Harmonica Tongue Blocking (LESSON 5) - William Clarke Style
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Lee Sankey shows two examples of tongue blocked licks reminiscent of the great William Clarke in his 5th video on tongue blocking on the blues harmonica. The lesson builds upon the scale covered in the last two videos on tongue blocking single notes and incorporates a cool slide and arpeggio. Useful lesson for intermediate harmonica players.
My third day tongue blocking and I can start to bend the 2. Your wisdom sharing is making it possible to advance at a fast rate. The whole feel of the notes just woke up. Im now playing like I mean it. This harmonica thing is starting to get fun.
Dennis Prevost Hi Dennis, this is wonderful feedback to hear. i.e the lessons are making a real difference to players like you out there. I appreciate you letting me know. If you want to play for the long term, remember to focus on the quality of musicality rather than quantity of moves etc. For instance I played for 10 years tongue blocking on the 4 draw up until I really had that part of the harp down before adding the 3, 2, 1 and then much later (another 10 years) 8, 9, 10 blow bends. So in the middle register just TB the 4, 5 and 6 to begin with. I still sometimes LP as well. So also good to practise that as well, especially 1, 2, 3 bends and the high register. The most important thing though is it sounds like you are enjoying it! Lee
Thank you Lee! I always find something from you that is needed in my playing! Today is no exception. I'm working on Pawnshop Bound and your comments about getting up to the 7 hole and then splitting blow 6/3 is so helpful! I can now hear what he is doing better because of your tips! Cheers!
Glad to have unlocked something new for you, again :-) . Love William Clarke!
@Cariolatto thanks for the comment
@NYoumans O.k cool. I've just started creating individual RUclips playlists for some of the topics I've covered so far. Today I created one with the 12 videos I've made on Tongue blocking, 2.5 hours of tips. You can find all my playlists on my channel, right hand side lower down the page. Cheers, Lee
Lovely comments man, great to hear my videos are helping make progress on learning the harmonica. Lee
Thanks Lee, brilliant lesson , as you mentioned, I was really starting to struggle, until I found this lesson.
Much Appreciated!
@urbanghosttoronto Or your mind's ear
i have been playing lip pursing for 3 decades and have been starting to tongue block and wow does the sonf make a differance. I met William Clarke once whenhe played here at Bisquit & Blues, hedidnt say much. nice guy though. I think it was 1985.
thaks for the free lessons
keep on harpin
@leesankeygroup My pleasure. I explore tongue blocking more each time I play. I wish I´d seen your videos sooner. It would have saved me a lot of grief. Cheers.
normanbicknell thanks very much and glad it connected with you. Try tackling the tune I dedicated to William Clark called "Bills Blues". I've uploaded a comprehensive breakdown a while back. Cheers, Lee
@urbanghosttoronto I should say, my "ears" are opening!
@arthur1062 Hi Arthur, good to see you at the Brendan Power show the other day. Thanks for the feedback on the vid. I think these are a couple of useful examples of how useful tongue blocking is. The William Clarke style arpeggio is best approached at a slow tempo at the beginning and gradually speed up. The key is to avoid it sounding uncontrolled or random.
@bluesnobrasil That's marvellous to hear, keep practising. It can take many years to get a good tongue block technique. These videos are intended to show you how you can start tongue blocking without totally giving up Lip pursing. I.e. you don't have to break your whole technique to get started. Thanks for watching and your comments. Lee
@NYoumans Hey that's really super kind and thanks for your interest. Spread the word! Are you using tongue blocking? Lee
Keep your comments coming, it's one of the things that makes doing this worthwhile from where I'm sitting. Nothing better than hearing back from someone whose found, understood and applied information you've posted. I have a sense of where you are and it's a fantastic time as you're probably coping with a whole new universe. Perhaps think about bedding down where you are for a month or two? Don't plough ahead before you're ready. I played 4 up TB, LP 3 downwards for years before inc 3 draw TB.
@gaijin134 Hi Eric, it's encouraging to hear the series is going well. The next one will follow in a few days. Lee
@GOLONDRINAS18 Hi from London. Great to hear your positive comments and that's high praise as Adam is a brilliant player and teacher. Thank you. Spread the word!! Love Buenos Aires btw
@urbanghosttoronto That's great. It does offer huge possibilities for adding different types of depth to your playing. Cheers, Lee
Ah thanks so much for the kind words and interest. Good to know my approach of layering elements and ideas of time works for you. That's basically how I learned. Small but solid steps. Have you seen my latest country blues episodes on Vimeo? 5, 5, 7, 8 and 9 are live now. Cheers, Lee
@SurlyMac Cheers Scott, great to hear this tongue blocking series of videos are helpful. Thanks for watching, Best regards Lee
Tongue blocking heroes only hee hee thanks man for the super tuition
I think there are 25 more videos in this course. It basically sets out how I learned the technique.
