Scores for tongue blocking

Theory
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Hi,
I tried teaching myself from a book. It went quite well until I tried tongueblocking. There were only a couple of scores in the book to practice this technique and, after playing them about 80 times each without much success, I gave up. I think the answer is to have plenty of different songs to practice this technique. A change is as good as a rest. Can anyone tell me please where I can search for scores specifically for tongueblocking ?

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Hi David @David312

Tabs specifically for tongue-blocking are unknown to me. However, David Barrett (bluesharmonica.com) offers lessons & books for learning to play harmonica, and he tends to place heavy emphasis on tongue-blocking.

Regards,
– Slim :sunglasses:

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Hi Slim,

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping for a free source of specific exercises which I could print off. I will check out the reference anyway.

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Hi @David312 - welcome to the forum! I am so glad that you have joined us. :grin:

Tongue blocking, wow. Such an awkward technique at first. I really can’t imagine trying to learn it without some kind of instruction. @slim he does well to point you in the direction of David Barrett’s site. Undoubtedly the best blues tongue blocking instruction available online in my opinion.

I think module six and seven of my Beginner to Boss course give a much more reasonably paced introduction to tongue blocking for beginners (and of course I am totally unbiased.:wink:)

BUT if your goal is to pay nothing, David Barrett’s site is much closer to that as you could subscribe for just one month, and I believe the monthly fee is like $25? So might be achievable without breaking the bank.

Just to put these costs in perspective, one lesson with the great tongue blocker Dennis Gruenling is $100+.

That’s my two cents. Any other questions about tongue blocking just let me know!

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Hi Luke,

Thanks for the information. I will check it out.

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Hi, David,
You have had very good tips to solve your problem. But you have a lot of exercises in Youtube too and for free!
Regards
alberto :slight_smile:

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Thanks Alberto.

Youtube is going to be helpful. While looking there, I also found bits of tab for tongue blocking.

It would still be good to find lots of tab to print off.

Happy new year to all.

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Hello @David312,
if you really want it printed, pause the videos, take a screenshot and print it out.
Often the tabs are also under the video in the transcript.

However, I recommend that you take the time to write down the tabs yourself. This allows you to mentally go through the song and notate the tabs in the appropriate rhythm/bar and mark special accents. You can make short notes in the margin. As a headline, I first write down the name of the song and who I use it from on Youtube.
All this is especially important if you want to learn and play unfamiliar songs.
Tabs are useful, but don’t express everything the notation shows.

This is my experience and my approach.

Greetings from Astrid :woman_in_lotus_position:

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Hi AtridHandbikebee63,

Thanks for the reply. You’re right, handwritten notes would be best. In any case, I don’t have a printer.

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Awesome @David312! With the printer, it would also be far too expensive.
One more thing, put an @ in front of the name if you want your answer or question to go to a specific person. That makes communication easier.
Nice weekend!

Greetings Astrid :woman_in_lotus_position:

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Hi AtridHandbikebee63,

Good to know about the use of @,
though generally I would prefer to post for all readers as the issue might be useful to them as well.

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@David312, that’s not a problem, because tagged articles are also public for everyone.
Best regards from Astrid :woman_in_lotus_position:

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Hi Astrid,

Thanks and also useful to know.

Regards, David

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Hey @alberto - welcome to the forum my friend! So glad you have joined us, and thanks for making the great point here.

And @LostSol just posted an awesome channel that has tons of tongue blocking on it.

If people know other awesome tongue-blocking YouTube channels it’d be great to share them here or on that thread. :point_up_2:t3:

Also @David312 IN MY OPINION if you can try to start working from memory rather than relying tabs, I find it to be a much richer experience. I would rather work on 4 notes of a song from memory, than a whole song by tabs. I find I just can’t “become one” with a song, if you will, when I’m trying to read tabs.

That’s my 2 cents.

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Hi Luke,

Both LostSol and LostToni look very useful, thanks.

Happy new year.

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