Bending
Is it easier to learn bending via lip pursing or tongue blocking, or does it matter?
I'm going to stick with tongue blocking bending, and shift my main area of focus away from bending as I have been doing as of late. There are plenty of other areas I need to work on. I'll do short sessions throughout the day on bending practice, and tend to other areas Ive neglected. Thank you as always for your thoughtful reply, it wasn't the least bit discouraging.
That sounds like a great approach. My pleasure.
I do feel very fortunate to have tools like Harp Ninja, the science behind bending, and your excellent instruction. I have a great deal of respect for you and others that didn't have these tools available, from the pioneers of blues harp and to all those that followed. It's actually quite amazing when I think about it.
Hello mainmark37. Bending is an exploratory process. You can't see what your tongue is doing to confirm what it's doing, and even if you could, we're dealing with matching frequencies with the harmonica, of which is not a visible thing as well. Even if you were sitting next to me, and I could see your tongue, I could only put you in the general area... it's up to you to do thousands of reps to explore your mouth and how it affects the harmonica. Even after you find your first bends, it's tens of thousands of reps to refine the process. I'm not saying this to discourage you, but to share with you that this exploitive process is normal for those learning how to bend. I had to do it... every pro player had to do it... now it's your turn. The advantage you have, which I and the other pro's didn't have, is that you know the science of how it works, and even have electronic feedback tools (Harp Ninja) to help you along the way. Keep at it, you'll get it. Make sure to review the bending lesson and the associated materials often... they will continue to refine your bending over time.
I highly respect Jerry... his material is very clear, and he's one to put a lot of thought into his material. In regards to what he states about learning pucker bending first... I have not found this to be the case though. The three instructors out there that I respect the most (they have many students on a daily basis, and do workshops often) are Joe Filisko and Dennis Gruenling. All three of us teach tongue block bending from the beginning. If you feel you would like to explore pucker bending, that's totally fine... if it helps you, then fantastic... it will just take you more time to learn how to do both, rather than just one.