[Harp-L] Re: U-Block

[Richard Bush <rkbush51@xxxxxxx>]

When I began playing, I struggled trying to single out a hole until I accidentally hit single note when I curled my tongue one day. I do much the same as Michael Rubin describes by placing my tongue along the bottom cover plate and blocking off notes with the edges of my tongue. Used u-blocking only for years. Since I play mostly dirty ol' blues stuff, list member Stephen Schneider convinced me that incorporating tongue blocking would bring out some of those Chi-town blues tones better. He was so right--so now I use both and am working on my pucker style.

There are quite a few list members who do u-block and have chimed in here quite a few times about the technique and I didn't feel like such a weird duck. Of course, once I found out that Norton Buffalo u-blocked, what I was doing seemed more legit.