Re: [Harp-L] Tongue Blocking and Articulation

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I'm curious about your use o the word "articulation." This usually refers to ways of beginning and ending a note, like starting a note with a "t" sound.

Try saying, "Kuh, Kuh, Kuh, Kuh."  Note what your tongue does. It rises to touch the roof of your mouth, momentarily blocking air from reaching the front of your mouth. When you lower your tongue, air is released and you hear the "K" part of the sound. The palce where you do this is something I call the K-spot.

When you bend, you don't block the air flow all the way. Instead, you use that K-like motion to narrow the airflow.

Now try raising your tongue just enough so that it narrow the airflow and you can hear the air hissing through the narrow passage. Try this both inhaling and exhaling. Note that you experience pressure from behind when you exhale and suction when you inhale.

Now, use what you just did to bend Draw 4.

Now, place the tip of your tongue on your lower lips and do all the same stuff that I described above. When you pick up the harp to bend Draw 4, the tip of your tongue can be directly on the holes or below them, with the top surface of the tongue used to block the holes.

One key concept is that you don't ned to slide your tongue back to bend - which you can't do very much when tongue blocking. Insteadf you just need to raise it in the K-spot area of your mouth.
 
Winslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School


________________________________
 From: Dan Hazen <bluesmandan76@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 5:27 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Tongue Blocking and Articulation
 

Someone else mentioned this and I share their difficulties. I have a hard
time bending notes while TBing. I can do it a little bit... using the back
of my tongue/throat to articulate, but generally I switch to puckering when
I need to bend or otherwise articulate... Maybe some of you hardcore TBing
guys have some tips for different articulating techniques...