Re: [Harp-L] Tilted embouchure / Lip block, pucker, etc

[MundHarp@xxxxxxx]

I might have told this to the list before... If I have. Apologies.
 
When I was a kid, I only played chromatic harmonica. I was never a "tongue  
blocker" I have a very short flat tongue...Tongue blocking never  really 
seemed to work for me (except for octaves etc). Then or now.
 
When I was about 10 years old, I got hold of a "how to play harmonica"  
book. By the great Larry Adler. Master of the chromatic harmonica. This  book 
explained tongue blocking. It was like "double Dutch" to me... I  couldn't do 
it then, but above all I then did not understand why anyone would  want to!
 
Many, many years later... it had been arranged for me to collect  the guest 
of honour, Larry Adler  from his home in London, and to  drive him to an 
NHL (National Harmonica League)  festival, at Ely, in  Cambridgeshire, 
England. The National Harmonica League is, more or less, the  British version of 
SPAH.. Nothing at all to do with hockey! 
 
So I telephoned the great man, to make arrangements. This was not long  
before he passed away, sadly in the event,  he was much too ill when  it came 
to it, to attend that music festival and he died not very long  after.
 
Larry was a true "raconteur"... While on the phone, I mentioned about his  
harmonica instruction book, that he had written something like 40 years  
before.
 
When I talked about  "tongue blocking" Larry laughed... "I've  always been 
a pucker player" he said "But when I wrote that book I knew  that  "tongue 
blocking" was what a harmonica player is SUPOSSED to  do!"
 
Of course he used his tongue for octaves, and other effects.
 
But if anyone says Larry Adler had a "thin" tone?  Quite simply,  they 
would be wrong. Larry came from a harp playing family.His tone was  "monster." 
BUT Larry Adler was primarily a "PUCKER PLAYER!"
HE  KNEW... That so long as one gets that harmonica well into one's  
mouth... A full tone can be achieved.
 
"There are many roads to Jerusalem".
 
Some great harp players mostly "tongue block". Some  mostly  "pucker".
Some use other embouchures. There is no "right way" they are ALL... the  
right way.
 
It's the music that matters.
 
John "Whiteboy" Walden
Cebu City
Philippines.