U blocking to tongue blocking: bending
Hi David,
I've been playing for some 2/3 years now and I initially started with a pucker, then moved to what I thought was tongue blocking, but turned out to be U blocking. I can do all draw bends, most of blow bends and some overblows plus some throat vibrato using this technique. I'm also able to do 4 hole octaves and 5 hole octaves (in the middle +upper register) changing my embouchure to tongue blocking and moving one hole down.
I've started taking a look at the Levels of Achievement program and while looking around the beginners lessons I saw the tongue agilty lesson on level 1, where you recommend tongue blocking covering 4 holes for more efficient play, a warmer tone and ease when switching to octave splits, so I've given it at try.
After a couple of days I'm more or less able to play regular draw and blow notes using the wider embouchure, but of course daw bends are much worse: 3 draw is kind of fine, but 2 draw full bend is almost impossible, and, if I get it, it's always briefly passing through the 1/2 tone bend and it leaves me out of breath. Blow bends and overblows are pretty much gone. It seems to me that my tongue has much less leeway for moving back in my mouth and bending notes when I tongue block than when I U block.
Any recommendations on how to transition to tongue blocking from U blocking, or will I just need to re-learn the whole bending technique pretty much from scratch if I want to switch embouchures? I'm considering using both while I get better at tongue blocking, because it seems like a huge step backwards to suddenly be unable to use all the techniques I control when U blocking.
Thanks!
Manuel
Just a follow up in case someone is in a similar situation later and they are wondering how long it takes to switch. In my case in a couple of weeks I was able to get a good enough tone and readjust my muscle memory for the positioning of notes when tongue blocking coming from U blocking. Draw bends seem fine (though deep bends, especially 2 draw 1 tone, are not as smooth as when U blocking, but getting there), blow bends and overblows are impossible for now, but I guess they'll come when I practice enough.
Tongue blocking is now a comfortable position, even corner switching, I'm kind of surprised of how little time it took me to switch. Octaves are much easier (no need to switch positions) and slaps sound bassier/warmer/fuller. So I'd say really worth the effort.
Thank you for the update, I'm glad all is going well.
Hello Manuel. The main reason for using the standard tongue block is so you can use the technique of the slap, pull, and octave. You have the octave already. The slap in a U-block has one higher and one lower note than the single note... a 4 draw slap would have 3 4 5 chord preceding it for example (where the standard tongue block would have 1 2 3 4 preceding it). Though a little less full in sound, it doesn't sound bad (John Nemeth uses this for example, and he sounds good). The pull would be the same idea. I think it makes sense to stay in a U-block at this stage of your playing, essentially treating it like a standard tongue block. There isn't anything you can't study on the site with this embouchure.