Re: Fw: [Harp-L] Three Standard Embouchures

[Rick Dempster <rickdempster33@xxxxxxxxx>]

"isn't reverse bend a better terminology?"  Yes!! What I've said many
times, Larry, over the years. That or "single reed bends" ie without the
sympathetic higher pitched "starter" reed.
But forget it brother, or get "over" it. Don't "bend-over" backwards; you
may as well fall flat on your face (with apologies to James Thurber)
RD


On 24 August 2014 17:31, Larry Marks <larry.marks@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I beg to differ with what has been written so far on this subject. From
> the discussion, the way I play is either impossible or just doesn't exist.
> I do not recognize it in any of the descriptions I have seen in this
> discussion.
>
> What I use (and I know there are others on this list who do as well) is a
> form of tongue blocking I call center blocking.
>
> I use tongue blocking with the air flowing down the center of my tongue.
> This is NOT U blocking. My tongue is not curled into a U shape. It is, in
> fact, perfectly flat and completely relaxed.
>
> The tongue exhibits bilateral symmetry. In the middle is the dividing line
> between the two halves. That line is a depression so that if you place the
> tip of the tongue under the instrument air will flow down that line.
> Relaxing the tongue causes it to fill in and block the holes on either side
> of the one that receives the air that flows down the line. Of course, if I
> want to play a note at either end of the instrument or do a split, what I
> play fits the definition of tongue blocking that Winslow wrote.
>
> Using this center tongue blocking technique, I can play any music I
> desire. That includes blues, bluegrass, jazz, J. P. Sousa marches, etc.
>
> I can do overbends (isn't reverse bend a better terminology?), valved
> bends and any other bends I want. I can hit bent notes on the head and not
> slide into them (unless I intend to.)
>
> I can do staccato and legato tonguing, and all sorts of rapid, complex
> tonguing patterns (such as the ones I use when I play the trombone.) I do
> not slide from one hole to the next. I always employ tonguing so that what
> I play sounds clean - like notes rather than a series of mouth-farts.
>
> And I am damned good at what I do.
>
> To me, center blocking is a form of tongue blocking. It is what I play and
> what I teach. For completeness, I offer the following list of limitations I
> have encountered using this technique:
>
>   -LM
>