[Harp-L] TB Bends



Message: 10
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 22:08:42 -0500
From: "samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] RE: bending using tongue-block
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <0IT700NXTVEC5092@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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<Ludo wrote:

<I wonder why so many harpers get into detailed debates about amps and mikes
<and such, but hardly anyone seemes to care getting deeper into this TB
<OB-thing.
<(including you, Dennis - apparently one of the few who can do it properly
;-))

 <It's because it's pretty hard to be precise about the stuff that goes on
in
<harp embouchure and breathing and other technique stuff.


<Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh

I got very interested in the subject of the embouchure usage of the harp
greats when I did the research for my transcription book Masters
of the blues harp some years back. I found some people, like Kim Wilson,
James Cotton, and formerly Jerry Portnoy, TBed everything. Others, like
Charlie Musselwhite, Jerry Portnoy nowadays, and Gary Primich, use puckering
for bends and TB for slaps on the blow notes. Others still, like Norton
Buffalo, combime U-block and TB.
It is a complicated question. It was very hard, for example, to find out
accurate inforamtion on deceased players like Little Walter, (U-block, TB,
and maybe pucker as well), Walter Horton (pucker and TB), Sonny Boy I
(pucker and TB), and Sonny Boy II (probably all TB). One individual, it
seems in hindsight, apparently withheld information about Little Walter's
embouchure use from me because of a competing interest.
Even though it was all research that somebody needed to do, I suppose the
lesson I drew from it all is that what you play is more important than the
technique you uses to play it with. If your phrasing is sharp, your timing
good, and your playing imbued with feeling, does it matter all that much if
you use straight TB or a pucker-TB mix? I don't think so ( I mix TB and
pucker myself, and like the sound of 3-draw with U-block.).

Glenn Weiser
http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/harppage.htm






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