Pulls After a Tongue Block
I'm new to the site but familiar with the books. Haven't yet seen an example of my question in the site but Ex. 3.7 A in Exploring 2nd Position will work. The second beat in the first bar is a slapped 5 draw followed by a pull. The pull is tabbed as 1234 draw. Given I'm tongue blocking the 5 draw would the pull not include the 5 draw or is there a reason why the 5 draw is not shown as being played? My guess would have been there's no expectation to move or change the embouchure so I'm not sure how 5 draw could be avoided?
This is a variation of my original question. In this second situation the pull includes the note just played. For instance 4 draw followed by a 1234 draw pull. So my tongue is already on holes 123. The way I'm hearing it the instruction is telling me to flatten my tongue enough to cover hole 4 before pulling off. I don't hear much, if any, difference when I just pull off 123 and let 4 simply ring out. At any kind of speed getting the tongue flattened enough to also cover hole 4 is quite a bit of work. I'm happy to work at this but wonder if the return is worth the investment? At a good tempo should this be a conscious move? Thanks!
Interestingly enough, it's the faster tempos where the Pull really pays off.
When your tongue just leaves the face of the harmonica (called a "Lift"), the upbeat (where Pulls live) is vague... the faster you go, the more that it just sounds like you're slapping downbeat notes and only playing quarter notes... swing is gone (remember that if you don't use the Pull articulation, the chord associated with the pull and the chord associated with the slap become the same chord... not separated by the Pull articulation).
If you're needing to do a lot of pushing, then you may want to experiment with your tongue angle... too much to the left possibly (my tongue is VERY slightly to the left.. just enough to open the right hole)... or not enough of the top of the tongue. Also make sure that you're not tensing up, a rigid tongue wont create the coverage needed when you slightly stick your tongue out to "set" the tongue for the pull.
Finally, no, there is not a huge difference at slow and medium-slow tempos, but at medium to fast tempos your playing will lack definition (we're mostly speaking of rhythm here).
You may want to just start with using the lift in your shuffle study of "Gary's Blues" and then as your tongue get's used to the motion, add the slight push forward to set (cover all the holes) for the pull.
P.S., using the Filisko Tongue Block trainer is extremely helpful if you don't already have one.
Take your time, you'll get it... it's one of the three most important tongue blocking techniques.
In another thread I mentioned how much I like your books. You recommended Improvising, Accompaniment and Rock so I now have those three. In Accompaniment the second last paragraph of the first page of Chapter 5 - Bass Lines compares pulls and lifts. Somewhat similar to my original question here. Given that true pulls aren't that difficult to perform, and are important to getting a Chicago sound, I was wondering why you decided to suggest to the reader to use lifts. Was it to get the sound of pulls easily or was it as a method of teaching pulls one step at a time?
You're correct, "a method of teaching pulls one step at a time" I do this on the site... note that "Temperature" (Tongue Block Study 2) has Lifts (take your tongue off) and then it's taught as Pulls in "Gary's Blues" (Tongue Block Study 2)." I don't emphasize the Lift... I just state for the harmonica player to take their tongue off for this "upbeat chord." I put most my emphasis on the Pull due to the fact that if you're going to develop some neural pathways linked to a sound, I prefer it to be the correct technique. About 1/3 of students have extreme difficulties changing they way they play a "similar" sound, so I'm cautious about this. Anyways, the method behind the madness. It really could go either way, but I prefer show you the technique and then you go practice slowly.
Great question. Move to the 1234 pull. Keep in mind that the pull is a substitution of single note, most commonly played on the upbeat. So, in this case, the 4 draw is what's being substituted.
If you're playing a consistent line, like 5 P 5 P 5 etc., then it makes perfect sense to just stay there, but for a line like 5 4 5+ 3 4 5+, it would be played like 5 P(4) 5+ P(3) 4 5+.
The more you use pulls, the more you'll hear this subtlety. Two famous songs you can study that do this are "Juke" and "Walter's Boogie" (1977/78 Blind Pig Version).