Made my own tongue trainer
Why you should have a tongue trainer, the pluses and minuses of making your own and things to consider.
I watched videos on youtube before buying my diatonic and they all said just to choose tongue blocking or puckering and it didn't matter which one. With that kind of information who wouldn't choose puckering?! But when I got my harmonica with the link here David gave such a fantastic explanation of WHY one would want to learn tongue blocking from the beginning and then gave such detailed and fantastic instructions on how to do it that I pretty much had it down in a day. Since I'm a kinesthetic and auditory learner and was catching on fast (with this one thing at least :) I didn't think there was a need for the tongue block trainer, but then I was making my way through all the videos on tongue blocking and all the cool stuff I can do using it - so did a search on how to make my own tongue trainer to follow along at least once through - which David actually linked to! How generous is that? I took a plastic egg carton, my hole puncher and make a quick, flimsy and super fast trainer for myself (took 2 minutes).
It was useful to see what I already figured out with my body and ears. It wasn't worth buying one for ME, but definitely worth making one. But... if you are having trouble with tongue blocking, I can see why it would be very helpful and buying one is the better option. Firstly, it's the curved shape where David had an easier time of moving the professionally made tongue blocker into the mouth deep enough to emulate a real harmonica and because his is obviously softer and the shape of the holes is not round like mine but square like a real harmonica. Mine is hard on my tongue and I doubt that a real one would be. I only need to use mine once or twice to get a clear visual of what I already can feel, but if you need to really work with the tool and definitely if you are having trouble with learning tongue blocking, I would spring for the "real" version of it.
It took me a few minutes to figure out why I could do it so easily on the harmonica and not with the tongue blocker. It was because I was reaching my tongue OUT to reach the tongue blocker where I put the harmonica INTO my mouth deeply towards my tongue so... I had to really bend that plastic to get it into my mouth far enough accurately simulate a harmonica. I'm sure a real tongue blocker trainer would be much easier to do that with than my piece of plastic.
In short, it's so totally cool how generous and open this site is with either making or buying. That gets my respect! And... if you think you don't need a tongue trainer I highly suggest you make one just to get even a better understanding of what is going on in your mouth but, if you want to use the trainer as a real tool for learning and especially if you are having a hard time, then I would go ahead and buy a professionally made one. Finding the perfect material at the perfect bend and making the perfect holes - it's just really nice that all that is already done!
Hope that helps someone.
