Technique for playing single note
Hello David;
I am a beginner harmonica player. I have looked at tongue blocking on your website and undertand what to practice. On the movement patterns i have watched the videos and also understand what to practice. My question is: What technique do we use to play a single note on the harmonica? Is it simply a pucker?I have been playing guitar and reading music for more than 10 years. My other question is in the A major scale there are 3 sharps- C, F, G the videos that I have watched do not say anyting about that.ThanksStan
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Stan:
mmarquez is spot on re tongue-blocking vs. puckering. Tongue-blocking brings lots of opportunities for a lot of textural stuff not always available when puckering. And once you start getting comfortable with tongue-blocking, you'll probably find that single notes work really well tongue-blocked, with the exception of hole no. 1. Folks vary between switiching the tongue or simply puckering on the 1. I find myself doing both, i.e., one or the other, depending on what feels best and works best for that lick or tune.
Re sharps and flats: David will give a better explanation in his Forum thread, but understand that his transcriptions are all written as though in C major, regardless of what key the song is actually in. Takes a little getting used to, but with your guitar experience you'll pick it up quickly. And keep in mind that a lot of blues tunes use scales other than major. E.g., a blues in E may include G, Bb (plus B natural) and D, rather than the G# and D# you'd use in an E major scale.
David's progressive theory lessons are a great way to learn this stuff.
Enjoy!
Thank you for your detailed explanation. I will use the tongue blocking method for single notes.
Thanks for your explanation of the benefits of tongue blocking and scales on the harmonica.
This forum
But anyway, here is my opinion :)
To play single notes you can either pucker or tongue block.
David recommeds, unless you are already a pucker player, that you tongue block, since tongue blocking will let you play single notes AND do many other things that you can't do or are difficult to do/simulate with a pucker (splits, slaps, pulls, pulls-slaps, etc.) and there's only one technique that can only be done with puckers (really fast tongue articulations).
You can also learn both, but if you do that, better start with tongue blocking. Many people start with pucker and then they get frustrated when they try to switch to tongue blocking and learn to bend notes, which feels more difficult to them than it was when puckering (this also commonly happens when learning blow bends). So start with the tongue block and learn all techniques to a basic level before trying to switch, it will be better in the long run.
I myself started puckering while learning by myself, then signed up for bluserharmonica.com and switched to U-blocking (which I thought was tongue blocking!). Then I realized that wasn't tongue blocking and switched again to proper tongue blocking. The last switch took me about a month of frequent dedicated practice, and I could already do bends and even some blow bends in pucker and/or U-blocking at the time I switched. Nowadays, I only tongue block in my play, though I just tried and I can, with some effort, also bend and even blow bend in all three embouchures. So this is proof that even if you start with one embouchure, you can (with effort and determination) switch to others.
Still, start with tongue blocking, which is the most versatile one, and only switch to learning to pucker when/if you need it. That will be the least frustrating learning path.
By the way, if while you are learning technique you get frustrated because you can't learn some technique (I'm looking at you, bending and blow bending), rest assured it is not because of the embouchure you have chosen. Despite what you will read from many people, I see no difference between learning to bend, blow bend, overblows or other any other techniques in either embouchure, it's equally easy (or difficult) in either of them. It depends on your practice time and your experience with the instrument, not on the chosen embouchure.