Lip Pursing
I would like to know what people think of the following letter to David Barrett..." Any chance Mr Barrett would give some consideration to having a separate site devoted to lip pursuing with occasional requirements of tongue block?? From all my reading and your interviews it seems 90% of people started with lip pursuing and did just fine. No other site has your fantastic structure/lessons and I would hope you would reconsider and add lip pursuing as separate lessons." I personally think he would double the amount of players using the site.
Understood Jon...but it seems a lot of people come to a crossroad..I wish David would just try an alternate for those of us wishing to use mostly lip pursing. I've looked into this extensively and tons of blues harpists use primarily lip purse with TB added when they need it. Also the amount of blues harp teachers Jon Gindick, Adam Gussow, Dave Gage etc etc teach primarily lip purse. I wish David would look into it as his structure/lessons/videos etc are unparallelled.
Understood Jon...but it seems a lot of people come to a crossroad..I wish David would just try an alternate for those of us wishing to use mostly lip pursing. I've looked into this extensively and tons of blues harpists use primarily lip purse with TB added when they need it. Also the amount of blues harp teachers Jon Gindick, Adam Gussow, Dave Gage etc etc teach primarily lip purse. I wish David would look into it as his structure/lessons/videos etc are unparallelled.
I certainly understand that lip pursing is used by many harp players. I really can't say which one is better. Each player has to choose. As I understand, David's approach is centered around playing traditional blues. There's just so much emphasis on tongue block techniques because they're essential to playing traditional blues. There isn't any reason you have to use tongue block as your primary embouchure. Play the licks, bends, shakes, articualtion lip pursed if that's more to your liking, Learn the tongue block techniques and use them when they fit the song. I want to make sure that you understand David and all his students played the lip pursed emboiuchure many years in private lessons. I know Joe Filisko influenced David in using the tongue block embouchure. I can remember the lesson when he had me start using only tongue block. It was extremely frustrating (it wasn't a piece of cake for Daivid either). I'm sure you can imagine the countless hours he spent lip pursing and then the huge volume of time learning tongue block. He has looked into both embouchures extensively and still continues to improve his techniques and teaching. I really believe he's the absolute best harp teacher in the world. He's my instructor, he's studied the type of blues I'm most interested in and I went with what he was teaching me. Since he switchd to tongue block being his primary embouchure he's put a lot of effort onto studying and teaching the tongue block embouchure. I want you to know that if you like lip pursing and really study and practice you'll sound great. It's not a hindrance. I also suggest you work on Adam Gussow's and Jon Gindick's material as well as David's. Plus check out all the interviews on this website. There's a ton of info on lip pursing you just have to find it. It's a long road to become proficient. Just dig in and go for it. It's getting the sound you like and using whatever it takes. Explore, explore, explore.
Jon's comments are right on in my opinion. When I started with David six years ago, I was a 'lip purse' player (and a beginner with one year playing). It would have been so easy for me to not pursue tongue blocking if I had a a series of lessons to stay with lip pursing. Tongue blocking was on hell of a frustration, especially when it came to bending notes, BUT the doors it opened to tone, dynamics and textures now make me think back and be thankful that I stuck with it with David's encouragement and guidance. I still can go back to lip purse playing and use it if I want and in fact when I was approaching blow bends a few years ago, and more recently overblows, I would revert to lip pursing just to be sure it was possible for me to use these techniques. After a short while though (weeks) and sticking with it, I now can use both those techniques with tongue blocking.
I sure wouldn't discourage anyone from choosing one method or the other but, the advantages for me just open up the possibilities and I honestly don't know what I would have done if I had the option of lip pursing lessons. For me, the struggle was worth it because now i have all options open to me.
And for what its worth, it's not like a long term investment in order to become a name harp player - at the current age of 76 and being pretty much strictly a jam player, I am having a ball learning. experimenting and enjoying the music I am able to make on my own and with others.
Just sayin'
My opinion is David will teach the blues harmonica techniques that are appropriate for the song or lick within a song. He's putting out to the public his expert instruction based on years of playing, teaching and studying. I've been studying with Mr. Barrett since the 90's when he was the manager of the Music Tree in Morgan Hill, CA. At that time he was lip pursing. The techniques he teaches and quality of his teaching has improved constantly over the years. I would suggest you carefully watch the Kim Wilson and Gary Smith interviews to find out their differing opinion on this subject. Many of the musicians interviewed offer thier insight on how they play.
My understanding is a lot of musicians switch from lip pursing to tongue blocking during the performance of their songs and some use only one or the other. What I'm hearing is they do whatever it takes to get the sound they want. It's about playing the blues any way you can.