A great lesson from Ronnie Shellist on using articulation.
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Right on @Dai. You may know this already, but I’m a HUGE Ronnie Shellist fan! I’ve never seen a lesson of his that I didn’t love and from which I get some awesome nugget.
Thanks for sharing this, and here’s my notes from this one:
Chords: Duh and Yuh. This is such a sexy groove. at 3:15. He’s lip blocking but it’s got a cool feel as if he was tongue blocking.
I love how he always gives shots out to my predecessor and teaching mentor JP Allen, like he does here before he goes into the “Tucka Toodle” articulations that I teach in Beginner to Boss.
I’d never heard of Yucka Tucka Tee before.
I like how he advises to breaks up articulation concepts into single note stuff versus chordal stuff as you go to practice it.
I like this dudda dudda duh exercise.
I never heard of the gentle “Luddle luh” before. Very cool. He mentions that Joe Filisko talked about it, maybe within the context of Sonny boy Williamson. Joe’s Sonny boy Williamson teaching product is on my wish list to buy and go through at some point.
Love his use of the staccato single notes in his rendition of Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” (which he mis-attributes as the Meter’s “Cissy Strut.”)
THIS CHORD GROOVE IS SUPER-SICK!!!
Hee ducka dee (on inhale)
Hudda (on exhale)
Single note to double stop! GREAT ONE!
Doy -4’ -4
Dadda -45 -45
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Big fan of Ronnie myself
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Been doing a lot of research whilst down with a cold, so now I’ve got Vamping and SuperVamping soon as I’m better I’m going to start fitting in tongue articulations, also try any weird sound I can make inside my mouth. I’ve also discovered by accident I have a tuner with a metronome so I can practice getting my train faster. But at the moment can’t stop coughing
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This all looks like a lot of good information. Excited to start exploring it.
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In a blues solo what percentage of notes are articulated or even staccato?
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27.53%
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and staccato?
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Welcome to the forum @adam.grabusk! Glad to have you here. I think our friend @Carlos1 was being facetious, lol. That was his way of saying, “you are asking an impossible question.” Try making your question more specific. Ask about a specific song, or better yet, a specific part of a song! Hope that helps. Rock on! 
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I confess !! I could not resist pulling a little joke. 
But to give @adam.grabusk a serious answer: You need to realize that no matter how you blow or draw on a harmonica, you are doing one of the many articulations that are possible. So the real answer would have to be that 100% of the notes in a blues solo are articulated (in one way or another).
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What I meant to ask is something along the lines of, “how much energy is spent playing legato vs non-legato in a typical righteous blues harmonica festivus for the rest of us?”- respectfully
Hello again @adam.grabusk
It might be best for you to address this directly to one of forum’s gurus, such as @Luke or @Hogie.Harmonica or @davidkachalon (who is very well-versed in articulation techniques). Nevertheless, I will try to provide you with some further food for thought.
Legato technique is required for slurred performance, but unlike slurring, legato does not forbid articulating the notes with a very slight interruption.
Staccato signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from any following note by an brief interval of silence. There is also an intermediate articulation called either “mezzo staccato” or “non-legato” (sometimes referred to as “portato” – not to be confused with “potato”, which has little, or no, relevance to this discussion).
These factors alone make this a very ambitious and challenging topic!
The question “how much energy is spent playing legato vs non-legato …?” is quite provocative. The answer is dependent upon various parameters, e.g. the type of music (“typical righteous blues harmonica” vs the classical, but rather uninteresting, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), the sound volume produced, the key of the harp, etc. etc.
You know, of course, that energy is an indirectly observed quantity often understood as the ability of a physical system to do work on other physical systems. And since work is defined as a force acting through a distance (a length of space), energy is always equivalent to the ability to exert force (a pull or a push) against an object that is moving along a definite path of certain length. So we also need to consider whether the music is being played on higher tuned harps or lower tuned harps, with their longer, heavier reeds, as well as whether the reed material is plain brass, phosphor bronze, stainless steel, titanium or whatever.
I will desist at this point as my allotted time and character count for posts on the forum has nearly been reached. But perhaps one of the people mentioned at the beginning of this reply will jump in to continue this fascinating and thought-provoking analysis.
I remain your harmonica friend,
– Carlos
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It’s all coming together now Carlos!
Last one though I promise:
Luke: Do you go around tonguing every note or even every other note? I find myself not doing it at all. Where on this continuum should I be? I got this boy’s and I aint quit’n! -thanks
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Thanx Carlos!
Thinking bright tone vs dark tone is the main thrust of what i want to address. . An Eeeeee mouth shape is the brightest tonal shape we can get and Oooooo is the darkest. The contrast and change between the two creates articulation-. Also known as a tone pulse, When doing this correctly we can add a groove with just single notes. Hope this helps!
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@davidkachalon great point about tone being able to create rhythm. It’s interesting how all the elements of music relate. Like “phrasing” usually refers to rhythm, but we can also phrase our tone, phrase our dynamics. Dynamics also creat rhythm. Everything is everything! The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten is a great resource in these kind of thoughts.
@adam.grabusk you gotta remember I did nothing but lipping for like 27 years or something like that. I’ve only been tonguing for 6 years. So when I’m practicing, most of my time these days I’m working on stuff that incorporates tongue-blocking. There’s so much there for me to learn and explore. The only exception is when I’m overblowing (beacuase I can’t overblow tongue blocking! 
I’m not @Hogie.Harmonica 
) So to answer your question:
If you’re not doing it at all, and you’re growing and you’re stoked, just keep doing what you’re doing.
The #1 Priority is to stay inspired! 
The MAIN THING is, are you PLAYING every day? And are you GROWING? If the answer is to both of those questions is yes, then you are already WINNING! (Most people cannot answer yes to both questions.)
Hope that helps. Rock on!
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Well actually that’s not the only exception. I’m probably tonguing only 80-90% of my practice time that’s not overblowing.
I haven’t had a harmonica-only gig in over 6 months, but the last one I had I was probably 50/50 between lipping and tonguing. When I’m soloing on something that’s not an old Chicago-style blues, I almost always revert to lipping. It’s just so ingrained.
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Articulation has two big parts: how you start a note, and how you end it.
Starting a note has two big ways to do it: with just air, or by slightly pressurizing the air before releasing it.
In the later category, you can use a glottal attack, which means blocking the air with your throat before releasing. Or, you can use your tongue.
When using your tongue, there are many, many ways to use it.
Generally you have more freedom to articulate when your tongue is not on the harp.
With the tongue off the harp, you can make large changes in the way the beginning of the note sounds depending on where and how you block the airstream with your tongue. For example, a ‘ta’ articulation can sound very different than a ‘ga’ articulation.
When you are tongue blocking, “ta” is not available because the tip of your tongue is continously on the harp. But you do have lots of options still! I will write more later.
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When you are tongue blocking, you can start the note with just air, with a glottal attack, with a “ga” or similar tongue articulation，or by blocking all the holes under your lips and then removing your tongue from one hole.
If you total it all up, the number of ways to articulate the start of a note is very high.
With lip pursing and articulating with the tip of the tongue, there are many ways to do that to. Tip of tongue could go on the harp, on the teeth, or on the hard pallet.
I don’t think I have seen anyone say there is one correct way. But I can say that each way has its own particularities that need to be navigated to do it well.
Perhaps the simplest is the glottal attack. After that, it gets more complex.
You can do a lot without much articulation, but developing an approach that Includes articulation will allow you to play with greater musicianship.
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