[Harp-L] Re: a question for all you toungue blockers outthere...

["Robert Paparozzi" <chromboy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    I'd like to preface this topic by saying first, embouchure is a very personal and individual technique, IMO it has a lot to do with the way your tongue & lip muscles work or in some cases are trained. TB, U-Block and Pucker are all terrific ways to produce a note .

    I'd like to weigh in on this TB/Pucker topic as I think we may be confusing or misleading some of the newer players. All you experienced players know what I mean, there is that 1st level "plateau" we ALL reached and had some serious questions on both Diatonic AND Chromatic.
    
    Should I be TB'ing or should I be Puckering and I think the dilemma here is in the thinking that you must make a FULL TIME commitment to ONE and eventually abandon the OTHER. IMO this is NOT good advice. The Fallacy that "I really love Blues, so I MUST commit to TB" is absurd or "I wanna play like JAZZ on Chromatic so I HAVE to Pucker because Toots does" is equally illogical.

    I've said this before and I've used this with my practicing and performing techniques and "Teaching" methods for over 40+ years. You MUST learn BOTH then and most importantly YOU must decide which works best for YOU in a certain genre, style or musical situation. However, if you find a style of music and/or an embouchure that totally works for you then you become exempt from this use BOTH philosophy.

    There is no RIGHT or WRONG as they are both viable techniques. The most "versatile" Harmonica player will actively practice and use BOTH embouchures according to the "task at hand" and many times this involves using BOTH on the same piece of music.

    There is no evidence that the TB'er has the BEST tone or the Puckerer is the FASTEST player, go to a SPAH convention, you'll see MANY exceptions to both of these myths.


    I think that once you've learned to TB masterfully, you should continue to incorporate some Pucker so you don't lose that 'muscle' endurance specific to that technique. Trust me, you will need it for some song or style even in CHICAGO blues. You might be studying a Junior Wells piece and realize his was doing a passage via Pucker etc....btw, Junior used both techniques VERY effectively.  

     Conversely, if you've started as a Puckerer than you MUST put time in to learn the valuable techniques that TB'ing offers, both in the Classical, Chicago world as well as many other styles..

My Rule of thumb is, what is GOOD for another player, may not be what is GOOD for YOU. But that doesn't mean we can't learn some, steal some and find a "comfy compromise".....after all, that's what makes a player unique and gives him/her their OWN sound.

    If you are going to make that BIG commitment to Classical on a Chromatic, then TB'ing and "Corner Switching" techniques are a must for interval leaps and other moves etc........Mr. Bonfiglio can enlighten us more on that subject.
But even when I studied Classical with Mr. B and Cham-Ber, "I" still found certain Pucker moves within the style that worked better for "me". (Mr. B, I never told you during our lessons, I was doing that, please don't take away my gold star or was that silver??,-)))))


Again, just my opinion.....different strokes folks......
best,
rob 'best of both worlds" paparozzi,-)