groyster1
3253 posts
Sep 21, 2018
12:51 PM
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how many remember these in marine bands that came in cardboard box???first one I bought it was in there....had never tried harp before.....it described tongue blocking method of playing.....I tried and tried.....gave up and went to lip pursing......have still tried to TB even with TB trainer......its been about 40 years.....still a lip purser.....can only do octave tongue splits
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the_happy_honker
307 posts
Sep 21, 2018
2:18 PM
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I started out lip pursing because Adam was a lip purser. Then I bought a Suzuki Harpmaster...
Suzuki harps have a similar slip of paper, mostly good advice on how to care for your new harp, but also some good illustrations of tongue blocking.
It took me a while to realize Adam's approach is different from tongue blocking as it is described in the accompanying instructions, but once I got that straightened out, away I went.
I have gone back and forth between TB and LP a few times, and each time TB takes a bit more of the areas that were once the domain of LP. For the forseeable future, however, the bends and overdraw in hole 10 will be LP'ed.
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SuperBee
5598 posts
Sep 21, 2018
2:42 PM
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I remember it well. I tried the tongue block, gave that up pretty quickly. 2007 I met a fellow who could play a bit, who advised me that the next step for me should be the ooh la lahs
By which he meant playing rhythm by inserting chords between single note phrases. He very briefly described doing this by putting my tongue on an off the harp to play the chords.
I tried this and found it very clumsy but after a while I found I was just leaving my tongue on the harp and lifting for the chords.
2010 I found David Barrett saying to tb everything including bends and I found it was not much of a stretch because I’d already been playing around with this sort of thing for a couple years.
Now I struggle to play without using my tongue
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Flbl
170 posts
Sep 22, 2018
8:53 AM
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I cant remember if my first harmonic had that slip, it came as a started kit from Jon Gindick, and all his instruction was for lip pursing, when i got my first marine band I read that and i can remember thinking how strange it sounded, never gave it a thought till recently but after thirty plus years of lip pursing, it's like trying to walk backwards up a set of stairs.
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nowmon
186 posts
Sep 25, 2018
6:01 AM
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I remember that little paper explaning TB,So I started that along with pursing too,thats since `68.And along the way I developed another style, on the upper reeds 6-10,i put tongue on lower half of the hole, this controls the amount of air,and for fast runs it works great.So ,its just another way to play, I`m sure many personal styles are beyond TB and pursing...Walter Horton had many ways of attack, I`m sure,with all the tone variation...Ya Ya...
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florida-trader
1363 posts
Sep 25, 2018
6:47 AM
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I remember that little slip of paper and since I deal in vintage harmonica restoration, I still see them occasionally I some of the boxes I get. I played the clarinet growing up and was actually in the marching and concert bands at college when I first started playing the harmonica. Woodwind instruments require a strong embouchure so when I picked up the harmonica I had absolutely no problem playing clean single notes right form the get-go. I know some struggle with this. Of course, it was all lip pursing. I looked at the little instruction sheets several times over the years and thought to myself, “What an idiotic way to play the harmonica! These morons have no idea what they are talking about!” Rather arrogant of me, wouldn’t you say? Fast forward 35 years. That is when I discovered the online harmonica community and the Age of Enlightenment. I started experimenting with different harps, learned about pentatonic scales, the Circle of Fifths, positions, etc. but still rejected Tongue Blocking as a viable method for playing the harmonica. Tried it a few times. Didn’t like it. Didn’t think it was worth the trouble. I play just fine without it. Stupid. Stubborn. Still arrogant. It was not until I attended Winslow’s and Jason’s Harmonica Collective in Indianapolis about 3 ½ years ago did I decide to embrace Tongue Blocking. It was hard. I had to go back to Square One. But I have paid the price and am now very comfortable with it. It has become second nature to switch back and forth. There is still much room for progress. I can only TB out of one side of my mouth (block on the left, play on the right), my draw bends on 1 and 2 are not as deep and clean as they are LP, and I cannot Blow Bend TB. But, it gives me something to work on – along with everything else. If you have not yet embraced Tongue Blocking, I encourage you to do so.
