[Harp-L] In the moment

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

I’m a mixed embouchure player.  I can tongue block, but I usually  
pucker and only use tongue blocking for playing octaves and other  
split interval double stops.  I slide back and forth between those  
techniques frequently as I’m playing. I usually pucker for single  
notes, use tongue blocking for split intervals and rarely play any  
chords.

Last night I was playing an outdoor gig.  On one tune, I was getting  
a particularly nice resonance from a split interval and when I moved  
back into playing  a melody run of single notes, I found myself still  
tongue blocking and I continued to tongue block through the rest of  
the tune without thinking about it.  It’s almost as if my ear told me  
it sounded better at that moment so go ahead and do it.  Almost  non- 
volitional. This has occasionally happened before, when i would  
unconsciously continue to tongue block for a little while after  
coming out of a split interval back into single note playing, but it  
never has continued over such a sustained period  of time before.   
Funny what happens when you  are completely in the moment and playing  
unconsciously during a performance.  Sort of weird.

Deep embouchure is important for good tone production, but I’m not a  
player who believes that tongue blocking is the only way to get  
superior tone.  However, a clear advantage of tongue blocking is that  
it allows the player  to get the holes of the harp deep into the  
mouth past the teeth which makes for a nice, full unobstructed  
resonance chamber.

Maybe this experience loses something in the translation into words,  
but the strange thing was that after I stopped playing the split  
interval I never consciously decided that I would continue to tongue  
block.  It just happened at that moment without my thinking about  
it.  The SOUND I was producing made me do it without me deliberately  
deciding to do it.  Almost sort of a mystical experience.  And it  
sounded pretty good on that tune.  Go figure....

JP