Re: [Harp-L] Tongue blocking

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

There are a lot of possible ways to use your tongue on the harp, but some will cause you problems. Two that have already been recommended I would warn against:
1. Do not press your tongue hard against the harp. This is a poor substitute for bending technique and will lead to both bad tone and poor control. Bending is done inside the mouth and not at the entry point into the harp. Also, pressing hard will cause friction that will slow you down and can also cause abrasion of the tongue. It can also promote tension, which is never good.
2. Do not use the side edge of your tongue to block. True, you can get a single note this way. However, every student I have encountered who does this has trouble learning the most fundamental tongue techniques, such as bending, playing split intervals, and using the tongue to create textures such as rakes and hammers.
Tongue blocking needs to be relaxed, as with just about everything you do while playing. It needs to:
- allow the harp to glide smoothly in your mouth without pressure or friction
- to block a varying number of holes at will, and to  play out of both left and right sides of the mouth, either together or in alternation
- to allow the tongue to move on and off the harp at will and rapidly to alternate between chords and single notes and to create various textures and note combinations (to get an idea of the amazing variety of possibilities, check out the lengthy series on advanced tongue blocking techniques I did in the harmonicaessions.com webzine a couple of years ago).
- to bend notes utilizing the areas of the tongue not contacting the harmonica.
The best ways to deploy the tongue on the harmonica are:
- Keeping the tongue pointed forward, not off to one side.
- Using the top or bottom surface of the tongue, not the tip or the side edge. This gives you a broad surface that can block several holes. Using the underside of he tongue allows you to block only one hole while having both sides open (the Gwen Foster technique, as already noted).
I use the bottom surface of the tongue only in the special circumstance mentioned above. Most of the time I do this:
- Rest the tip of my tongue on the ridge of my lower teeth and/or the inside of my lower lip.
- Bulge the top surface of the tongue forward to block the holes I want to block, leaving an opening for air to pass either in the right or left corner of my mouth. 
- If I'm playing out of he right side of my mouth, the left edge of my tongue is sealed gently against the inside of my left cheek. If I'm playing out of the left side, then the right edge is gently sealed again the inside of the right cheek.
As always, everything is RELAXED - jaw, tongue, lips, throat. No pressure, no tension, no friction.
Winslow
Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com