
>>
>> Harmonically yours,
>>
>> Robert Bonfiglio
>>
>> http://www.robertbonfiglio.com
>>
>>
>> On May 17, 2008, at 2:14 AM, john wrote:
>>
>>> Larry and Dennis,
>>>    I'm a u-blocker too.  U-blocking has been discussed a lot in
>>> the past (see archives) and I've chimed in then as well.  From
>>> those exchanges, I learned that there are a few u-blockers who play
>>> with a real tongue-curl, and in at least one case, with the curl
>>> very tight, just like a straw, but as you both point out, not all
>>> do, and neither do I.  There is a misconception that, if a person
>>> can't curl their tongue, then they can't u-block; this is just
>>> plain wrong.  A student I taught coudn't curl, but picked up u-
>>> blocking easily from me and really ran with it.  But, as do I, he
>>> also uses regular tongue-blocking (out of both the left and right)
>>> and lip-blocking.  I'm probably about 80% u-blocking.
>>>     I have a slightly different way of describing what happens
>>> with my tongue.  The way I think of it, because the tip is on the
>>> mouthpiece (or even the cover plate) below the played hole(s), the
>>> tongue simply can't block those holes, if the tongue is then
>>> pressed forward gently, it mashes up against the remaining holes,
>>> forming a relaxed U shape.  Some u-blockers tip the harp down into
>>> the U (as  many lip-blockers do into their lower lip); I don't, and
>>> I think the reason why is that my embouchure is pretty deep and I'd
>>> have to open my jaw wider (teeth further apart) to accomodate a
>>> tipped harp.
>>>     As Larry points out, u-blockers can experience some
>>> criticism.  In past discussions, this has included strong advice
>>> against u-blocking from at least one professional player and
>>> teacher, the confirmed tongue-blocker/corner-switcher/spit-
>>> articulator Robert Bonfiglio.  Paraphrasing as best I recall,
>>> Robert felt u-blocking was inferior and unnecessary.  I argued that
>>> it provides a "third corner" (the center), without having to pull
>>> the harp partway out of the mouth (as for lip-blocking), but he
>>> didn't buy that.  Works for me, anyway.
>>>     Speaking of articulation, I'd be interested to know you the
>>> two of you do it, e.g., produce a string of notes of the same
>>> pitch.  I use a modified "t", but made by making contact with the
>>> upper palate (edge between hard and soft) using a part of the
>>> tongue well back from the tip (The tip obviously is otherwise
>>> occupied.).  It's pretty fast, and (unlike some consonants used
>>> during lip-pursing, but much like a tongue-blocker's side-of-tongue-
>>> with-cheek articulation) it doesn't do wild things with the timbre
>>> of the note (e.g., ugly wah-like effects).
>>>      Dennis, I agree with you that a real strength of u-blocking
>>> is how incredibly strong and controllable long notes are,
>>> particularly, the pitch of bent notes.  Bending is so darned
>>> precise, I think exactly because it does ~not~ involve tongue
>>> movements.  Larry, I have a different conception of how bends and
>>> overblows happen than your description of changes in the angle of
>>> the airflow, a conception solidified when I read 10 years ago the
>>> description of the harmonica-playing interface developed by Drs.
>>> Bahnson, Antaki and Beery (www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/antaki/articles/
>>> Bahnson%20JASA%201998.pdf).  Their device changes the ratio of the
>>> chamber volume directly behind the reed (in a human player, the
>>> mouth and upper throat cavities) to the area of the constriction
>>> behind that chamber (in a human player, formed at any of several
>>> points, understandable by thinking about the stop consonants "g"
>>> and "k", the Germanic "ch" as in "achtung", throat clearing, and
>>> gargling).  But I do !
>>> agree that this ratio can be controlled quite nicely with u-
>>> blocking.  There are exceptions:  on really low harps (say from a
>>> low D down to a double-low F), I can bend deeper using lip-pursing
>>> than either tongue-block embouchure; I can overblow better while
>>> lip-pursing; and some "talked" rhythms work better lip-pursing.  I
>>> use regular tongue blocking for all non-adjacent double-stops
>>> (except when I need to block just one hole, where I use a hybrid
>>> tongue/U-block); for a lot of corner-switching, and for some tongue-
>>> slap effects, though u-blocking is great too for percussive tonguing.
>>>     Dennis, you asked Larry for recordings or a web page.  I'd
>>> like to hear that too.  FYI, I can be heard on harp and vocals at
>>> http://mikedollins.biz on a CD entitled "Live, Love Laugh".  I had
>>> to lay the harp tracks onto bass and drums with no scratch vocals
>>> or anything else, which is rather crippling for a guy used to
>>> trying to make singers sound good live, plus, there are some weird
>>> synchrony issues with the harp track on at least one cut, but you
>>> can pretty much hear what I do.  You'll see I'm a good bit behind
>>> the times, technically, and am working hard to catch up (thanks
>>> Jason Ricci for your Youtube stuff!).  I too have wondered if I'm
>>> slowed somewhat by u-blocking vs. puckering, but it's too early in
>>> my renewed woodshedding phase to tell.
>
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= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
			

Best regards.				 
john
jjthaden@xxxxxxxxx
2008-05-21






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