[Harp-L] tongue blocking vs the other ways

[JON KIP <jonkip@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Dec 20, 2012, at 10:14 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> You're standing too close to the harmonica (sic). Here's a test I took for trumpet. Trumpet was hung from the ceiling by 2 strings. I had to walk up to it and make a tone touching it only with my lips.
> Ok, what am I saying? DON't press your lips to an instrument any harder than necessary. That will slow you down. And btw, tongue blocking is a lot easier than lip pursing. It will eventually come.
> 
> smo-joe 

Hey, joe, merry christmas, you lucky Sunshine-Basking Floridian, .......Here are some additions to what you're saying


while that demonstration is common and useful for trumpet players, on the chromatic, a more civilized instrument, (?), it's important at times, to put the instrument as far into your mouth as possible.... it changes the tone in many fine and musical ways....

Sitting here with Tommy playing duets, I see that motion in action.... and, lucky me, I can stop us and say "hey stop! Don't move anything" and inspect how he's got the horn placed in his mouth for that "certain" sound....

equally impressive and annoying, is that tom can get "that sound" using no cupping or with some cupping... I find that really offensive.....(as soon as I learn it , it'll become non-offensive, of course)

Higher notes, mpc goes in more, which brings up the pitch also slightly for those times when you're playing with a flute player who is convinced that She reigns supreme and wants to play sharper than others so , she thinks, "I'm a Star, People want to  hear Me"....(we've all worked with Her)

Pull the horn out of the mouth a bit, and you have different colors to the tone.... 

This doesn't mean that one will squeeze the mpc, which is your main point, I think, just that a tonal range is available when the horn is placed more in or more out of the mouth. This makes sliding a bit more difficult, just because of the area of contact's size...your "don't squeeze" is right on , no matter how you play.

as for Tongue Blocking or Pucker... Tommy taught me TB, and I use it mostly, and can get around as well as anyone, as you know.., but there's more flexibility with Pucker...so I have to aim ahead for things and switch to pucker when needed UNTIL I'm able to do what Bill Barret does, which is to be as flexible with TB as any other way of playing....so on most people, pucker lends itself to expressive playing a bit more easily than TB, and I do wish I'd started on pucker....

So while we don't PRESS the lips, we do push the instrument way into the mouth, which , logically, puts more "skin in the game" ..and can tend to slow things just a bit...

Ipso Fatso Q.E.D

any arguments, Joe, come on out to Los Angeles, and we'll discuss this over sushi.... and not the "all-wormy" kind, I'll buy you some good stuff....no more of this "three day old" sushi... I've learned my lesson on that one...

and if you come, bring your old Volvo, I want to see you make me a reed from your old distributer cap.
I've heard that you do that stuff

jk