[Harp-L] Re: Tongue-block (last one I swear...!)

["M. N." <mnessmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Allen wrote:
"things like speed, and articulation vary greatly between pucker vs. TB."

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I disagree. Speed and articulation in one embouchure or the other do vary 
FROM PLAYER TO PLAYER depending on their comfort level and how he or she 
learned to play. But it's not reflective of the embouchure per se, it's 
reflective of the player! There is nothing done pucker-style that can't be 
replicated using TB by a skilled player who is most comfortable using TB: 
Not speed, not articulation, not overblows, nothing. Witness 100% TB guys 
like Sugar Blue and Mark Ford (speed and clarity) and Dennis Gruenling 
(overblows). Playing clean and pretty in TB is just a matter of not lifting 
your tongue off the harp to let those lower notes sound when you blow a 
note. Not a technique that I'M very good at -- when I want clean and pretty, 
I use puckering -- but not at all impossible. I'd wager that someone like 
Jason Ricci -- who has spent a lot of time trying to play "pretty" stuff 
with great clarity and precision -- could do so using TB, even though it's 
not his main embouchure (or at least wasn't back when I was taking lessons 
from him).

Put it this way, if you took two kids with zero experience and taught one to 
play harp ONLY using TB and the other to play ONLY using pucker, by the time 
they each had "mastered" the instrument, the TB kid would be able to play 
just as fast and with as much clarity as the pucker kid. Why? 'Cause that's 
how he learned to blow harp, it's the only embouchure he knows.

MN