Re: [Harp-L] Technique u blocking

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MARK BURNESS wrote:
<Can anyone point me to the commandment, written in stone, that dictates that anyone who switches embouchure to achieve a certain <technique will be smote by a thunderbolt from above? Turned to a pillar of salt perhaps?
< 
<Very, very few players adhere to one single embouchure for everything they do (they do exist & may even be high profile, but are <statistically a very small group), most players switch embouchures in normal playing & certainly to facilitate certain <effects...it's legal, honest! ;-)

All true. That said, I fail to see what can be done with a u-block that can't be done--and probably more easily--with a pucker or a tongue block.

I know and love Norton Buffalo's work, but he is one of the very few u-blockers whose work I admire, compared to an army of puckerers (Toots, Stevie, Musselwhite...) and tongue blockers (need I name names?).  I think the reasons are this: it's easier for most people to do it with a pucker or a block, and the constraints that u-blocking puts on a player don't exist with those other techniques.

To me, achieving equivalent performance with less effort = better.

Regards, Richard Hunter



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