[Harp-L] TB or Not To Be



Over a couple of years ago, list member, Stephen Schneider encouraged me to begin tongue blocking given that he knew my infinity for Chi-Town traditional blues. I just kinda blew him off, not wanting to bear down teaching this old dog new tricks. Besides, I grew up with a u-block ingrained as my method and actually thought that I was getting close enough to a TB tone to suffice.

Those who know Stephen, know that he can whip up some kind of tone with a diatonic. So, after hangin' out with him at HOOT meetings and such over the past coupla years or so, I asked him to critique where I needed to go with my playing. BLUNTLY--he basically told me to get off my butt and tongue block (and to go ahead and develop a pucker, too).

I've been working on it since somewhere around January and it's coming around. Based on how long Stephen told me it took him to move from pucker to a satifactory TB tone, I figure I still need a good year of hard work (maybe more). Acoustically, I can discern the difference between my TB and my u-block sound. Where it really stands out differently, though, is when I pick up a JT30--tons of overtones and tones that just weren't there before. I ain't turning back now. I'd heard all the hype about TB and really thought I was matching up with what I was doing. WRONG--and to think, I could have been working on this back in my 30's (in my 50's now). I've always been fairly set in my ways--heck, maybe I'll try sky diving.

To each his own--but when I'm finished, I plan to be able to TB, UB and pucker my way into the grave. Anyway--

See ya-
Rick







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