[Harp-L] RE: bending using tongue-block

[backbender1 <backbender1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi - 

I will try to answer as clearly as possible here.

1st Question (& a half) :

What leads me to believe that the players I name are 
blocking to the left most of the time while playing &
bending the lower notes on harp?

Well, as most TB players will tell you, once you begin
TB'ing and really use it a lot, your ears get more
tuned into the sounds & nuances you get from the TB
technique. I can hear that with these players...little
things like tongue-lifts, or pull-offs (where the
player will TB a note & slightly pull off his tongue
so you hear a chord)...and other similar nuances
involving tongueing techniques.

Part II -  Can you tell the difference between pucker-
and TB-bend by listening to the records? (not being
sarcastical - dead serious question)

Well, if you can't tell by listening to records, how
are you supposed to tell?  One develops an ear
sensitive to TB techniques, the more you do it.


2nd Question:

Where did I get that info? (That they usually TB these
notes)...

See above answer. This is not 100% of the time, but
with the players I mentioned, it is most of the time.



Additional Questions:

I started off playing with the pucker technique. I
started TB'ing about 2 years later, and have since
devoted my approach specifically to TB. I TB my
overblows because I TB whenever I play harp.

The TB topic has been done here to death, but I do
agree most don't get into it with good specific
reasons or detailed explanations. Joe Filisko has a
list of reasons of why/why not to TB, and it has been
quoted on Harp-L in & out of context. I would say
learn both, but for certain styles, TB is the only way
to go for these particular sounds/styles. There is no
way to duplicate TB techniques (split
octaves/intervals, bigger air chamber, tongue-lifts &
rhythms, tongue trills, tongue vamps, etc...) unless
you TB...

Period.


Hope this helps more...!

-Dennis Gruenling
www.dennisgruenling.com




_____________________________________
Dennis wrote:
<<I believe most of the Chicago style players to be
TB'ing the bends to the left, so if they are bending
the 2 draw, they are blocking hole 1...etc... 
   
  What leads you to believe that, Dennis?
  Can you tell the difference between pucker- and
TB-bend by listening to the records? (not being
sarcastical - dead serious question)
  
<<most of the "cream of the crop" did that (Big
Walter, both Sonny Boys, James Cotton, Little Walter
most of the time, George Smith most of the time....).
   
  Where did you get that info?
  I know they all TB'ed heavily, but including the
lower holes?
   
  <<I do TB my overblows as well.
Hope this helps.
   
  Not really; too many questions remain... ;-)
  Do you TB your OB's because that's how you learned?
  Would you advise a beginning harper to TB OB's?
  I find this intrigueing stuff which has been
discussed here before, but never to a point where it
leaves a satisfactory answer really.
  I wonder why so many harpers get into detailed
debates about amps and mikes and such, but hardly
anyone seemes to care getting deeper into this TB
OB-thing.
  (including you, Dennis - apparently one of the few
who can do it properly ;-)) 
   
  Ludo

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com