Hi there Geoff, another upside downer, cool. Lee
@Tsutsomu Merci!
Super
Great lesson. Feel I've moved a whole leap forward in the last 10 minutes!
david page Hi David, that's reassuring to hear, thanks for posting. This tongue blocking series extends to over 20 Iessons, so hopefully there's more content you will find useful. I have lots more lessons on my YT Channel and also a country blues series available to stream on Vimeo. vimeo.com/ondemand/countrybluesharmonica Cheers, Lee
Wow ! Great stuff Lee ! Hadn't seen this one, nice texture demonstrated here.
Hi Mike, glad it offered something new for you. Lee
I'm new to the harmonica and my teacher uses tongue blocking. I'm finding it very difficult but your videos are helping me to understand both the mechanics of the process and that to have patience will make a big difference over time.
Great feedback. Thank you. Well done for investing in some one to one lessons too.
My teacher (Ryan) took lessons with you in London. He's now living in Toronto and teaching full time.
I really like what you’re doing. Your lessons fit my need.
I’m also following your “country blues” lessons and again someone (you) is telling me to start tong-blocking. So started (again) to practice on the tong-blocking technique. It is great how you build from scratch to very hard. It’s going to take a while but I’m going to hang on this time.
Greetings from the Netherlands.
I'm following your lessons slowly because I just started trying to really learn armonica but with your small steps I have the wish that one day i may be able to play a little bit. your lessons are really good and i think i'm learning a lot in each lesson. thank you so much!
Greatly appreciate these tongue blocking videos as a lip purser who plays upside down so keep up the great work. Geoff Squires.
Hi Lee,
Great lesson, thank you so much for sharing with us ideas and talent.
See you :
STeph.
my eyes are opening to the nuances and subtle flavours of tongue blocking Lee, thanks again.
best tongue blocking videos on youtube. hands down. thank you, sir, for your contribution.
Another great lesson Lee - it kind of just clicked with me, feel as though I've made a leap forward. Thanks for your effortsd man!
Such a great lesson, thanks a lot! When I started to play the harmonica I had only a William Clarke tape at home, I learned the draw seven hole connection and playing the octaves based on it. Now I feel, I had to move in the direction of tongue blocking or at least give it a try. :)
+zolkowski if you only had a few tapes Mr Clarke would be one of the ones to have! Yep you need to learn tongue blocking if you want to play his style. There are over 20 videos in this course that will help you get there. So get playing and practising. Thanks for your interest in my channel. Lee
Thanks once again Lee. Looking forward to the next one too! Cheers, Eric.
Thanks for the GREAT lessons. Your helping release the stress of being a new dad!
Cool, that's a nice unintended consequence. Good luck with the baby and know that the harmonica will keep you busy for many years as well. Lee
These videos are great Lee! I am just starting tongue blocking and didn't have a clue how to start out. I'm just gradually going to phase it in to my lip pursing that i already do. Thanks for these videos, they are superb.
+Gary Sellars Ah thanks for the kind words Gary. There are 24 lessons in this course which takes you through basically how I leaned to Tongue Block. My technique is still work in progress, especially in the high-end where I only started to play bends tongue blocked a few years ago. Taking a phased approach that combines lip pursing is a great way to go rather than switching 100%. I played for over 10 years without tongue blocking the 1,2 or 3 holes. Best to get a handle on certain areas of the harp and with certain techniques like octaves then move on to more challenging stuff. Good luck and keep me posted on your progress, Lee
Thanks Lee for the reply. I am practicing tongue blocking all the time now as i can really see the benefit of the technique. I find it really helps with position shifts. Like say playing 2D and then the octave at 6B. Lip pursing you can do it, but you really need to hit the note spot on and with a perfect embouchure otherwise it's easy to get a bleed in from a hole above or below. You don't get that with tongue blocking. It seems easier to clean up your playing using TB. It's your lessons that got me doing it as they are comprehensive but easy to understand. Other lessons i looked up don't really explain how to get into it. They just mention tongue blocking the octaves and kind of leave it there which isn't much good really. Thanks again, as not many people will spend the time and effort to do videos as comprehensively as this, that enable the player to advance their abilities in a gradual way with the TB.
Great tip thanks