Learn to improvise
Hello, I am new here since yesterday. Have done some Adam Gussow youtube lessons before, but never tongue blocked. My main goal is to learn improvise better. Is there a special serie of lesson I need to follow, or are they jsut incorporated in the Levels of achievement plan?
BR, Johan
Thank you. i have some small questions.
- In your beginning bend studies, are you puckering or tongue blocking all the time?
- I am learning tongue blocking, but is it so you put the harmonica way deeper in the mouth than with puckering? I almost constantly feel the harp in the places were upper and lower lip comes together - the mouth corners, is that the correct way of doing it? or should i put the harp that deep?
Hello jdg072
- I am tongue blocking
- That is a typical depth for playing the harmonica while tongue blocking. If you're not already doing so, I recommend you watch Sharon's (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/sharon-barrett) and Hob's (https://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/hob_bosold) lessons, I work with them a lot on proper embouchure. Watching their lessons will be very helpful.
Hey, I'm new since a few weeks, and following the excercises with the LOA1.
Before I played the harp of C without tongue blocking. Bending the notes on the hole 1 and 2 is difficult (read: not possible) when I use the tongue blocking. In the 1st position there is no blocking, but in de 2nd: bending with my tongue on hole 1 is not possible. How does it come, and do I have to try harder? When I bend hole 1 and 2 without tongblocking, it sounds pretty good.
Kind regards
Jan
Hello Jan. You can pucker hole 1 (I commonly do), but do tongue block for hole 2. Tongue blocking hole 2 will allow you to play the important techniques of slaps and pulls (used all the time by good players). The only secret is to keep trying, experimenting, and giving it time. Watch the Bending Study 1 numerous times throughout your experimenting, it will help to guide and adjust your embouchure as you experiment. Keep at it, you will get it.
Thank you for your advise. I have studied your lessons for a month with a free code inside the box of my first harmonica (in the key of C) and i really liked it. I will go on by trying en excercising and maybe I will come back to your side one day.
Welcome to the site BR, Johan. You can dig right in, you don’t have to follow LOA. This is the first of 11 studies https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/improvising_study_1_chorus_forms