Place your lips over a four-hole span, using a light touch on the face of the
harmonica. Use the top of your tongue just past the tip (called the blade of the
tongue) with a light enough touch that the convex shape of your tongue does not
completely flatten on the face of the harmonica. Cover the left three holes with
your tongue, leaving the right-most hole to sound a single note. Move the
harmonica latterly—the focus is to generally move the harmonica, not the face
or jaw.

Special Note for Lower Holes

To play hole 3, your tongue centers on hole 1, covering holes 1 and 2 and some
of the wood to the left of hole 1. To play hole 2, narrow your mouth slightly and
center your tongue on the wood to the left of hole 1, covering hole 1 and the
wood to the left of hole 1. To play hole 1, your mouth is commonly over holes
1 through 3, covering holes 2 and 3 with your tongue.



Yesterday I stated that your lips should be surrounding four holes. The purpose
of this is as follows, with the more important reasons listed first...

1) You can play an octave very quickly with slight adjustment of the tongue (to
the center, blocking two holes).

2) Your slaps, pulls, flutters and other techniques where the tongue is off of the
harmonica have a much bigger sound, due to there being four holes sounding
when the tongue is off instead of three.

3) Since the harmonica is deeper in your mouth, your mouth is larger, creating
a larger resonant chamber, and this provides you with a bigger tone.

4) You can move your tongue to the right so that the lower hole in your
embouchure is the octave below the note you were just playing (a very common
technique used on the V-IV-I Transition in Bars 9, 10 and 11).

 


When I was studying Little Walter's legendary blues harmonica instrumental

"Roller Coaster," the key moment of discovery in being able to perform the
song successfully was in using the lightest touch possible on the face of the
harmonica (both the tongue and lips, but most importantly the tongue). This was
key in being able to play at his speed and level of dexterity. Here are the
negatives of pushing too hard when tongue blocking...

1) Holes to right or left (depending on which tongue block technique you're

going for) will unintentionally be blocked. Tone, volume and even pitch (when
a hole is constricted, the note being performed can be bent) suffer.

2) Since your tongue is being pushed into the holes, t's difficult to move on the
harmonica. Even slight excess push on the face of the harmonica creates
undesirable drag as you're moving on the harmonica.

3) A tense tongue is a slow tongue, so even bending, articulations and other

tongue movements are labored.

4) Sore tongue from the abrasion of moving on the harmonica and soar auxiliary
muscles (neck, shoulders, face, etc.) from this excess tension.

Practice using a light touch this weekend.


 


Here are some key benefits of using a light touch with your tongue on the face
of the harmonica...

1) Holes to the right or left (depending on which tongue block technique you're
performing) will not unintentionally be blocked by your tongue squishing into
the holes.

2) When your tongue pushes on the face of the harmonica, your tongue will
have a tendency to roll forward and arc, causing your tongue to fill the mouth
cavity. The smaller your mouth cavity, the smaller/thinner your tone. With a
light touch, your tongue will tend to stay at the floor of your mouth, allowing
your mouth cavity to create the larger resonant chamber needed for good tone
production.

3) With a light touch you'll glide across the face of the harmonica. Less pressure
equals less drag, allowing you to play faster.

4) A relaxed tongue is a fast tongue... bending, articulations and other tongue

movements are more efficient.

Work on using a light touch this week, it will pay great dividends.

  

Start with a slap and continue to make the slapping motion with a fully
supported airstream (not individual pumps of air like that of individual slaps).

TIPS:
Most importantly...

1) Keep your tongue to the left. The most common error is to allow the tongue
to drift to the center, essentially causing the technique to turn into multiple
pulls.

2) At any point you should be able to stop your tongue on the face of the
harmonica and you'll have a single note. Later you can add a little bit of the
upper hole (like you do in Bending Study 4, "My Blues") for a thicker texture,
but for now your goal is to get that right-most hole in your embouchure to
always remain open, without bleeding in adjacent holes when your tongue is on
the face of the harmonica.

3) The sound that makes the flutter is the combination of the chord produced
(tongue off) and single note (tongue on). Students often mistakenly move the
tongue too fast, or not off of the harmonica enough (far enough back in the
mouth). You want that big chord, so allow your tongue to travel a good distance
back in your mouth, adjusting to have your tongue move less as you desire to
speed the flutter up.

Just like the slap...

1) A light touch is key.

2) Using the blade of the tongue will allow the width required to cover the
holes without pressing your tongue on the face of the harmonica.

3) Keep the tongue relaxed... a tense tongue is slow and commonly arrhythmic.

!  

An alternative to the Flutter Tongue is the Side Flutter, where your tongue
moves side to side. I commonly see three ways this is approached...

1) The tongue moves side to side on the face of the harmonica. When the tongue
is to the right, the low note sounds (D for example on the C Harmonica when
performing a 1 draw/4 draw side flutter). When the tongue moves to the left, the
high note sounds (4 draw in this case). With a light touch on the face of the
harmonica and a relaxed tongue, the tongue moves side to side quickly, jumping
between the two octave D's.

2) Perform the same technique as above, but use more of the tip of your tongue
so as not to block three holes at a time... this makes a more chordal presentation.

3) Your tongue blocks the center two holes (holes 2 and 3 in this case) and the
middle of the tongue (not the tip) moves side to side. As the tongue moves to
one side it blocks the airflow through that side of the mouth, creating the same
effect as Example 1 above.

Most players use either the Flutter Tongue or Side Flutter, but not commonly
both—though it’s great to have both techniques in your repertoire if you can do
them. Notable players that use this technique are Little Walter, Kim Wilson,
Dennis Gruenling and Joe Filisko.

"
#

Center your tongue and move it ever-so-slightly back (away from the
harmonica) so that you're only covering two holes with your tongue. Again,
focus on the convex shape of your tongue, there’s no need to use the tip of your
tongue if you use a light touch.

Reminder... one of the reasons why you're having your lips surround four holes
as your common tongue block embouchure is so that you can access the octave
easily. If you find you have to open your mouth to achieve the octave (when
moving from a single-hole tongue block technique), this means that your mouth
wasn't large enough to begin with. Your goal is that when moving from a
single-hole tongue block technique to an octave that your mouth should not
move (check this in a mirror).

Have a great weekend everyone. See you at the CD release in Morgan Hill
Saturday if you can make it!