Not happy tongue blocking
Hi , i have been playing (with) harmonicas for years really badly , now decided to start again and learn to PLAY the harmonica properly , prob is I simply cannot get my mind around tongue blocking and revert to lip pursing ...... I just get frustrated and put the thing down. Do you think I should battle on with tongue blocking and as if by magic it will all click or my habits are deep seated and I would be better to progress with lip pursing ...... thanks
thanks David and for your quick response , I will persevere and keep on going , taking your advice .
I just deleted my photo as I can’t get it to come out the right way up
I would encourage you as well to continue to have small practice time for tongue block. I started to learn harmonica with over a year of study lip purse only. Then had to go back to square one when learning tongue blocking. Slowy but surely, over time it started to become easier. Really, perseverance and time is your friend. Hang in there!
thanks for your comments , it does makes sense ! I will hang in there .....
Hello OldVic192. You can continue your studies with puckering... play your single notes in pucker, and when tongue block-exclusive techniques are used (such as a pull or octave) simply play the top notated note in a pucker. I do recommend that you set aside a little bit of your practice time to learn tongue blocking as well (it doesn't need to be much... maybe five minutes a practice session)... you'll be missing out if you don't eventually incorporate tongue blocking into your playing (puckering most of the time, and tongue blocking when you need tongue block-exclusive techniques... this is going to commonly be on holes 4 and above).