technique

The top of your tongue is wider. If you find yourself pushing your tongue on the face of the harmonica to cover enough holes for a tongue block technique, use more of the top of the tongue (tip under the harmonica) and go back to using a light touch on the face of the harmonica.

Listen to "In Memory," the song featured in today's release of Recording Study 4. The pitch content of what I played and the textures I used in which to present them are of course important, but dynamics are center stage in this song to convey emotion. The use of dynamics (primarily volume change) is what's commonly missing from players in their first five years of study. The addition of dynamics easily doubles the emotional impression on the listener... I can't emphasize this point strongly enough. continue reading...

For most students, the slippery slope of opening the nose while playing the harmonica begins unconsciously. Their body learns that if the nose is opened, the issues of unintentional bending of holes 1 and 2 are fixed. When opened, the tuned size of the mouth cavity that was causing issues with that hole/note is combined with the nasal cavity, creating a cavity that's lower in pitch than those reeds can be bent to, which results in better tone and no possibility of unintentional bending. continue reading...

Center your tongue and move it ever-so-slightly back (away from the harmonica) so that you're only covering two holes with your tongue. Again, focus on the convex shape of your tongue, there’s no need to use the tip of your tongue if you use a light touch. continue reading...

An alternative to the Flutter Tongue is the Side Flutter, where your tongue moves side to side. I commonly see three ways this is approached...

1) The tongue moves side to side on the face of the harmonica. When the tongue is to the right, the low note sounds (D for example on the C Harmonica when performing a 1 draw/4 draw side flutter). When the tongue moves to the left, the high note sounds (4 draw in this case). With a light touch on the face of the harmonica and a relaxed tongue, the tongue moves side to side quickly, jumping between the two octave D's. continue reading...

Start with a slap and continue to make the slapping motion with a fully supported airstream (not individual pumps of air like that of individual slaps).

TIPS:

Most importantly...
1) Keep your tongue to the left. The most common error is to allow the tongue to drift to the center, essentially causing the technique to turn into multiple pulls. continue reading...

Here are some key benefits of using a light touch with your tongue on the face of the harmonica...

1) Holes to the right or left (depending on which tongue block technique you're performing) will not unintentionally be blocked by your tongue squishing into the holes. continue reading...

When studying Little Walter's legendary blues harmonica instrumental "Roller Coaster," the key moment of discovery in being able to perform the song successfully was is using the lightest touch possible on the face of the harmonica (both the tongue and lips, but most importantly the tongue). This was key in being able to play at his speed and level of dexterity. Here are the negatives of pushing too hard when tongue blocking... continue reading...

Yesterday I stated that your lips should be surrounding four holes. The purpose of this is as follows, with the more important reasons listed first...

1) You can play an octave very quickly with slight adjustment of the tongue (to the center, blocking two holes).

2) Your slaps, pulls, flutters and other techniques where the tongue is off of the harmonica have a much bigger sound, due to there being four holes sounding when the tongue is off instead of three. continue reading...

A reminder to all students that tremolos and flutters should not be locked to a specific rhythm. It's common to receive submissions where the student is playing all of these at the triplet rhythm (three pieces of the tremolo or flutter per beat). This is mechanical sounding... they should float. A general rule of the thumb is to have them be slightly faster than the triplet. This floating quality is what makes your music sound smooth, and when coupled with dynamics, emotional.