Re: tongue-block overblows?

[Richard Lister <ric@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Tinus" <tinus@xxxxxxx> wrote
on Wed, 18 Jun 2003 23:14:26 -0700:
>
> Subject: Re: tongue-block overblows?
>
> > Just learning overblows, and I've got the 4,5,6 using a
> > pucker embouchure. The position of my tongue in my mouth
> > is critical in achieving these overblows.
> 
> That is a bad sign to begin with.
> If you play your overblows from the back of your tongue, the tongue position
> is not that important.

Hmmm, this stuff is so difficult when you can't see anything :-)

I *think* I bring up the back of my tongue to choke the closing reed
and start the overblow. Lowering the tongue opens the blow
reed again. The trouble is that bringing the tip of my tongue
forward to tongue-block is lowering the back of my tongue
and ceasing the overblow. Does that make sense?


> A good way to learn playing overblows with the back of the tongue is by
> playing them tongue blocked.
> I started out playing overblows with the tip of my tongue but switched to
> the back of the tongue when I found out that I could also play them tongue
> blocked.
> 
> So yes you can play overblows tongue blocked, but the lower you get on the
> harp the more difficult it gets.
> Playing tongue blocked overblows is, imho, the best way to learn good
> overblow technique.

I play TB draw bends using my throat, and maybe lowering the back of my
tongue. Is there any relation to the way you do TB OBs?


Cheers
Ric