Tongue Blocking Study 1
It's clear that Ex 1.1 is meant to be played so that the first and second holes are tongue blocked with the tongue in the right cheek leaving the left side open. Is this switching technique how you usually play the lower holes or do you more often go all the way down the comb using the open right side of your tongue block?
Thanks Dave. I can't quite get my head around this but having options is always great. Tongue blocking hole one to the right is okay for me particularly if I'm moving from the middle of the harp. But if moving from hole two I think it only makes sense to lift the tongue off for hole one and essentially pucker. It the next move is back to hole two I want to be right there with the right side open tongue block not up the harp. Will work on whatever feels right at the time!
Sounds like a plan.
I'm going through Accompaniment Study 3 - very clear explanation of using root,3 and 5 notes of each chord and why you need to emphasize them. But in Blues Creepin' Over Me, for example, the blues break is played over a I chord yet it seems to use at least one note from the IV chord (4+) which gets a lot of emphasis - but it still sounds good. I assume you can't use any note on the harmonica with any chord and sound OK, so how come 4+ sounds good with the I chord?
Clearly, I'm no musical theorist.
Good comment!
In music, we have notes of non-tension... notes of strong-tension... and everything in-between. Music is about building tension and releasing that tension... just like a good story. How much tension is up you and what's acceptable in idiom you're playing in.
Notes of non-tension (known as "non-active tones"... because they don't actively seek to resolve) are generally the notes of the Chord... the G Chord for example... G B D. The G matches the best (the root of the chord), then the 5th and then the 3rd. The notes not of the chord, but of the scale of the chord (the A C E and F#) are called "active tones" and actively desire resolution to a chord tone, and ultimately to the root of the chord, G in this case. The final level is "outside tones" and are not of the chord, nor the scale of the chord... they are outside of the key... these aggressively seek to be resolved.
We can now use ALL notes... but it's up to you to use the ones that sound best in the context of the particular chord, feel of the song and idiom you're playing in.
Generally speaking, if you're going to hold a note, it should be a note of the triad. If it is not, you're building tension for the musical purposes of movement. How much tension you use is up to you.
This is covered in great detail in the Music Theory Lessons and the later Improvising Lessons if you would like to dig deeper.
Holes 2 through 10 are played with the single hole on the right side of the mouth (commonly lips over four holes with the tongue blocking the three holes to the left) and hole 1 is played with the single hole the left, with the tongue to the right (blocking hole 2... 2 and 3... or 2 through 4... just depending on how large your embouchure is at the point in the song). Some players always keep their tongue to the left and just take it off when playing hole 1... it's your choice. There are some nice tonal advantages to tongue switching for hole 1, apposed to just puckering it, it's pretty small... so choose what you like.