[Harp-L] Re: 2 Questions from newbie ~ embouchre Follow Up



Jeff,

Something not mentioned in the explanation on Harpgear site is the importance of making as large an aperture (air hole) in your mouth as possible. The opening should be MUCH LARGER than if you were sipping through a straw. So, the idea is not just to get the harmonica deep in your mouth with a relaxed oral cavity/resonance chamber BUT ALSO to make as LARGE an opening for an air/breath column as possible, consistent with still being able to get a single note. You want as large a breath hole as you can get, which requires the "fish mouth" position of the lips,.

Btw, some say tongue blockers get superior tone. It's true that tongue blocking will allow the comb to get deeper in the mouth past the teeth which can fatten and deepen tone. But, other than that, IMHO, the reason for the alleged tonal advantages created by tongue blocking is because, by its nature, the tongue blocking technique FORCES the player to do the equivalent of all those things one needs do to create good lip purse embouchure.

Hope this helps.

JP



This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.