Re: [Harp-L] Can you tongue block overblow

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dennis is not the only one. I know that other members of this list (mere mortals) can also overblow with a tongue block. Dennis puts on his pants one leg at a time like anyone else.

Can you bend notes down with a tongue block? O f course you can. Yet this question also comes up on the list. And years ago, some authors of harmonica books wrote that you couldn't bend notes with a tongue block."You" in this case referred to the author, who figured if they couldn't do it, no-one else could either. But it didn't take a superhuman player to prove them wrong, jsut someone who saw the benefits of doing it, and starting noticing that the blues greats were in fact doing it.

I've noodled around with bending with a tongue block. Nailing it would take practice time that I tend to spend on other things. Now if there were an irresistibly cool effect or lick or tune that flat-out needed a tongue-blocked overblow, I bet a whole lot of players would figure out how to do it in a huge hurry.

Hmmmm . . . . .



Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Tue, 5/19/09, Garry Hodgson <harp@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Garry Hodgson <harp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Can you tongue block overblow
To: "Jeff roulier" <jroulier@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 4:43 AM

Jeff roulier wrote:
> I know Dennis Gruenling does, so yes it can be done. 

just because dennis does it, that doesn't mean it's
physically possible.

:-)