Bending notes
I have spent the last few months switching from lip pursing to tongue blocking and am surprised that it is coming along better than expected based on the the online instructions. However, I can bend find lip pursing and get a good idea of what my tongue is doing to produce the bend but when I try to bend tongue blocking I'm not having much sucess. Keeping my tongue on the face of the harp and working my tongue at the same just isnt working. Any suggestions? Thanks, Brent
Thanks, Brian. That's good advice. When I started the switch I was not used to keeping the harp so far into my mouth and it felt weird. I think over the last few months it has slowly got further out. I'll give it a try! Take care!
Try to hump the "middle" of tongue up instead of pulling it back.
I am also no one to give advice here as I am learning as well, but I would like to say that I had the exact issue and it just took me a bit of time. Keep at it. I never thought I would be able to bend tongue blocking but I played and played moving my tongue all around until I found it. Good Luck!
this may or may not help anything but it took me a while to isolate the back of the tonge and to be ablel to hump it up and not the middle of the tongue. instead of just blocking the cavity as with humping up the middle of the tongue, I l lerned to actually feel a curvature of the tonue from the tip to the back of the tongiue that change the oral cavity it feels weird at first but once you isolate the back of the tongue you can begin to move that hump forweard and backward.
it's not a natural thing to do and took me a long time. but keep at it
Monty
When I learned to bend with a pucker, I humped up the tongue roughly where I make the sound of K and then slid the K-spot back for lower notes and foward for higher notes.
This was like changing the size of the "room" by moving the back wall of the room.
When I learned to bend with a tongue blcok, I couldn't move the back wall very far and still keep the tip of my tongue on the holes so I did this instead:
I learned to raise and lower the floor of the room, by raising and lowering the surface of my tongue between the two end points of the tip and the K-spot. Of course you have to learn new sweet sopts for each bend, but it's the same process as learning them with your tongue off the harp, just using a different set of moves.
Hi Brent,
I'm having similar bending issues and have discussed this with David Barrett. I'm a beginner, as well, and started with the Pucker technique. For some inexplicable reason, bending with the Pucker came "naturally" while bending with the TB is very difficult and inconsistent. My Pucker bends don't seem to involve the tongue. I just change the size of my oral cavity. I've tried to hump my tongue, without success. Presently, I'm trying to duplicate my puckered bending mouth shape while tongue blocking. This ==> a very sad sounding, whimpy sort of bend. David says practice, practice, practice, so I'm trying. You are not alone!
Phil S.
Hi Brent,
I'm having similar bending issues and have discussed this with David Barrett. I'm a beginner, as well, and started with the Pucker technique. For some inexplicable reason, bending with the Pucker came "naturally" while bending with the TB is very difficult and inconsistent. My Pucker bends don't seem to involve the tongue. I just change the size of my oral cavity. I've tried to hump my tongue, without success. Presently, I'm trying to duplicate my puckered bending mouth shape while tongue blocking. This ==> a very sad sounding, whimpy sort of bend. David says practice, practice, practice, so I'm trying. You are not alone!
Phil S.
Hi Brent,
I’m probably the least qualified for giving help on this, but I have finally learned to draw all the draw notes while tongue blocking so I will give you my 2 cents which is only worth about ½ cent.
I only do tongue blocking, so I’m making some assumptions about lip pursing. I believe 2 things are at play hear. First make sure the harmonica is deeper in your mouth with tongue blocking than with lip pursing. 2nd my guess is the humping of the tongue will need to be in a different place while tongue blocking than where it was when you lip pursing. You are changing the shape of the oral cavity when switching between the 2 methods, so it would make since to me the hump of the tongue needs to be relocated. I suspect since you learned bending while lip pursing this is making it harder for you to learn to bend with tongue blocking because your mind wants to do it the way it learned and not the way it needs to relearn.
Everything with harmonica takes time. Keep at it a little everyday and one day you will wake up and it will just work.
Brian in Tennessee