Tongue Blocking from a Lip Purser (HARMONICA) 001.

[chrisdavies23359]

when you say voicing the target note, do you actually mean whistling the actual note?

[mrdannygb1606]

thanks man just got from adams site you gave a the tip i needed to get better tongue blocking!

[natiaeleniko]

au



[droverboy1]

Hey J, you sound fantastic no matter how you play. Im amazed how you can move on the harp like you do and i know thats from years of pratice and doing scales. Thanks Rusty B.

[miniwilliams88]

5:18

"Ayway," *FAPFAPFAP*

[Jano130390]

Damn, you're good at this!

I'm trying to tongue block but seem to fail a lot, aspecially with the draw notes, my mouth area changes and i get a fail :S Also when i want to change notes from lets say 4 blow to 5 blow, my tongue isn't going with me all the time, so i get the 4+5 blow. Same with going from right to left. Am i pushing my tongue too hard against the harmonica? Any tips please?

[barflew]

After 35 years of tongue blocking and slaps as an accompaniment to my solo playing when I was alone I have just in recent years started improving on the lip pursing style.... Now if I could only develop some natural musical talent I think that I would be pretty good.

[clrn2mt]

Thanks! I was trying to figure out some Chicago Blues stuff that required like a tongue slapping on the low end and for the life of me.... then I found this Youtube and Whammo. Awesome rhythm with 1 draw, 2 blow, 3 draw, 3 blow. Slapping it out. I sound like Little Walter! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

[gbuxman]

Jason- thank you for being so generous with your time and talents. These videos are immensely helpful. Like you, I've been a lip purser all my life, and only in recent years discovered tongue blocking. It freaks me out- feels like starting all over again! Your video really helped. Also got a lot out of your session on chordal vamping- totally demystified the subject! By the way, your playing goes a long way to dispelling the argument that pursing is inferior to TBing. Rock on!

[bellatrixg]

Jason, good stuff. A few comments. The Ab harp? If you had used an A, the most folks learning this stuff could play along. If someone's got an Ab, they're likely beyond tongue blocking. And next time you hear someone say that lip pursing produces thin tone, have them listen to Corky Siegel during his Siegel-Schwall days. (In addition to his great tone, his phrasing and originality also stood out.) Keep up the good work!

[bluesdart]

come to salt lake



[way2chunky]

dude looks like a girl!

[weputaxx]

XUxa Madre porq no lo pones en español dios !!!

[sebsteff]

I'm just starting out, and what I do is shape my tongue like a U and block holes on both sides. Is that OK or should I do it in a different way?

[JonRoy777]

I do the same thing, and I`ve found I can bend notes with my tongue to. I've only been playing for a week, and since I found you Jay, I'm wailing already. I wanted to ask you if the bending with my tongue thing is a bad habit because it just happened naturally and is so expressive. Am I developing bad habits early???????????

[fattrucker01]

some might say, "thin tone" I say "clean precisely hit notes. I have no rythm in my tongue. I've always felt that tongue blocking was a black thing due to anatomical reasons or some crazy shit like that.

[lozannii]

Im still learning but tongue block cant seem to get single notes lip pursing. I been told i will never get a good blues sound learning this way as the notes wont bend the same, is this true.

[nedrathemountaingirl]

helpful thank you

[babysdoc]

very good

[gregorisgod]

Your videos are great.

I must admit I feel more comfortable pursing, but I can play with tongue blocking, pursing just feels easier.

[jasonricci]

Yhanks! Theres nothing wrong at all with that. Im mostly a lip purser.

J

[UncleCharles1]

I've always been a "Pucker Player"... I just don't like the word "Pursing" but hey Jason...at least you got this old boy thinking.

Good Job and thanks!

[MrSwamp5]

@jasonricci thank you jason good clip

[postmeester]

Nice girl. Tongue blocking (after a boring 5 minutes intro). Neverteless, a nice woman with a hot story

[jasonricci]

ok.

[qaesyan]

What is the alternative to tongue blocking? How else do you control which notes you play, just with your lips?

I'm a complete harmonica noob btw, just trying to get a basic understanding of the instrument. :)

[jasonricci]

yes by pursing your lips...

[qaesyan]

Thanks for the sarcastic ellipse in your response. You look like quite the fag with your muppet hair by the way........................

[jasonricci]

I truly was not trying to be sarcastic. I was only pressed for time and trying to answer a lot of comment, Sorry you took it that way I really meant no harm.. You tube is crazy with people that don't read the descriptions or titles. And I am a "fag" so I'm kinda going for that look. (The latter part of the sentence was sarcastic)

[daddyrichispoor]

:-)

Ha. Lol and all that shit.

Thanks J for replying to these comments dispite all the crap you have to deal with. I for one appreciate it greatly and have gotten a hell of a start on the harp because of the time you've spent on the videos and comments.

peace,

-DR

[kkkkeyur]

Dear Jason,

Hats off to you man !!!!! I am from India, novice player and I don't have words to appreciate your contribution towards the harmonica community. I am a great fan of yours. You've got extraordinary command over the harp !! Love to watch your videos over and over again.

keyur

[herocko]

Could you do this on a key of C harp?

