[Harp-L] Re: TB or pucker - or a bit of both

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Drew writes:

"Rick Estrin <snip> So, he thinks there's a difference, but also thinks
there isn't. What are we to think if he can't decide?"


That maybe there is and maybe there isn't, but if you can't pinpoint  
it and reproduce it, there probably isn't.


"As to your own experiments: we'll never know because we weren't  
there and
frankly I don't know how you play and where your at or anything."


I wouldn't call it an experiment, just a check to see if what you  
wrote fit with my own experiences.  It didn't, thus my response.  As  
to where I'm at and how I play, I'm here, and I'm neither horrible  
nor great.  I can do some things (such as bend the upper octave TB or  
overblow TB) that some people far better than I seem to have trouble  
with.  I can't do some things that others worse than I do well.  Kim  
Wilson and Rick Estrin are significantly better players than me in  
every way.  That doesn't mean they are always right on these things.

I started with a relatively simple question: how can one tell whether  
someone is playing a single note tb or pucker (or u-block or  
whatever) in the absence of other evidence (tongue-slaps,  
articulations, etc...)? It seems the answer given is "because I think  
so".  Which is fine, but it basically translates to me as "one can't".

Sonny Jr. writes:

"To just add hopefully a final note to the TB/LP thing, I  was right  
there in
front of Kim and could not tell which he was doing  both by watching  
his mouth
and also listening to his licks. So to try and  decipher from a  
record of
late greats what they did I feel would be a waste  of time. "


While I agree that it's probably impossible to tell from recordings  
(and hard enough in person), I don't think it's a waste of time.  If  
the person trying to figure this stuff out is enjoying themselves,  
more power to them.  More knowledge in all forms is great--but it  
needs to be tempered with the realization of the limits of such.

As for learning embouchures, I suggest learning all five of them.   
Getting better in any one of them will doubtlessly improve the  
others.  With, perhaps, the exception of the fifth.




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
`----'