[Harp-L] Re: What happens when bending

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

John;
         I reckon I'm a 75%-of-the-time tongue blocker too. I was trying to keep things simple here, and not to expose my ignorance of my own anatomy. What I believe is that the tongue extends right down the throat and is connected somehow to the larynx. I think that when I am tongue-blocking, the back of the tongue and the larynx (or Adam's apple, to make it more visual) work (how exactly, I'm not sure) too open and extend the  resonating chamber, by deepening and perhaps broadening the resonating chamber.
         I would equate resonant chamber size with reed length and weight, and air pressure with reed oscillation speed.

Regards,
RD

>>> "John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx> 7/10/2008 12:24 >>>
Rick,
	Everything you say makes perfect sense to me EXCEPT the role you  
attribute to the tongue--"that the tongue works to change the size of  
the resonating chamber."  If that were actually so, how is it that a  
full time tongue blocker is able to bend?

	Minor point:  After reading Steve Baker's post, i looked up what the  
"pharynx" is, and it seems to me that it may actually  the pharynx,  
rather than the larynx (or, perhaps, both) that are involved,  But my  
experience is very much consistent with what you describe as  
constricting ("choking") the air flow. That's a very good way to  
describe what i think my "throat" is doing (not that i am the  
standard by which technique should be judged).


JP