Gary Smith argues that tongue blocking is essential to "Chicago" tone. Who can argue with him? On the other hand, in his instruction book "The Harmonica According to Charlie Musselwhite" (1982) Charlie wrote:
"In all the harmonica instruction books I've seen, they teach you to cover three holes with your tongue and play a fourth hole out of the right side of your mouth.
Some people play this way and say they get a better tone and control. That may be best for them. It may be best for you. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't use my tongue to block notes when I don't need to. I ever so slightly pucker my lips........unless I"m playing chords or octaves, and then I use my tongue....."
That book was written a long time ago, and I don't know if he still holds to that approach, but he had awesome tone back then, as he does now. I'm sure some would argue it's not the same as other "Chicago" style players, and I'm sure they'd be right, but that's like complaining you got hit by a Lincoln instead of a Cadillac.
If I could play today as well as Charlie did 30 years ago I wouldn't give a nickel for anyone's opinion on whether I should tongue block. If one must tongue block to sound like Gary Smith or Little Walter, and thats your goal, it would sure be worth the effort. Personally I hope I end up sounding good, but unique, even if I have to tongue block to do it. Still working on all three...
Harry
On Sep 7, 2010, at 7:25 PM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Message: 12 Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 15:21:41 -0700 From: "John Dekker" <jdekker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [Harp-L] Tongue blocking and tone To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> Message-ID: <5C8450EB33C443A7868B621E1DCD6FE1@JohnPC> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
As a beginner, I pucker for everything, and find tongue blocking to be very difficult. Is it true that the great Chicago blues tone can only come from tongue blocking? I think I read that Little Walter and others tongue blocked most of the time. Is anyone getting "that" tone while puckering?