Subject: Re: [Harp-L] curious how many do this...

[Richard Sleigh <rharp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Winslow's approach is exactly what I have been doing for years with celtic music first & then transferred to other types of music:

"When I play fiddle tunes, I use a similar technique in a slightly more elaborate way. Sometimes there's a "hitherum" - a note repeated fast three times, followed by a leap to a note several holes away. It's easiest to play the hitherum by saying (duddle-uh) with the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth (tongue-off), so I'll do that and the slap the tongue onto the holes between that hole and the target hole for the next note (tongue-on).

I agree that it's not really tongue switching - or at least not corner switching. But it's in the arsenal of related techniques in which you use your tongue to select notes."

I started doing this pucker technique on celtic tunes to mimic the fiddle ornament that I knew as "the burr" - (bouncing the bow to create a triplet) - so I would get that with tongue articulation and then grab the higher note out of the right side of my mouth with tongue block. 

I then started thinking of using a three point system to grab notes - left or right side of my mouth OR the middle with pucker. Sometimes it lets me slam notes for accent by going from the pucker to a tongue slap.....

I found that by doing that I could set up all kinds of quick interval jumps instead of strictly using tongue switching only.  I use the pucker also to set up the rest of my mouth to be in the right place for the next series of notes....

Richard Sleigh

P.O. Box 23
Boalsburg PA 16827

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