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DATE: Sun, 28 Nov 1993 06:14:38 CDT
From:
Subject: blocking and bending

> From: Winslow Yerxa
> Blocking'n'Bending

> Randy Lilleston writes:

> I've been teaching myself the tongue blocking
> technique
> and I wonder if anyone has any tips on how to
> bend notes
> when tongue-blocking.


> However, you must make sure that
> you've got an airtight isolation of the note(s) you're
> bending.

This is a bit of a problem right now...air is leaking out the side of my mouth
at times, but this is coming along.

> The only thing that tongue blocked bending has in
> common with
> pucker bending is that some kind of a constriction
> occurs in the
> airflow. With the tongue free, this can occur at
> several points
> anywhere from the glottal area in the throat all the
> way up to
> just behind the tip of the tongue. But with a tonguw
> block, it
> can only occur in the back regions - again, the tongue
> is not
> free to curl up and act as "air trough."

I've always been a pucker player, and I've essentially bent notes by closing up
the pucker a little more, and some by closing up my throat (low bends). But with
tongue blocking, changing the pucker is virtually impossible, I have found so
far.

> By the way, don't neglect to learn to play out of
> *both* sides of
> your mouth, and to bend out of each side. This can be
> useful at
> the bottom of the harp, where it's inconvenient to
> play a
> right-opening tongue block, and in doing split bends.

I am teaching myself to tongue block because I think it has
a superior tone in many instances. However, on the low and the high ends of the
harp, I think the pucker sounds a little better. Certainly, I hit the blow bends
a lot better by puckering, although I'm finding it easier to hit the 8-draw (the
most difficult note on a harp for me to hit) with tongue blocking.