Puckering learning to Tongue Block
Hi David,
I learned to play harmonica puckering and now i'm going the the LOA and learning how to tongue block! For Solo Harmonica study 2 Ex 1.4 C and D would you slap the 3+ but then slightly bend 3 blow with a pucker and keep puckering until you then slap the 4 blow in C and 6+ in D?
Maybe while i'm practicing it makes sense to slap them all but in the future if i was just playing and doing both tongue blocking and puckering would what i describe above be a good approach?
Andrew Pfeiffer
Hi David,
I'm now going through and working on the bending studies and I'm surprised to learn that you can bend while tongue blocking! I thought people who tongue blocked would switch to a pucker to bend but from what i'm gathering that isn't how people would play?
Do you solely tongue block and bend while tongue blocking when you play? Would you recommend not switching between the two styles while playing?
I'm trying to do a bend while tongue blocking and am realizing I cannot, even though i can bend easily while puckering. When i pucker to get a bend the tip of my tongue also moves farther back in my mouth and away from the harmonica which obviously will not work while doing a tongue block LOL
Hello oldiesdrew.
Yup, all the bending you hear in the lessons are bent in a tongue block. This is the way that the majority of the blues harmonica players have done it.
With this said, there are/were plenty of players who use(d) a mixed approach (Charlie Musselwhite, Gary Primich, Paul deLay, etc.). This is where you typically pucker holes 1-3 and tongue block 4-10, and pucker when bending.
In regards to learning to TB bend, check out the bending lesson on the site, it's all taught with the idea of tongue blocking. The physics are the same as pucker bending, but it won't feel like it. It's all about where you raise your tongue, not sliding the tongue back. Check out the lesson.
Very cool, thank you! I'll try out tonge blocking bending and see how it goes compared to puckering. It is wild how different it feels LOL
Hello Andrew.
Welcome to the tongue block journey.
I would recommend you play 2 draw, 3 draw dip, then switch to tongue blocking for the rest of the lick. The typical thing to do is switch at hole 4 for TB. There are exceptions of course (such as a shuffle bass line, if you're not using any bending, for example).