From: Iceman63~ol.com Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 08:47:33 EDT Subject: Re: Augusta Blues Week -T/B
In a message dated 99-07-31 07:01:55 EDT, Rick Marsh writes:
<< Having seen , heard, Larry play the most tuneful, clean on the money blues harp via Spah 97/98 videos:which I'm, (almost) sure, was via the medium of the 'pucker'......well this new developement has got to be worth the price of admission to the Spah 99 blues video. At the risk of embarassing a fellow listee.....Larry does play very 'clean' on the button blues harp,T/B ing will be an interesting addition to his armoury. >>
aw gee whiz, gosh, and golly (blush).
Yes, this was 100% pucker. However, 4 factors convinced me to rethink, woodshed, and embrace the Tongue Block.
1) Teaching my best adult student Harpster Hal Iwan. His total love of that "in your face" fat Chicago style rubbed off on me.
2) Joe Filisko, whose philosophy of "No matter how slick, melodic, sophisticated, and overblow technique driven your style is, you won't be totally validated in the ears of your listeners unless you also give them that traditional fat Chicago sound"
3) Getting to know and hang with Kim Wilson, the most amazing player in this style on the planet.
4) Buying a pair of cheap sunglasses and filling in for the regular harmonica player for 3 days in a row in "The Glen Eddy Band", Detroit blues rockers. (I cranked up the amp, wore all black, put on those sunglasses, and T/B'ed myself to fat Chicago Nirvana - it was too much fun).
On this particular path of enlightenment, I developed my latest teaching philosophy based on Kim Wilson's style, inspired by his playing on Jimmy Rogers' "Ludella" recording. It is called "Momentum Theory". Those HNA (hole/number/arrow) transcriptions that students eagerly scribble down at workshops, only to wake up the next morning to find that something is missing when they try to play them? "Momentum Theory" is that missing factor and is what breathes life into those charts. To date, I have seen no other diatonic blues harmonica teaching method that touches on this important subject.
I have had great success with all the students I have experimented on with this approach, especially a new 12 year old student "Andrew" (who I even thought was hopeless after struggling with him for a few weeks), and all those who attended my Augusta Heritage Advanced Mini Class. Another validation of the power behind this approach was the number of people at Augusta who came up to me and commented on the tremendous change they heard in my playing since last year.
It is a very powerful technique. It must be taught in real time (and no, there are no thoughts of creating an instructional video at this time).
