Dear John,
I actually said I use u-block and sometimes whistle position for the center part of a left-center-right switch and also to play all three notes at the same time, i.e., A-D-A which is the octave with the forth in the center. The u then covers the B and the F. I use that center corner switch in the Tcherepnin Harmonica Concerto to play legato from left to center to right.
The U-Block does color the sound making it difficult to get the deep sound of the corner, my sound, or the round sound of the center, Toots' sound, but I find playing the pinched sound, Stevie's sound, easier in U-Block.
My point about U-Block is that as a main embouchure it takes away the tongue switching and the use of tongue articulation that you get from tongue block and whistle respectively. It makes certain things, especially for the student, harder to do and my whole way of playing the harmonica is take the easiest route and spend more time making music and less time on technique.
Start a student in tongue block or whistle and the road is easier On diatonic I find the highest notes easier to play on the right in tongue block, but I mainly use whistle. On the chromatic, I am finding more and more use of the left side on low notes.
I remember once at Toots' apartment in New York playing "When Sunny Gets Blue" and using a corner switch. He said, "Your'e switching corners" and I said yes. He said "I don't do that." But just imagine if he did!!!
Harmonically yours,
Robert Bonfiglio
http://www.robertbonfiglio.com
On May 17, 2008, at 2:14 AM, john wrote:
Larry and Dennis,
I'm a u-blocker too. U-blocking has been discussed a lot in the past (see archives) and I've chimed in then as well. From those exchanges, I learned that there are a few u-blockers who play with a real tongue-curl, and in at least one case, with the curl very tight, just like a straw, but as you both point out, not all do, and neither do I. There is a misconception that, if a person can't curl their tongue, then they can't u-block; this is just plain wrong. A student I taught coudn't curl, but picked up u-blocking easily from me and really ran with it. But, as do I, he also uses regular tongue-blocking (out of both the left and right) and lip- blocking. I'm probably about 80% u-blocking.
I have a slightly different way of describing what happens with my tongue. The way I think of it, because the tip is on the mouthpiece (or even the cover plate) below the played hole(s), the tongue simply can't block those holes, if the tongue is then pressed forward gently, it mashes up against the remaining holes, forming a relaxed U shape. Some u-blockers tip the harp down into the U (as many lip-blockers do into their lower lip); I don't, and I think the reason why is that my embouchure is pretty deep and I'd have to open my jaw wider (teeth further apart) to accomodate a tipped harp.
As Larry points out, u-blockers can experience some criticism. In past discussions, this has included strong advice against u- blocking from at least one professional player and teacher, the confirmed tongue-blocker/corner-switcher/spit-articulator Robert Bonfiglio. Paraphrasing as best I recall, Robert felt u-blocking was inferior and unnecessary. I argued that it provides a "third corner" (the center), without having to pull the harp partway out of the mouth (as for lip-blocking), but he didn't buy that. Works for me, anyway.
Speaking of articulation, I'd be interested to know you the two of you do it, e.g., produce a string of notes of the same pitch. I use a modified "t", but made by making contact with the upper palate (edge between hard and soft) using a part of the tongue well back from the tip (The tip obviously is otherwise occupied.). It's pretty fast, and (unlike some consonants used during lip-pursing, but much like a tongue-blocker's side-of-tongue-with-cheek articulation) it doesn't do wild things with the timbre of the note (e.g., ugly wah-like effects).
Dennis, I agree with you that a real strength of u-blocking is how incredibly strong and controllable long notes are, particularly, the pitch of bent notes. Bending is so darned precise, I think exactly because it does ~not~ involve tongue movements. Larry, I have a different conception of how bends and overblows happen than your description of changes in the angle of the airflow, a conception solidified when I read 10 years ago the description of the harmonica-playing interface developed by Drs. Bahnson, Antaki and Beery (www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/antaki/articles/Bahnson%20JASA%201998.pdf ). Their device changes the ratio of the chamber volume directly behind the reed (in a human player, the mouth and upper throat cavities) to the area of the constriction behind that chamber (in a human player, formed at any of several points, understandable by thinking about the stop consonants "g" and "k", the Germanic "ch" as in "achtung", throat clearing, and gargling). But I do !
agree that this ratio can be controlled quite nicely with u- blocking. There are exceptions: on really low harps (say from a low D down to a double-low F), I can bend deeper using lip-pursing than either tongue-block embouchure; I can overblow better while lip-pursing; and some "talked" rhythms work better lip-pursing. I use regular tongue blocking for all non-adjacent double-stops (except when I need to block just one hole, where I use a hybrid tongue/U-block); for a lot of corner-switching, and for some tongue- slap effects, though u-blocking is great too for percussive tonguing.
Dennis, you asked Larry for recordings or a web page. I'd like to hear that too. FYI, I can be heard on harp and vocals at http://mikedollins.biz on a CD entitled "Live, Love Laugh". I had to lay the harp tracks onto bass and drums with no scratch vocals or anything else, which is rather crippling for a guy used to trying to make singers sound good live, plus, there are some weird synchrony issues with the harp track on at least one cut, but you can pretty much hear what I do. You'll see I'm a good bit behind the times, technically, and am working hard to catch up (thanks Jason Ricci for your Youtube stuff!). I too have wondered if I'm slowed somewhat by u-blocking vs. puckering, but it's too early in my renewed woodshedding phase to tell.
I look forward to hearing more about u-blocking from you, and any others.
Regards,
John Thaden (ublokr)
http://mikedollins.biz
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