[Harp-L] tongue blocking basics

Mark Weber mailmweber@xxxxx
Sat Jan 14 07:30:24 EST 2017


Hi Steve

it is great that you are getting into tongue blocking and corner switching.
At the beginning it will feel a little awkward to cover some of the holes with your tongue and
play out of the right or left corner of the mouth. It takes some time to get used to it.
When you get the feeling for it you will realize the benefits tongue blocking can give you to improve your
playing. Even though  some of the best chromatic player (Toots, Steve Wonder) only play(ed)
with pucker I think tongue blocking (with corner switching) is a superior technique and highly underrated.
It makes your playing a lot more stable and gives you more possibilities.
Pucker is for me as if you would only play with one finger on the piano. You can play that way but it will never be as accurate and fast as playing with all your five fingers. When you use all your fingers you can pretty much cover one octave without moving your entire hand. Same with tongue blocking with corner switching. You can pretty much cover an entire octave or even more without moving your head or mouth.
I was always wondering why famous players like Tommy Reilly and Larry Adler never explored and incorporated the corner switching technique in their playing. They usually used only the right corner.
The only famous players I know about using left and right corner tongue blocking was Cham-Ber Huang and then later his student Robert Bonfiglio. How extensively Cham-Ber used it in his playing is not known to me.
Normally harmonica playing is very linear. By switching corners you can break up lines, do jumps to higher or lower octaves - things saxophone players can do so easily. The more you use it the more it will be part of your playing and come natural.
One last thing, don't restrict yourself by just using the lower 3 holes for the left corner.
At the beginning I would practice scales (over one and two octaves) using the right and then the left corner.
After that you can start mixing by playing the first octave with the left corner and the second by jumping to the right corner. Later then you could start skipping one octave: play a scale in the lowest octave then skip to the third octave with the right corner (e.g. C-scale: 1-4 then skip to 8-12 ). Afterwards you can also start to switch within one octave. E.g. from c (5 or 10) to g (3 or 8) etc.. It is even possible (with some exercise) to corner switch from one hole to the next e.g. 5 blow (c) to 4 draw (b). 
All the best to you - have fun.
-Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Ketay <steve.ketay at xxxxx>
To: harp-l at xxxxx
Sent: Monday, January 9, 2017 7:07 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] tongue blocking basics

I have just started teaching myself how to tongue block, and I was
wondering if I could get some advice regarding what to do on the low end.
I am assuming that I should be using the left side of my mouth for holes
1-3, and then switching over to the right for 4-10.  I'm sure it's really a
matter of horses for courses, but I would really appreciate any insight or
tips that are offered.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

-- 
52 Spring Street
Lebanon
NH 03766 Mark Weber Cell: +41 076 784 10 64 Email: mailmweber at xxxxx


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