Moisture I think
Hi,
I've come to this school because I wanted to add tongue blocking to my previous pucker embouchure and, who knows, maybe become exclusively a tongue blocker.
I'm hoping this is the right place to ask, is it normal to suffer reeds blocking (probably with moisture) whilst playing TB, something I never had puckered? Specifically I'm having this problem with 5 hole draw.
Thanks,
Graham
Thanks for your response.
I am hoping that with time it'll reduce, I guess I was more confused as to why so specifically the 5 draw. However, I hadn't considered what you said about it being to do with the mechanics of that reed. I noted that I had this issue with David's study pieces but no others, maybe he just writes more tasty music. :-).
Thanks again.
Graham: Yep. The 5-draw is a bear. As you go through David's study songs and lessons, you may note that pitch-wise he treats the 5-draw bend as more like a quarter-step downward. E.g., only about halfway down toward what would otherwise be a full half-step bend. Sort of a "sharped flat" I suppose. Different harmonicas on different days (and even your mouth on different days) will experience differences in just how far down the pitch will go. Actually, this makes a great bluessy sound when one bends both the 4 and the 5 together, or shakes them while bending, as the 4-draw will bend down a full half step in pitch, but the 5-draw won't, creating a wonderful dissidence. (Or in the ears of folks who aren't blues fans, just plain noise.)
Even if you're not trying to bend Draw 5 (or any note) and even if your mouth isn't trying to digest the harmonica by overproduction of saliva, there can be another problem.
How your tongue is placed inside your mouth can tune it to a note. This is essentially how bending works. But if your tongue is placed in a new way, as with beginning tongue blocking after not using your tongue to block holes, you can inadverntently tune your mouth to a note that the reed can't respond to. As a result it can bend inadvertently, squeal, or just refues to sound or sound with reluctance after stalling initially.
Make sure that air can flow silently and without drag through your mouth when tongue blocking. One way to do this is to play a note, then, while continuing to breath and without changing anything about the placement of your lips and tongue, removing teh harmonica and listen to the sound of your breathing. Any sound indicates a pinching of the air flow. Strive to make your breathing silent, with no feeling of drag or pressure.
Also, make sure the opening between the edge of your tongue and the corner of your mouth is bigger than the hole, to avoid creating drag by crowding the hole.
Lean your head back
You might pose this question in the Forum category "Ask Harmonica Expert Winslow Yerxa." His answers are always comprehesive, yet concise, understandable, and immediatly useful. But in the meantime, a couple of things to consider:
1. The 5-draw is typically not easily drawn down a full half tone, due the it's mechanical and sonic relation to the 5-blow reed. E.g., it's physics. David has some excellent video explanations here on what that's all about. So it's possile that you're actually straining a tad too much on the 5-draw; and,
2. If you're starting to work on tongue-blocking after learning on puckering, it's also possible that while learning something new, your mouth is creating more spit, leading to reeds sticking a bit.
Some time ago I read a great interview of Rick Estrin, and the question about mouth moisture (OK, spit) came up, and he talked about how over decades of playing it had become less and less a problem for him. In his inimatable way he talked about how folks naturally generate saliva for eating, and explained that over time his mouth had learned, "Hey, this is a harmonica, stupid, NOT a piece of fried chicken!"