Holes 1-3
Mon, 02/02/2015 - 14:16
Hi there David
I'm a professional bassist who has just begun to pursue a long fascination with the Blues harp. I'm a bit intimidated by the sheer volume of material on your site! It's an incredible resource. I've been puckering until now and I'm getting my face around the tongue block technique that you advise. But what is the recommended method for playing single notes on holes 1-3? And while I'm at it, do you mind telling me (no doubt it comes up in later lessons): is the pucker still used for bending and timbral variation even after you master the tongue block?
Thanks and sorry of the questions are clumsy! it's a whole new world for a string player
Malachy
Welcome to the site Malachy, pleasure to meet you.
When playing hole 3, your tongue covers the wood to the left of hole 1, hole 1 and 2. When playing hole 2, your tongue covers the wood to the left of hole 1 and hole 1. To play hole 1 you move your tongue to the right to commonly cover holes 2 and 3 (this varies depending on the passage). Some players take the tongue off for hole 1, effectively puckering hole 1.
You will bend in a tongue block. The only time you'll use the pucker embouchure is to do articulative passages that use double or triple-tonguing. You can adopt a playing style where you both pucker and tongue block, but it's much more efficient to do everything in a tongue block. It's somewhat similar to how you're playing the UB. In your profile picture you're using the standard three-finger approach... you have 12 notes available to you at any time (plus four open strings) without a shift... this is similar to the tongue block... you have many techniques available to you whenever you want by having the tongue on the harmonica (slaps, pulls, flutters, octaves, etc.). If you were to use the "claw" common to folk UB players, you only have one note available, having to shift for other notes.
Best wishes on your studies!