Another Pucker looking for help
Hi David,
after having signed up for your site I'm real excited about the immense amount and quality of your teaching material.
I'm self-taught so far (with the exception of a few one to one online lessons) using the pucker-method. I understand your concept and agree upon learning to tongue-block from the very start to not overcomplicate things later when one wants to extend his or her sound pallet. The thing is I have very little time as I play other instruments which need my dedication aswell.
Do you think I can go through your program using just the pucker method or would that leave out too much of the material and make it impossible for the teachers to give feedback on my playing? I did pick up the harmonica pretty fast as I did with other instruments so maybe switching to TB is not going to be all that hard. What is your experience with pucker-players in respect to how long it takes to make the transition to be able to play TB with confidence?
Twiggy
Thank you David for your very clear and comprehensive answer! I am sure that many new students are going to find this answer useful too.
In fact I picked up the harmonica after having heard those (older) guys you've just metioned trying to copy their styles so that would speak for making the switch asap. On the other hand I am a composer too and interested in developing my own style of playing. I'll give it a thought. Probably I'll continue the pucker and put some time aside for TB too just to see how it goes (I already play octave splits). I'll share my experiences on the forum.
Thanks again for your help and all of the work and soul you have put into this great site!
Twiggy
Edit: it only took me 10 minutes to be able to play tongueblock exercise 1.2 YEAH!
Sounds like a good plan Twiggy. Best wishes on your studies.
Edit: A TB prodegy is born :-)
Welcome to the site Twiggy. You can use pucker as you study on the site, the only changes you'll need to make is when a TB exclusive technique comes up in the music. Ignore slaps (just play a single note), play pulls as a chord articulated with a TA or KA, and when it calls for an octave play the upper note only.
Focus on everything in LOA except the TB lessons.
When you're ready to dig into TB, learn everything the way it's taught and then once you can do what's taught you can choose when you want to use TB and why. Generally speaking, most pucker players will pucker holes 1-3 and TB holes 4-10, staying in a pucker when bending and deciding when to go back into TB when the phrase allows it. This is the way I played for many years.
This is the way I and MANY other players learned, so you're not alone in your journey.
Keep in mind though that everyone who has learned this way, who have stayed with the harmonica, all say that they wish they learned tongue blocking from the beginning, or made the switch much earlier in their playing, it would have saved them tons of time and grief. Keep in mind that I'm speaking of traditional blues harmonica playing (Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonny Boys I and II, George Smith, James Cotton, etc., and players that play in their style, such as Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, etc.). So, if you love traditional blues harmonica playing, then switching to all TB (except for hole 1 in your case) is the way to go... no question. If it's not your passion, then don't worry about it, use TB as you see fit.
To answer your question, it commonly takes two months to get TB dialed in where it feels as good as your pucker playing (this excludes bending... it take a while to dial in, just like pucker bending did, if you've learned how to).
To sum up... pucker is one technique... TB is one technique... we all learn how to do both well, just TB is used much more in blues harmonica and is your next step in learning if you want to play this style. You can mix in as much or as little TB as you wish once you know what the strengths are for both.