Re: [Harp-L] Technique u blocking

[Eric Miller <miller.eric.t@xxxxxxxxx>]

if you have the genetic ability to roll your tongue into the tube, U
blocking does indeed help "find" notes better and helps with big multi hole
jumps.  Also easier to play fast stuff u-block.

both of these examples are "just for me"

but I am a 90% pucker player/5% u block/ 5% TB


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 3:01 PM, Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
> author, "Jazz Harp"
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>