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What to do with Hole #1?
By David Barrett, Mel Bay’s HarmonicaSessions® eZine
October 2008
Now that tongue blocking and puckering are both commonplace in the harmonica world (actually, they
always have been, but more players are aware of tongue blocking now), there’s confusion as to what to
do when playing the first hole on the harmonica. In this issue we’ll talk about this a bit.
If you pucker all of the time (playing a single note by pursing your lips), then this isn’t really an issue for
you. With that said… the more you study classic blues the more you’ll find yourself tongue blocking and
this will become an issue. So, with the groundwork laid, let’s get rolling.
Let’s say you’re tongue blocking on the lower end of the harmonica. The lick is 4, 3, 2 and 1 draw. You
tongue block the 4, 3 and 2 draw, but what do you do with the 1 draw?
Option 1 – Keep the Tongue On
When tongue blocking, your tongue is aimed to the left, blocking the holes to the left and leaving the
rightmost note in your embouchure to sound. For example: when playing the 4 draw in a tongue block,
your lips are over four holes, with the tongue blocking holes 1 through 3, leaving the 4 draw to sound.
When playing the 4 3 2 1 lick, you keep your tongue on the harmonica.
The Advantages:
Your tongue stays on the harmonica (no change).
The Disadvantages:
You have to decrease the size of your embouchure to fit your mouth over this area of the harmonica (we
only have comb here, no cover plates). Since the embouchure is small, the tongue fills up a decent
amount of your mouth cavity, possibly causing a thinner tone.
Option 2 – Pucker
When playing the 1 draw there’s nothing to block, so why not take your tongue off and pucker? This is
the option most people take (I generally do this).
The Advantages:
You just lift your tongue off of the harmonica. Since the tongue is not on the face of the harmonica (the
wood in this case), the mouth cavity is free from the tongue and could make a fuller tone.
The Disadvantages:
Your tongue leaves the face of the harmonica, which is essentially embouchure switching… an act of
less efficiency. It can make fast runs, like 4 3 2 1, difficult to play smoothly.
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Option 3 – Side-Switch
For this your tongue moves to the right side of your mouth, blocking the holes to the right and sounding
the hole on the left, in this case the 1 draw.
The Advantages:
This is considered to have the best tone of all of the embouchures for two reasons.
1) The embouchure covers more surface area of the harmonica, allowing for a larger
embouchure for a deeper tone.
2) With the lips covering more surface of the harmonica you’re able to smother the face of the
harmonica more when playing amplified… a small detail, but an important detail if you’re
looking for a big sound.
When playing with pulls (a common rhythmic tongue block technique used in classic blues), the tongue
just lifts off of the face of the harmonica to sound the chord… a very efficient way to play.
The Disadvantages:
Like switching to pucker, it can make fast runs like 4 3 2 1 difficult to play smoothly.
Final Thoughts
It’s fairly clear to me, and other educators I respect, that the classic players of the 1950’s tongue blocked
pretty much all of the time and tongue switched for hole 1.
With that said, you can get the same general results from any of these three options, you just need to
experiment and try for yourself what YOU think feels, and most importantly SOUNDS, the best.
Exercises
Example 1
Try this classic turnaround lick with each of the three ways of playing the first hole.
Example 2
Here’s a tongue blocking exercise to get you used to tongue switching.
About the Author David Barrett
http://www.harmonicamasterclass.com/david.htm
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