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This is a beginner tongue-blocking harmonica lesson.
When it comes to legit bluesy harmonica grooves, tongue-blocking 👅 is the only path to the sound.
This shuffle groove is great for adding rhythmic harmonica playing behind a singer or soloist.
And I especially love playing this style when I’m alone. It mimics the sound of a whole band: the single notes emulate a bass line, punctuated by the chords a piano or guitar might add.
As always, I’ve got a C harmonica, and this groove is in 2nd position, in the key of G.
Level 1 - Isolating Notes Using Tongue-Blocking
We are going to begin our journey by learning how to isolate -2 with tongue-blocking.
TONGUE is going DOWN and TO THE LEFT
Playing hole -2 out of the right side of mouth
Right lip is blocking hole 3.
I recommend not using the tip of the tongue to block the holes. I think it’s better to have the tip of the tongue going down and using this part of the tongue to block the holes.
For the -1 we are going to SWITCH our TONGUE TO THE RIGHT side of the HOLE, and play out of the left side of the mouth.
⚠️ PLEASE NOTE: this is NOT the EASIEST way to isolate notes ⚠️
LEVEL 2 - Tongue-Lifting
We are going to play the same thing we just did: -2 2 -1 2, but after each single note now we are going to “lift our tongue” back from the comb,
allowing the -12 or 12 chord to come through. And this is where the magic happens.
Harmonica tabs:
-2 -12 2 12 -1 -12 2 12
LEVEL 3 - Making It Swing.
Because, as Ella Fitzgerald said:
It don’t mean a thing if ain’t got that swing!
💃🎶
Say and clap this: 1-trip-let 2-trip-let 3-trip-let 4 trip-let
Next, DON’T clap when saying “trip”.
You are now playing a shuffle rhythm: the 2nd note is pushed closer to the next down beat.
Returning to our Level 2 tongue lifting tabs:
-2 -12 2 12 -1 -12 2 12
With a metronome on, hold the single notes for 2 clicks, lifting the tongue on the 3rd click.
LEVEL 4 - Making All the Chords Draws
The way we have been doing it, when we’re playing the 2, we’re playing the 12 chords. We are now going to change those to -12 so everything is a draw. So now the bluesy shuffle groove tongue-blocking harmonica tabs are:
-2 -12 2 -12 -1 -12 2 -12
To get the dynamics right, we really want to sound the chords just with THE FORCE OF THE TONGUE coming back from the comb of the harmonica.
LEVEL 5 - The Tongue Slap
The word slap can be MISLEADING, because to slap someone you have to use a lot of force.But for the TONGUE SLAP: It’s ALL about TIMING, you DON’T have to do it HARD.
Tongue Slapping can feel kind of ephemeral or mysterious, but ALL it is is simply:Starting with a chord, and then blocking the chord to hear just the isolated note.
And I’ve never heard anyone talk about this before, but to my ear, the key 🔑 here is to play the chord QUIETLY and then block the chord with the tongue while increasing the volume of the single note.
LEVEL 6 - Adding the IV Chord
So far we’ve been only doing a I chord jam.But since we harmonica players like to be bluesy, let’s take a step toward turning this groove into something we can play on a 12-Bar blues. And our first step on that journey is learning how to do something for the IV chord.
This is gonna be all blows, so take a deep breath before you start, grab a quick breath anywhere you can, and make sure no air is sneaking out of your nose while you play it (you can pinch your nose while you play it to confirm whether or not your nose is behaving itself.😉👃🏼)
Here’s the harmonica tabs for the IV Chord tongue-blocking bluesy shuffle groove:
1 12 2 12 3 123 3 123
LEVEL 7 - The Final Frontier: The V Chord
As promised, we are now going to revisit the concept of tongue-switching introduced in Level 1.
To review, tongue-switching means quickly changing from drawing out of the left side of the mouth to drawing out of the right side of the mouth, and vice-versa.
LEVEL 8 - Putting it All Together
If you’ve made it here, please drop me a comment below so I can rejoice with you! 😎
It’s time to put it all together. Here are the harmonica tabs for the entire 12-Bar blues shuffle tongue-blocking groove. Rock on my harmonica brothers and sisters. 🤘🏼
Phrase 1: -2 -12 2 -12 -1 -12 2 -12 (Repeat 4X)
Phrase 2: 1 12 2 12 3 123 3 123 (Repeat 2X)
-2 -12 2 -12 -1 -12 2 -12 (Repeat 2X)
Phrase 3: -1 -123 -4 -123 4 123 -4 -123
1 123 4 123 -3 -123 4 123
-2 -12 2 -12 -1 -12 2 -12
-2 -1 -1
I hope you enjoyed this beginner tongue-blocking harmonica lesson.
#harmonica #harmonicalesson #harmonicablues #harmonicatongueblocking #blues #tongueblocking #tongue-blocking
28 окт 2023
