Sonny Terry Technique - Did he combine blocking and pucker?
In Level 1 of the Levels of Achievement Dave emphasizes angling the harp slightly downward to get a good position on the blade of the tongue just past the tip. That seems to be working fine for me. But I became interested in harmonica after watching Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee videos on Youtube. One of my goals is to be able to play some of the Sonny Terry standards like "Hootin' the Blues". In the following clip I noticed that at the 2:07 mark Sonny seems to be angling his harp upward, not downward. It's not possible to tongue block with the harp at that angle is it? Is Sonny puckering at that point? In general, did he mix puckering and tongue blocking?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a0nW8UPZbQ
Regards,
ChuiChui
Thanks, Winslow. The general wisdom seems consistent with the clip of Sonny Terry that I referenced. But I won't draw any definitive conclusions from a sample of one clip. Your point is well-taken regarding angling and clarifying whether it is the front or back of the harmonica that is higher or lower.
Kind Regards,
ChuiChui
The general wisdom about Sonny is that he didn't tongue block. I haven't investigated this claim and thus can't attest to its accuracy, but I'm not hearing any tongue blocking during the cited portion of the clip.
By the way, what youre calling angling the harp up i'd call angling it down - and I know others see it the same way, as expressed by several players in an online discussion awhile back during a long discussion of harp tipping over on Modern Blues Harmonica, where some claimed that angling it up - i.e., a gling the *back* up - hepled direct the hole played into a channel formed by the lower lip.
For the sake of clear understanding, I'd suggest you talk about which part of the harp is being angled, the back (the part the audieince sees) or the front (the holes that face you the player).