Tongue Blocking on Songs played by Pucker Players
HI David and Everyone,
I starting playing harmonica about 2 years ago and have primarily been learning to play using the LOA program and tongue blocking technique and I have become most comfortable playing using tongue blocking.
I've also recently gotten into Paul Butterfield and his style of playing. As I understand it, Butterfield was primarily a pucker player.
My question is - To properly immitate/learn licks and solos by a pucker player, is it better to play with the same embochure i.e. pucker or can you be successfull using tongue block? It seems that very fast licks would be played more easily using pucker - can they just as easily be played tongue blocked with the right amount of practice? Anyone have expereince with this?
I don't want to turn this into a debate on weather tongue blocking or pucker playing is better - i understand there are pros and cons to both. I'm more interested on the approach that tongue block players have to attacking songs played by pucker players.
Thanks,
Ryan
Thanks for the feedback David. This helps a lot as I've been struggling with how to approach trying to practice some of these songs.
On another note, I really love the site. I started into the LOA program only a few months after I picked up the harmonica and the structured approach has really helped keep me focused and motivated to continue to learn new things. Thanks for all you do and I look forward to submitting my material for LOA 4 soon.
Great, I'm glad to help!
Great question Ryan. The quick answer is that everything Paul plays can be done with a tongue block, no problem... I play his material often. Also, there is no difference in speed between the two embouchures, so you're good on that front as well.
An interesting side note...
When I switched to all tongue blocking I too had the same thought... should I still play with a pucker embouchure to be more authentic to the players that I know primarily pucker (such as Paul Butterfield and Junior Wells). I also thought that playing their material in a pucker would also help me to retain my pucker skills. In the end, I decided to tongue block everything. I've also found that I've not lost my pucker skills, even though I use them very seldom.