Tongue blocking - 3 or 4 holes?
Hi, David -
I have been working with your "Basic Blues Harmonica Method" book, Level 1(published by Mel Bay) and prior to that I'd been using other books and just getting the hang of clean single notes, and the cursed 2-draw. It's getting better and my single notes with pucker are going well. I researched the forums here and see that the general advice--including yours--is to go with tongue blocking primarily but that puckering is also a good technique to have at one's disposal. That makes perfect sense. So, I am working on learning tongue blocking.
In the beginners lessons video you talk about blowing into holes 1-4 (a real trick now that I FINALLY got the hang of keeping my mouth closed around ONE hole! LOL). The "Basic Blues Harmonica Method" book (on page 28) talks about placing your mouth over holes 1-3.
I realize that viewpoints and preferences can change after a book comes out, and between updates, so my only question concerns how many holes to blow into & block. Do you recommend 4 holes & block 3, or 3 holes and block 2, or get good with both?
Thanks,
Paul H.
Excellent! Thanks for the speedy reply!
Paul
I used to tongue block over three holes, but since I use a 4 holes embouchure my sound is far better than before.
Anyway I think is good to do both, you can use the three holer many times.
Imagine a 3 3' 5 3 3' 5 jump, you can do it easily with a three hole embouchure.
For four holes I keep the harmonica straight and I tilt it for a three hole embouchure.
Welcome to the site. You bring up very valid points and your perspective is right on the money. Yes, use tongue blocking as your primary embouchure, switching to pucker for whichever technique pucker does better (commonly articulation at super-fast speeds). You'll need to make a decision on whether to tongue block hole one (tongue to the right, single hole at left) or pucker... whichever works best for you and the passage of music. You'll want to be over four holes for your standard tongue block, this way you can easily move into an octave at any time as well as the fact your slaps, pulls, flutters, etc. has a much bigger sound. Best wishes on your studies!