I’m rather in the same boat. But handy with words and body awareness. Just need to sit down with it and think it through.
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Did I miss something? Or do you want my posts to be shorter? 
Sorry!! You missed the spam post (that has since been removed) that I was replying to 
Regards,
– Slim 
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@Hogie.Harmonica - Fascinating! I DEFINITELY cannot overblow while tongue blocking!!
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At a high level its about developing a very high level of kinesthetic awareness concerning the airstream. I’ll think some more about how to describe it.
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@Hogie.Harmonica so your are Tongue Blocking everything or even though you can do that technique you choose puckering for better control?
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U-blocking is a completely valid way to learn the harmonica. I’ve been told that it’s only genetic and “bad” to learn with, but it can be done. I actually used U-blocking at first when I was learning to blow bend for the first time, but I thought that it was a very bad habit that I learned. Blow bending and the upper draw bends while U-blocking is easy for me, but it’s the lower three draw bends that I have trouble with. I eventually rediscovered U-blocking and found out that some famous players like Norton Buffalo and P.T. Gazell can do it. So it is very valid despite being more rare than the main two.
Also, regarding playing fast while tongue blocking: you can switch between natural draw and blow notes tongue blocking, but I’ve never seen a tongue blocker play Terry McMillan style fast country licks with quick and articulate bends. I’ve heard one person claim that he can do it, but he never showed any proof and called me lazy for being a lip purser who only does minimal tongue blocking. People claim that they can do everything lip pursed with 100% tongue blocking, but I’ve never seen one do Terry McMillan stuff. The Facebook harmonica purists, in general, just talk the talk but they have failed to show any proof of them walking the walk.
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No you’re not lazy for Lip pursing there are and were some brilliant sounding pursers. You should play how you feel and don’t let anyone dictate. One thing I can’t stand is musical snobs who think they can dictate to everyone. Each person has their own style and sound regardless of what techniques they use, I was a purser for years now I do. Mixture of the two, Pursing and blocking, usually not thinking just how my heart and soul tell me where things should go. I don’t know what U- blocking is as until recently I made up terms as when I started out there was no Internet and very few resources with which to learn. So I sort of soldiered on making mistakes and learning from them, and lots and lots of going back to the old drawing board. That’s something I still do.
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Yep. My opinion is that the best way is to learn all the ways to equal capability. Once there, we are able to make informed decisions.
Personally, I think the “which way is best” discussion should probably morph into “what is appropriate for different historical styles, player levels, and what is advantageous for newer techniques and music”
As an example, 1st position playing, I learned and then discarded to focus on the blues. But that was a poor decision. Now that I have TB overblows down, 1st position has new light for me. But my skill in it is not as well developed, so I’m having to do some learning I should have done 10 years ago.
Similarly, I only learned TB because I was shamed into it…and I’m glad I was! Now I can do things I couldn’t do before.
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From a capability standpoint, the only thing I can’t do is 1) TB that I can to LB is 10 hole blow bends; 2) Good clear overdraws; 3) Bend an overblow more than a half step. I’ll keep working on those over the years but in light of my current goals (get really good on chromatic), it might be something I do in the future. Also, fast playing on the low side, still some work to do there.
The way I choose is this: if I want classic Chicago sound, TB 100% outside that 10 hole. If I want a more modern melodic sound, mix it up Gussow style with mostly LB and TB for chords. If I’m playing jazz, I play LB - but that is a comfort thing. Navigating complex music so sometimes I’ll default to what is comfortable.
Tongue switching is becoming more a part of my playing, So that’s TB.
I also have a little technique I worked out that uses TB and U-Block in alternation. It isn’t very useful yet but I’ll let you know in 5 years or so.
Concerning control, yes I do have more control doing LB than TB. After much work in this area, I feel reasonably confident to say that LB gives you more control. By that I mean it gives a higher ability to change the sound without changing much inside your mouth. Essentially, more like a race car. Less practical, easier to have an accident, and goes fast easy.
TB is more like a modern SUV - more practical for most situations, easy to drive, and gets the job done reliably. I do wish I had started with that method because I then I would have a decade or more of classic tone under my belt.
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Thanks for insightfull response. 
I have started playing harmonica 6-7 months ago and started with TB as a default embourche (it was more comfortable for me). I am pretty confident with draw bends and started to learn Blow bends. But I am not that much into blues yet and I have feeling that puckering would be also usefull.
Do you recommend to learn both styles at the same time or focus on the default one for now TB?
Funny thing is that I can bend with puckering even though I didn’t train that nad Also Blow bend 8 & 9 witohut training even I can not do it with TB. But still puckering feels ackward in my mouth.
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Focus on Tb. You wont regret it.
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It never hurts to learn both.
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The Thing is when does the Chicago sound become more of the West Coast sound that Little George pioneered, and guys like William Clarke, Rod Piazza, etc, etc, carried on then there’s the Portland sound and so on, I’d love to just reach a happy medium of these. I ordered a New Chromatic harp today, @Jay1 recommended the East Top 2.0 so I bought one, been learning on a real rickety old Hohner Super Chromatic, but it has some dead reeds but I got inventive and played around them so soon I can add the missing notes and see how it sounds
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Yes sir!! Very good. 
I don’t know how you guys are TB-ing overblows. That’s krazy talk. @Hogie.Harmonica is your tone TB-ing an overblow as good as LB-ing an overblow?
@KeroroRinChou I knew Norton Buffalo was a U-blocker, but I didn’t know PT GAZELL is a U-blocker!!! 
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@Luke , that is a good question. The answer is it depends.
Most importantly, it depends on how much time I’ve spent TB overblowing. If I haven’t done it for awhile, my body forgets.
But in general, tone is similar. At first, TB overblow tone was very weak and thin. But then somebody told me some advice from Dennis: Tone begins with a single note. So I played TB overblow long tones every day, like 30 seconds per note. I did this for about a month.
PT Gazell is U block? So interesting, I find valved bends harder to control with U block. But I used to be a u blocker - it provides incredible single note clarity. Thinking about that, I hear it in his music a bit.
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