Re: [Harp-L] u-blocking comparison

[Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Do we still have the "shibboleth" regarding the genetic (in)capability to U-block?
It kinda reminds me of the idea that to pucker means to stick out your lips as
if you are about to smooch Great Aunt Matilda on the lips, and just "kiss" the
harmonica. That one just ain't right for accurately describing pucker playing.
So, why is it STILL being accepted that U-blocking REQUIRES curling the tip of
the tongue tightly around a single hole?!?

Rather than flog this dead horse again, here's a link (I hope) to an article I 
wrote regarding this subject a long time ago. I actually posted the original
to Harp-L, but I have no idea where to tell someone to look for it on Harp-L.

http://www.praiseharp.us/articles/ublock.html

As indicated in the article, I learned how to bend much EASIER and naturally
by stumbling on U-blocking on my own-sans teacher, sans Harp-L, sans any
knowledge that there was an online community of experts who were firmly 
convinced that U-blocking was not a "natural" thing for some people to do. 
(I was aware of various instructional books [such as they were] at the local 
bricks-and-mortar store.) Imagine my surprise to learn that I was doing 
something unusual. I was even more surprised when I found out that a slouch
of a player like Norton Buffalo actually played that way! Didn't he know all the
proper ways of playing tongue-blocked or puckered that were much easier?

If you follow the steps I outlined, you can have a student playing deeper bends
than with puckering in a lot less time. I consider it a "bridge" technique to
some of the more technically challenging tongue-blocking techniques, if that
is the student's goal. Get that tongue working as soon as possible!

The only time I pucker is when my wife tells me to. I like to always have the
last word where she's concerned: "Yes, ma'am!"

There are no drawbacks as long as you can play what you want to play and
get the sound you want to get. I'm a firm believer in doing what works!

Y'all have fun chasing that "good, better, best" rabbit down into the "pucker,
tongue-block, [or God forbid] U-block" thicket!

Just MY humble opinion,
Crazy Bob

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan