[Harp-L] Re: Deconstructing

["M. N." <mnessmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

m wrote:
"I am in the process, consequently, of learning to play harp all over again, 
but this time with tongue blocking <snip> Its so very hard to stop falling 
back into old patterns because the muscle memory is still there. Anybody 
else ever try just learning an entirely new style/technique after years of 
playing a certain way? It truly feels like I'm just starting over."

=================================

I know exactly what you're going through. For a number of reasons including 
a more-than-full-time day job and having two small kids, I haven't been 
gigging much of late. I decided to take this lull and learn to play 
everything tongue-blocked. Another motivation was a bout of botox-induced 
partial paralysis in the muscles around my mouth last summer the left me 
unable to play with anything BUT TB. I got through ok but wasn't very 
comfortable on gigs. Hence, I made the decision to learn to do all bends, up 
and down the harp in TB and u-block as well as pucker. I'm making good 
progress, but it's been brutally hard, especially nailing the blow bends up 
high. But I'm making progress. I'm even to the point now where I'm able to 
eak out a 6b overblow using TB on some of my harps, not all. The challenge, 
in the end, is going to make me a better player, I know, but it's still not 
easy.
BTW, among modern players, it's not just the Little Walteresque blues guys 
who play 100% tongue blocked. Speed demons Sugar Blue (as far as I know from 
reading it in an interview) and Mark Ford (as far as I know from him telling 
me) do as well.
MN