Re: [Harp-L] Three Standard Embouchures

["Harmonicology [Neil Ashby]" <harmonicology@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Winslow Yerxa)->"U-blocking uses a curled tongue to create an air trough, By applying the tip of the curled tongue to the face of the harmonica, you can isolate a single note and move the tongue laterally to isolate different holes, all of which are in the player's mouth and accessible to the air stream ... This definition of U-blocking (with some variations) is the standard one and has been for as long as I have been familiar with the term".

In that case then there are indeed the Four Standard Embouchures with "U-Block" being the fourth.

(Winslow Yerxa)->"The most common that I know of are puckering (my habitual term), lip pursing, and lip blocking (which seems to be a back-formation from the term tongue blocking)". 

The vernacular problem here is that two of the three ("puckering" and "pursing") are synonymous but the "lip-block" is clearly focused on the lower-lip and is sufficiently different to effect the method of instruction.

(Winslow Yerxa)->"In my own playing I move fluidly among various embouchures, according to what's needed to deliver the music".

That is correct and there is nothing in the definitions would inhibit smoothly moving even in the same measure from one embouchure to another.

(Winslow Yerxa)->"In my instructional writing I've taken to simply discussing playing with your tongue on the harp and with your tongue off the harp".

My point is that more instructors (on-line in particular) seem to agree with starting students with the "Lip-Block" (upward angle) and-then moving onto the other embouchures in sequence of difficulty; the next embouchure being the "Pucker" (also referenced as "Pursing") and-then the "Tongue-Block" followed (apparently) by the "U-Block"; having such standardized vernacular would definitely promote "preservation and advancement" of the harmonica.

/Neil