A Strict Approach to Tongue Blocking

I think that one of the most interesting uses of tongue blocking is that it allows us to be rhythmic: hearing the great pre-war blues players or certain tremolo players work on even simple melodies, making them incredibly articulated, makes you really reflect on how a humble harmonica can sound like two or three instruments at the same time! Today we have a lot of instructions on effective tongue blocking, but I wondered if it would be possible to implement a series of step-by-step exercises to improve my rhythmic attitude and make it more ‘scientific’ and programmed. I certainly don’t want to sound like a robot, but I would like to make my training more rigorous and A STRICT explore this particular aspect in depth. Is it possible to evaluate how tongue blocking is able to APPROACH rhythmically enrich a song? Can you keep a fixed melody and change the rhythm behind it? I decided to choose a melody and check it out. TO TONGUE For the melody, I was inspired by the Maestro himself: in 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote twelve variations BLOCKING of the famous French popular melody ‘Ah, vous dirai-je Maman’ (‘Twinkle twinkle little star’): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyhxeo6zLAM Matteo Pulin The result is amazing, and sometimes it is even difficult Profetto to hear the original melody! A problem can arise because of the harmony: on a standard Richter-tuned diatonic harmonica, few chords are actually available, but in this case we focus on the rhythmic aspect, so each slap (i.e. the moment when the tongue strikes the harmonica, blocking the holes that should not play) will be the fastest and most decisive possible, so that the percussive aspect is more appreciated and the harmony is reduced to a minimum (i.e. the chord that is inevitably produced by the vibrating reeds). Two movements are involved (I’m using the same nomenclature as Joe Filisko - someone who knows a thing or two about tongue blocking): Clean single note: the tongue is resting on the harmonica and lets the air escape into the single hole we need on the right side of the mouth. Vamping the note: played by making the tongue lash – quoting David Barrrett, ‘by breathing a fraction of a second in advance (allowing the four reeds to vibrate), then blocking the three holes [left] with the tongue, leaving the right hole open’. WARNING! This technique, which is used in Chicago style to give push and aggression to a note or split, in this case (which we can refer to as old time style) serves much more to mark the time, and is executed with more subtlety!

Two things can occur: The tongue slap occurs when the melody note must play: the tongue beats on the harmonica, leaving just the correct hole open and blocking the other holes on the left – you hear the slap of the tongue and the melody note playing together. The tongue slap occurs when the melody note is already playing: the tongue rises and beats on the harmonica, leaving the correct hole open and blocking the other holes without interrupting the air flow that is passing through and allowing the right hole to continue playing – the melody note continues to sound as you hear the slap of the tongue. Referring back to Mozart, I thought of twelve variations (or I’d have to say ‘percussive accompaniments’) of the melody, but of course it is possible to create many rhythms. Sometimes the approach is quite easy; in other cases it takes a little longer; but the best result I think we can get is to hear two distinct elements: the melody and the rhythm proceeding almost independently of each other. Certainly, the melody is deliberately simple: there are no great variations, moving between 1/4 notes and 2/4 notes on a slow tempo. A more articulated and fast melody could well be more problematic, but this is a pure independence exercise, and I think the most complicated thing to pursue is not the technique, but being able to concentrate on doing two things – moving the breath and tongue – at the same time but with two different beats. Only the A part of the tune is included in the musical scores below for reasons of space (part B is just as simple to play by ear). The rhythm part scores are written below the tune, and the basic beat imposed on the piece by the tongue percussion is shown. The exercise is progressive (and customisable), and it is very important to be able to distinguish the two parts as much as possible, performing them as ‘independently’ as you can. When all is said and done, I ask myself and I ask you: is it then possible to think of playing harmonica in a syncopated or poly rhythmic way? We will see in a future article. For the realisation of this article, I am infinitely grateful to Davide Speranza and especially to the great Joe Filisko, who helped me with patience and generosity by giving me a lot of advice. I am pleased to refer you to his website and store (www.filiskostore.com/) for an incredible insight into tongue blocking, old time style harmonica, and many other topics. Facebook: Matteo Pulin Profetto - Irish & Celtic Harmonica YouTube channel: Pulin Harmonica Email: pulinharmonica@gmail.com