Re: t.b. blowbending- any advice?

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

It would be helpful to know what you experience when you attempt 
tongue blocked blow bends. 

You say you can tongue block blow bends on chromatic. IN which 
octaves? The top octave on many models is not valved, making blow 
bends impossible, and it's the top octave you're trying to address on 
diatonic.

Some general advice. Start with a low-pitched harp - Low F, Low D, 
Low C, whatever you have. The bend chamber in your mouth, and the 
borderline between the right chamber size (that works) and the wrong 
one (that doesn't) is very narrow and easy to bypass - think of the 
closely-spaced frets high up on a guitar neck. A low-pitched harp 
requires larger chamber sizes than a higher-pitched harp and makes it 
a little easier to deal with high blow bends.

Slow down as you change chamber size. If you hear a little sort 
of "thwang" in the tone, you've just zoomed past the bend spot on the 
freeway. Get on the side road where you can slow down enough to lean 
out the window and put a letter in the mailbox.

Hope this helps.

Winslow

- --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Marion.Spiers@xxxx wrote:
I'm hitting a wall here, I can blow bend comfortably with the "u-
groove" 
and have control and tone, but I want to be able to tongueblock 'em 
too. 
Where do I find it? I already t.b. everything else. I can 
t.b./blowbend on 
the chromatic. I play softly from the gut and shoot for control with 
my 
throat. Any tips or excercises appreciated!

kcmojoe
- --- End forwarded message ---