Don't know.......don't care........awesome playing on all three. I know that doesn't answer your question, but sometimes you just have to love the music without thinking too much about it.
I'll be interested in the answer though, when you eventually tell us.
I particularly liked the 3rd clip, but the use of low harp & the heavily effected 1st clip make determinations difficult. The 2nd clip sounds puckered.
But here's a thing - you only have one version of each clip, no comparison of the same playing via varying embouchures. I guess the sentiment behind your post is that music should be enjoyed for what it is, embouchure is a secondary consideration IF you are enjoying what you listen to. That, I agree with.
All TB'ers do not sound alike or sound great, all LB'ers do not sound alike or sound thin. The vast majority of players can't determine one from the other & have to rely on quotes & testimonials to back up their observations. The overwhelming majority of players, including well-known blues players (Wilson, Portnoy, Piazza, Clarke), use a mix of embouchures. There have always been players who TB everything, but for many many years they were not common, there are probably more now than there have been for a long time, partly due to a rather revisionist movement who hold on to the idea that "that's the way it was always done".
I have practiced both embouchures to a point where I am fairly comfortable with either...for some things, here's a clip of the same notes played both ways...I'd be pretty surprised if everyone guessed right...or even if it fell 50/50...
http://www.mediafire.com/?kg573cr3auuun9i
Edit - Effing free hosting sites, not worth the money ;-)....see if this works any better...
http://soundcloud.com/mwjb/ste-013b
---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
Last Edited by on Jan 11, 2012 8:37 AM
Technique, including embouchure, is just one of the ways of getting at and making music. I've never had the urge to tell a harmonica player how much I dug their embouchure, lol.
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~Ryan
"I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window." - Steven Wright
Pennsylvania - H.A.R.P. (Harmonica Association 'Round Philly)
ok here it is. The first one Cool Beer is mostly all pucker or lip pursing. The only electric effects are reverb and some echo from an electro harmonix pedal. There are acoustic effects. It was recorded using a small power monitor put in the top of an upright piano and miked. I used a flat response dm500 AKG mic. The line used an old technique of a unison overdub this was done on a Fostex reel to reel. I used an A Huang Star Performer.
Number two Workin' in Another Man's House use a mixed embouchure. Pucker and tongue blocking the fast stuff from up high is tongue blocked.The lower stuff is pucker. The fast riff on hole six is pucker. D Golden Melody. I used a dm 500 akg into an Ampeg Reverb Rocket 2. Digital performer recording software Mac computer.
Number three Sapori is tongue blocked. This is a live studio recording. The only effect is eventide reverb. An AkG c414 was used. I played a CBH 2016. Digital recording MAC lap top. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
@Tuckster - Thanks for taking the plunge. Can you tell me what if anything lead you to that conclusion? Not trying to "put you on the spot" so to speak, just interested in what traits people listen out for to draw their conclusions... ---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
I had to go back and listen again. Couldn't rely on my memory. It was the bends that told me. I can hear the TB on the bends,also there was the very tiniest tongue slap in there. Still,there were very close. If I were listening casually,I'd have never heard it.
The first was LP, the 2nd was TB. I was a bit naughty, that "tiniest tongue slap" was actually a subtle lip slap. I didn't slap at all on the TB take.
I think a lot of guys use articulation to steer them into making calls of this nature & I apologise for playing up to that. But nowhere does it state that LPers can't slap, or that TBers have to. A lot of guys who LP holes 2, 3 & 4, especially on bends, still do tongue slap for articulation effects, but then go on the LP the body of a note under the 4 hole.
To me, forgetting slaps for a moment, the difference is mainly in, what I can only describe as "Damping". LP tends towards a tighter envelope of note, a harder front that you have to consciously aim to soften. TB tends towards more relaxed cheeks & a little larger aperture that helps damp the front of the note more, and a looser, smoother note? Think more "ga/da" than "ka/ta".
These differences are pretty subtle and you really need to hear the same player doing both to identify them (this is a sticking point because most favour one over the other & are not as equally adept at both). I can understand many players finding the TB lends itself to developing a larger cavity & aperture, but if a player with a good TB embouchure applies what they know to TB, the differences aren't night & day. Likewise, someone who has a tight embouchure with a small aperture won't get a big difference in tone, whichever technique they use.
I mostly TB, slap when I feel it is apppropriate but there are LP players (single notes & bends, but TB higher up the harp & for effects - "playing normally" as one friend described it) who have made my hair stand on end with a big fat, tone...every bit as much as TBers.
---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
Last Edited by on Jan 12, 2012 9:36 AM
Once again,I'm eating crow. That's OK,if I didn't make mistakes,I'd never learn anything. How did you get it to sound "pinched"(for lack of a better term) on the 1st one? That's what I sound like when I try to TB the lower 3 holes,except much worse-I'm terrible at it. I think the TB vs. LP argument is pretty pointless. Good is good,no matter what your embouchure.
Not sure what "pinched" means? In both takes I played very softly...the first to me sounds "tighter", more accentuated breath/vibrato, which I put down to the cheeks being more taut. The TB'd version, looser, smoother?
Either way, I fold my lips in so the outer part is against the reedplate, the hole of the harp sits above the edges of my lower teeth, in order to get a large cavity.
"Good is good,no matter what your embouchure." I hear you on that.
Diggs- I always like your playing. I know you mix embouchures, so I wasn't guessing.
5F6H- Re "pinched". I guess I mean "muffled". Hard to describe. Sort of like Cotton does. He always sounds "muffled" to me. Not a bad thing,very characteristic of him.Mainly lower hole TB bends.
OK I'm off here for the weekend. Headed to a Bluegrass Jam!
Last Edited by on Jan 13, 2012 11:42 AM
So-- Diggs. Don't care if you tongue block or lip purse. Don't often comment on people's playing, but all clips were very musical. The first two made me think of Paul Butterfield and Studebaker John; the last one reminded me of Lee Oskar in ballad mode. You have music in your soul.
You invited me to join Buddha's Garden so very long ago. I did, and was glad I did.
