On Jan 14, 2010, at 8:45 PM, Michelle LeFree wrote:Hmm. Maybe I should practice this exercise in both TB and pucker. PT is a pucker, single note player almost exclusively, so that's how I have practiced his exercise. I would be hard for me, but probably good for me too, to use TB on this exercise. I find it difficult to TB on hole 1 'cuz my mouth tends to fall of the left end of the harp. As a result right now I usually pucker on the very low end. My teacher, Grant Dermody, has me working out with TB on the very low end, so maybe like I say I should try PT's exercise too. Another factor with TB is that my bends are deeper and more accurate with pucker, so I tend to switch back and forth a lot. But, it's good to be able to do that, too.
I am not so flummoxed by hole sizes, anymore, but thank you forWell, Vincent and Elizabeth, I'm going to give you an answer you may not want to hear. That is, don't sweat the ~little~ stuff in your initial forays into "harmonicology." There are too many vastly more important things to learn than being able to play harps with different hole spacings. Your insensitivity to hole spacing will come with time. Before you realize it, it will soon be automatic. For example, I can play harps with any spacing, from the little "necklace" toys to varying brands and styles of "good" diatonics and tremolos within just a moment or two of picking one up. If you are sensitive to hole spacing now, put the ones that give you trouble aside and concentrate on the far more important aspects of your harmonica technique, like breathing properly from the diaphragm, bending accurately on different key harps, learning different embouchures and as Elizabeth points out, switching seamlessly back and forth between them.
As you progress with your basic technique, you can add exercises to
become more precise in jumping over increasing numbers of holes around
a harmonica with the byproduct of becoming less sensitive to hole
spacing. I learned a great exercise from PT Gazell, one of the most
"precise" harpers out there. He teaches an exercise in which you start
at the bottom end and jump first one hole, then back to the bottom,
and then jump two holes and back to the bottom, then repeat with a
three-hole jump and so on, jumping farther and farther up the harp.
Then do the same exercise starting at the top end and jumping down
one, then two, then three holes and so on. Then start in the middle
and jump down, return to the middle and jump up, etc. Push yourself to
get faster and faster and more and more accurate. You'll soon be able
to identify where you need more work, and you can devise similar
exercises to overcome any particular difficulty. Soon you will find
yourself jumping freely around any harmonica with ease.
relating the exercise from PT Gazell. It sounds like a great one, and
I will add it to my regimen. Do *you* do this exercise
tongue-blocked, pucker, alternating, or all of the above?
One of my current sticking points is embouchures and overblows: DoesI'm not an overblower, so hopefully some of the experts will chime in. I do know that Dennis Gruenling is da man when it comes to all things tongue block, including overblows. He doesn't post here much anymore, but I know he used to give lessons. I checked his website, dennisgruenling.com, but it seems to be under construction right now. He has a new blog, badassharmonica.com, also under construction, but you may be able to reach him via email there. He also hosts a great radio show on WFDU, at Farleigh-Dickenson University in Teaneck, NJ you should know about, alpha.fdu.edu/wfdu/wfdufm. You may be able to contact him there. Even if you can't you oughta listen in as he plays some killer harmonica-centric blues and R&B. He is a real student of harmonica, especially with respect to Little Walter, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of classic players and the musicians they listened to learn their chops.
anyone tongue-block overblows? Did any of you use the tongue-block
embouchure *while learning* to overblow? Did any of you learn to
overblow pucker and later learn to overblow tongue-blocked? If you are
generally prefer the tongue-block embouchure but need to pucker for
overblows, do you just switch, are you still working towards
tongue-blocked overblows with the same facility that you tongue-block
everything else? How's it going? If you mostly tongue-block but want
to play a fast passage that uses overblows, do you switch to the pucker
embouchure for the entire passage that has the overblow in it, switch
embouchures for just the overblow, for the overblow plus a few
proximate notes? Something else? What works for you?
I play mostly tongue-block these days, and prefer it. I am learningIf you haven't already you should check out Kinya Pollard's "Harmonica Workbench" series of articles on customizing harmonicas on MelBay's "Harmonica Sessions," harmonicasessions.com. There are many other fine resources for learning to customize harps, like Rupert Oysler's CD's. One great resource specific to setting up harps for and learning to overblow is Tinus' site, overblow.com.
how to overblow, but when I can do it at all, I can only do it pucker.
I have a few overblows on some of my harps, and some clue about
adjusting my harps to make overblows easier (though I am a real klutz,
and right now there's a 50-50 chance that my working on a harp will
make it play worse instead of better). I am nowhere near playing an
overblow in public, yet. But I'd like to someday.