RE: Tilted embouchure~~and "upside down" embouchure

[scott <checker758@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bob wrote:

>I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong, but many or even most of the
>Chicago players played 'numbers down' - I believe this was the 'industry
>standard' then. My own harp master at the time, Stu Ramsay, played this way, and
>I have always believed that it was commonplace back then. 
 
 
There were/are some Chicago blues harp players who played "numbers down", but I believe *most* of those did so by accident - that was the way they first picked up a harp when they didn't know any better, and they never bothered to change - rather than by some sort of conscious decision.  Little Walter, Big Walter, Rice Miller, James Cotton, Junior Wells, and George "Harmonica" Smith all played "numbers up", so I think that would have to qualify "numbers up" as the industry standard.
 
>A (sorry, somewhat weak) analogy that comes to mind is the lefty guitarist (like
>Hendrix or Albert King) that flips over a standard axe and now gets the high
>string bends by squeezing the hand, rather than extending the fingers - a physical advantage.
 
You're correct about Albert King - he and Otis Rush are two notable left-handed blues guitarists who played/play a righty-strung guitar that is just flipped over and played left-handed.  But Hendrix didn't play that way.  He re-strung his guitars "correctly" for a left-handed player - in other words, skinny string towards the floor, just like a right-handed player.  
 
Scott

		
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