Tongue blocking 1, 2 and 3
Fri, 10/25/2024 - 04:55
Are holes 1, 2 and 3 tongue blocked out of the left side of the mouth (ex-block holes 2,3 and 4 for hole 1) exclusivley or are their situations where I might tongue block those holes out of the other side. I am a long time pucker player but am comfortable with splits all the way up the harp and will slap holes 4 and above. I want to form good habits with tongue blocking right from the start.
Hello John.
Keep your tongue to the left when playing holes 2 through 10. Hole 1 is where you have your tongue to the right. This is how you will typically play (see https://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/tongue_blocking_1).
There may be times where a passage comes up with large interval leaps where tongue switching elsewhere makes sense, but keep in mind that you won't perform a slap, flutter, pull, etc. when your tongue is the right, since the resulting chord will be higher than the intended note (though slapping hole 1 is commonplace, it's not elsewhere).