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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
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groyster1
3255 posts
Sep 25, 2018
7:13 AM
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I embraced it day one when bought my first marine band......I made zero progress.....I have filisko TB trainer......still zero progress.....I can hit the tongue split octaves okay but have never come close to sounding one hole while blocking 2 or 3 holes with my tongue.....lip pursing the entire time
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florida-trader
1364 posts
Sep 25, 2018
9:11 AM
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George – that’s exactly how I was. I literally had to grab my tongue with my fingers and move it over to the side of my mouth in order to get a clean single note. That’s all I did for a few days – just play 2 or 3 draw and blow and try to get clean notes. It was very humbling. I’ve been playing since 1972 and it felt like had never played in my life. Then, for the next several days I practiced taking my tongue off the harp and putting it back on in the same place. The hardest part for me was mental. I wanted to make music and as long as I was trying to learn how to tongue block I wasn’t making music. I was just doing stuff that frustrated me. I know that in the past I had given up because I felt like I was wasting my time. But I stuck with it. After I could play clean single notes and could take my tongue on and off the harp, I could play the simple first position melodies. The next big hurdle was learning how to draw bend. When I would try to draw bend, I would immediately revert to a pucker embouchure which simply will not work with tongue blocking. It was then that I learned to use the back of my tongue to bend the reeds. Difficult, but worthwhile.
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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
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dchurch
190 posts
Sep 25, 2018
9:45 AM
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I did some hunting in the harp cabinet and found some old instructions:
[IMG]http://i65.tinypic.com/110m24h.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/257hlhj.jpg[/IMG]
I tried following the TB instructions early on but found the U block method worked much better. Later I worked on the left side block then the right. I still favor the U block. I used to switch to a pucker for most bends, but later got the hang of U block bending and quit using the pucker. That took some work, especially for low note bends. Switching from U block to splits is easy, but my left and right tongue blocks are pretty sloppy and so are my transitions but I haven't given up on it.
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It's about time I got around to this.
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Littoral
1638 posts
Sep 25, 2018
9:47 AM
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The fact that TB directions were in the box has always seemed pretty amazing to me. It's such a wacky thing to describe in person much less on paper. That, and the fact that it is a pretty advanced technique. Starting with it early was really helpful to me but that came via a great teacher.
I appreciate you all making the clear distinction about hitting split octaves as different than TB "proper". The slap millisecond piece of chord before the note is one of the biggest benefits. That's where a lot of BIG sound comes from.
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Littoral
1639 posts
Sep 25, 2018
9:48 AM
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Can someone explain what is meant by U block?
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groyster1
3256 posts
Sep 25, 2018
10:22 AM
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@dcchurch.........yep thats the little piece of paper.....I have tons of vintage marine bands with that slip of paper......when I gave up I went up and down all 10 holes.....and got clean notes both blow and draw.......that was very long ago.....you cant teach old dogs new tricks
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dchurch
191 posts
Sep 25, 2018
1:30 PM
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-Littoral
I believe "U" blocking is the most accepted term used for tongue blocking both left and right at the same time while focusing the air stream at the center. I don’t actually roll my tongue into a “U” shape. It is more like a slight “V” with the tip of my tongue placed on the bottom cover plate. Slapping involves the holes left and right of center.
One of the features is the ability to shift the tongue right and left to hit neighboring holes without moving the harp at all.
I’m not sure why but I found it pretty easy to hit clean single notes using this method on day one.
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It's about time I got around to this.
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6SN7
812 posts
Sep 25, 2018
1:57 PM
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the most important piece of paper that every harmonica player should read. Alas, I neglected it for the first 15 years I played.
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dchurch
192 posts
Sep 25, 2018
2:22 PM
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It looks like the Marine Band and some others from the Hicksville era included the paper instructions. I only have one old mouse ear in its original box (no instructions). Does anyone here know if those would have had instructions also?
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It's about time I got around to this.
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SuperBee
5606 posts
Sep 25, 2018
2:40 PM
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I have one here from a Hicksville harp. Similar to the 1st one i ever tried to play, saints go marching in is the song, which i recall was on that first one, but i feel like there were 3 songs on my original instruction. I don’t trust that memory though; I’ve too many examples of incorrect memory now.
I do think Horner were putting an instruction slip in harps before Hicksville but just something I’ve read i think
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LFLISBOA
33 posts
Sep 26, 2018
6:06 AM
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My very first harmonica was a Chinese Hohner Bluesband, and it came with that instruction paper dchurch showed us, but I didn't cared about TB.
Latter I bought Charlie Musselwhite method, but I still lipping.
I just got serious about TB when I saw Gary Smith's instructional video and Jerry Portnoy's method, but I just TB on 1-7 holes, and the other ones I'd rather lipping.
Many pros mix embouchures to get the best effect. I think it's interesting to learn both, so you can decide which one fit best your playing.
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groyster1
3257 posts
Sep 26, 2018
3:30 PM
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I think they only came in hicksville marine bands
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