[jasonricci]

Sure!!! Any diatonic harp!

[PlayHarmonicaEasily]

i want to see you live!

[kiriwood]

What a great perspective on tongue blocking! I was always in the lip purser camp & only started T-blocking last yr cos, on those rare occasions I meet other harp players, they've indeed passionately put forward their tongues in defense. I've been trying to T-block everything for the last 6 months or so & while it's given me a great grounding I prefer mixing it up for said reasons in that vid. It's nice to hear a more balanced run through of it all... well, balanced to my ears of course!

[jasonricci]

You got it!

[kiriwood]

Sure do... now!

I just got 'Done with the devil' need I say more than simply genius? It's not the kind of music I listen to on repeat, but it's fast becoming so. I'm sure glad you do this on youtube or I'd never have found your band, I may become a better harp player from your vids here, but I'm kinda lazy practicing, I'm more grateful for the new album on my ipod! :D

[mcphatmann]

So glad I found your videos man...honestly this has helped me more than like....the 4 instructional books/cds/dvds I payed way to much for.

[jasonricci]

Thank you so much glad to help.

[MilKnChocolat]

Thankss

[jaysblues]

Love your attitude, your skill and your sharing. Well done as usual. Thanks.

Jay

(jaysblues)

[carnero65]

ai love iu  u r de vest sank ui

[botarblues]

Jason, great teaching video ! (and player)...never imagined or considered bending notes with tongue blocking. It felt weird the first time I tried it, but it gives such a nice tone as you said. never knew about this....learning so much from YouTube blues clips like this one and from other great players...cheers and thank you...I see you have a bunch more...cool

[jasonricci]

Thank you sir! There is definitly much to be learned from everyone and everywhere! thanks for watching!

J

[monusername]

are pucker and lip purse 2 expressions that mean the same thing?

PS:I'm French

[jasonricci]

Thanks for watching they are the same! just differant terms for the same thing.

J

[bluezboy2]

Jason, you've don a great job o describing tongue blocking to this pucker player. I'm determined to learn it, thank you so much. You are amazing!

[jasonricci]

Thanks Bluez glad it helped!

J

[SianReynolds]

One thing to remember on the tongue-blocking tone vs. lip-pursing tone argument is that (at least in my experience) becoming proficient in tongue blocking should help improve your depth of tone on lip pursing as well. As a matter of fact, learning to overblow did the same thing for me -- once I got a handle on it, my tone improved no matter what technique I used.

[jasonricci]

Great point!

[boomerslam]

Jason,

As part of your lesson I heard a lick I use when playing "on Broadway".We occassionally play this tune at our weekly Jam Night.Another tune we do frequently is "Mustang Sally". It would be very cool to hear your rendition of these two songs and it may also give me some more licks to try and emmulate. Thanks very much.

[krizem]

Its been almost 1 month since your last lesson you must be busy so it's no biggie,but for another lesson a break down of over-blows how-to achieve them and when to use them would be cool, another thing that has not been covered much is the customization and tweaking of harps only a gapping tutorial out there if I am not mistaken, and or amp/mic tweaking

any way keep up the good work,cheers :)

[jasonricci]

I'll get on the OB lesson soon! thanks for the suggestion!

j

[ZackPomerleau]

never seen someone do it backwards, wouldn't it change the chords a little?

[61mott]

Hey 1legmidget, the car troubles u mention sounds a lot like what happens to cars when UFO's are present.. and you had just seen Jason ... oooeeeeooo I think AG might be right, .. the harp playing ability, the dyed hair it's obvious Jason is an alien coz no human can play a harp like that : )

Mott (Aust).. Yep, it 's 2.36pm in Aust, home alone I'm up to 3 hrs practice and 7 beeers of 5 beers of pracice since ... ha ha life's good : )

[1legmidget]

i saw you last night at the bean. it was awsome. it was so cool that you and adam played on stage together. you guys are the ones who inspired me to play so it was pretty awsome. i bought your cds and tried to listen to them in the car, but our car sorta had learning disabilites last night and the radio, and all the meters on the dashboard did too. what was even worse was the defogger died too, and when we were leaving we could only see maybe five feet infront of the car

[jasonricci]

Man sorry to hear about your car troubles!!! Thanks for the nice words glad you made it home safe!

J

[Maigist]

Great lesson, thanks! Do you use overblows while tongue blocking? I always switch to lip pursing in overblows, it seems so much easier.

[jasonricci]

i lip purse most everything including over blows other than whats indicted in the vide

[jasonricci]

ThanK you any way mate

[GreigoryJames]

would like to attend and sign up mate but being in Scotland. Its unfortunate that the amazing instrument isn't as popular! awesome tho