[Harp-L] T_Block

["Glenn Weiser" <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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>
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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?

John-

I did a lot research on this I when I wrote "Masters of the Blues Harp." The 
precise use of techniques can be hard to nail down among the old players. 
James Cotton told me he T-blocks everything. Paul Butterfield, who I think 
got great tone, seems to have hardly used it if at all, making him unique 
among Chicago style players. But then again he was a flautist before taking 
up harmonica. Little Walter, Big Walter, & Sonny Boy I all used combinations 
of pucker and T-block, and LW even threw U-block in there, according to his 
biographers. I never determined whether Sonny Boy II puckered, but I'm sure 
he used T-block to a large extent. Charlie Musselwhite and Jerry Portnoy 
also combine pucker and T-block. I think it's safe to say you can't really 
get a classic 1950s Chicago sound without T-block, although some here might 
disagree. As for tone, there are many variables: openess of the throat, 
embouchure, diaphram usage, etc. No one had better tone than Walter Horton, 
who once said he got whatever sound he wanted by how he used his hands. So 
go figure. My adivice is continue to work on T-blocking, because it is IMO 
an essential Chicago blues harp technique.

Glenn Weiser
http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harppage.htm