[Harp-L] TB bends and Stevie



Sergei asks:

"This has been bothering me for a while... does Stevie Wonder tongue block?"

I believe in general that Stevie puckers. He may TB every now and then, but most of what I've read indicates he's primarily a pucker player, much like Toots.

BTW, I agree completely about Les Thompson--that CD with him on the second half is fantastic, it's a shame he didn't get to record more, and formally at that not just a live set (great as it is). I also wish Toots hadn't abandoned his more growly, snarly tone that he had back then. I love Toots' work, but he did have a bit more edge in his early stuff tonally, which I'd love to have heard when he was at his height with Pederson, Pass et al.

On tongue blocking and overblowing, J Compton writes:

"I'm sure there are people out there that can do this...and there are probably people out there who can hit both blow 10 bends right on pitch while TB too...but (throwing out another unsupported statistic) I bet 90+% of those who use OB in their songs play them puckered. From personal experience (again, not terribly relevant given my newbie status), I've never, ever gotten an OB w/ TB."

Most of the more prominent "overblow" type players do tend to use pucker. However, I think this has to do more with familiarity than anything else. I am primarily a TB player, and while I don't overblow well, I do so more easily when tongue-blocking than when puckering, probably due to an increased familiarity and feeling of ease with this technique. The same for blow bends (I bend 10blow much better with TB, having just checked). Moreover, one of the true masters of the instrument all-time, and an early user and master of blow bends, DeFord Bailey, used slaps and the like into his blow bends, indicating that he TBed them (or at least could)--and he had a great mastery of the intermediary bends on all of the upper blow bends.

I don't think you physically do much different in terms of bending or overblowing between TBing and puckering, I think it comes down to your individual comfort level with the embouchure.




()() JR "Bulldogge" Ross () () & Snuffy, too:) `----'







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