Re: [Harp-L] Tongue Blocking Question

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

On May 6, 2005, at 5:26 PM, Wayne Stennett wrote:

> Greetings!
> A quick question that should be easily answered.  I currently tongue 
> block with my tongue covering the left side holes, playing the right 
> side.  Example:  Covering the 123 while playing the four.  I've been 
> practicing tongueblocking the opposite way (cover 234 and be playing 
> the 1).  I'm not getting any kind of good tone with this.  Every book 
> or website I've ever seen that mentions tongue blocking always talks 
> about the first way I mentioned.  What merit or benefit is there to 
> learn the second way?  Any players who are a good example of the 
> benefit?  Thanks in advance!
>
> Wayne
>
> www.lifeincanaan.worthyofpraise.org
 First off, you're covering too many holes for 'standard' embochure. It 
should be: cover 1 or 2 and play the right one (total 3 holes). 
Extended embochure would allow 4, 5 or even 6 holes covered (for 
chords, splits, double stops), but to 'start', 3 holes IN your mouth 
are plenty. Tongue blocking to the RIGHT (playing left) is good for 
leaps of more than a few holes that must be done very very quickly. 
This is tongue switching and is useful as it makes this maneuver 
easier. While there isn't a great need for tongue switching, it DOES 
have some applications. Especially in So. American Chorinhos and 
classical- predominately gypsy/violin tunes.

As for WHO, this is hard to answer, as many players use this technique. 
The better question would be WHAT tune is this used on, and who did the 
tune? For this I can't help as I never really concentrated on it 
before.
smo-joe