[Harp-L] Harp on Cheek (was sealing front)

[Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I suspect that most accomplished blues style tongue blockers on the  
10-hole lay the upper channel openings against the cheek on the  
opposite side of the face to the one they block on when playing the  
lower holes. There is some great film material from the 1960s  
American Folk Blues Festivals showing Walter Horton, Rice Miller and  
other players, all of whom appear to do this. When playing this style  
I block left and seal off the front of the harp against the right  
cheek, as I'm playing out of the right hand side of my mouth. The  
right thumb works like a stopper that closes the chamber when you  
hook it around the front right hand end of the harp where it comes  
away from your cheek.

Total enclosure allows the player to create much more powerful hand  
effects. It can't easily be done with a pucker, because the harp is  
then in the middle of your mouth instead of at one side. This means  
you'd have to seal off both sides, which is much more difficult. As  
mentioned by other respondents on this theme, the technique also  
works brilliantly when playing with a bullet mic and allows the  
player to drive the mic element to produce a more dynamic distortion  
than can be achieved by turning up the gain on the amp. It's the  
reason why most of the great electric blues players use relatively  
clean amp settings and build the distortion through how they hold, as  
this gives you much more control over tonal variation than a  
distorted amp sound can do,

Steve

www.stevebaker.de
www.bluesculture.com