Jaw Switching - Tongue Blocking Technique for Irish Harmonica Tunes

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

Here's the tab for the A part of Drowsy Maggie to make it easier to follow what I am doing (4) (6) (4) 7 (4) (6) (4) (4) (6) (4) 6 5 4 5 (4) (6) (4) 7 (4) (6) (4) (6) 6 (6) (7) 7 (6) 6 5 (4) (6) (4) 7 (4) (6) (4) (4) (6) (4) 6 5 4 5 (4) (6) (4) 7 (4) (6) (4) (6) 6 (6) (7) 7 (6) 6 (7)

[@finnjazz9113]

Outstanding!

[@nodgelyobo1]

Thanks man!

[@criptobeatbox7819]

A full video of Drowsy Maggie would be so nice! Love you, thank you for your videos and your amazing work

[@paxxmortis]

Can you post the entire song tabs. I found it somewhere else, but it is slightly different from the one you are doing there.

[@christophermccarthy6889]

Wow Nick the sound is amazing, You think you were playing the Irish fiddle !! Thanks For posting, 👍😊

[@peterharman4141]

Thankyou Nick, very good of you to share these advanced techniques...I'll give it a go!🙂

[@malcolmnash5850]

Brilliant Nick but well beyond my ability thanks for another lovely lesson.

[@alleycat-145]

"Jaw Switching. " This is a pretty cool valuable technique I think. Might be challenging for me to get down. But so were other techniques the past 5-years. However, with practice, like the other techniques, comes a tsunami of tools. . So "Jaw Switching " seems like a valuable challenge to wrestle with. Thanks harmonica brother. 👍😁.

[@darnick54]

Fabulous…..instructive and an entertainment simultaneously. Thanks for this.

[@stratocastro]

Thank you very much! Been trying to master this skill for years and this is the first time I hear a difference and see the reason to go on.

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

Great, that's good news :-)

[@finnjazz9113]

Fun stuff! I hope that those two songs will be some of the tunes that you will feature on your new site. You make them sound very exciting! Thanks, Nick.

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I think they should be there for sure :-)

[@mugsboroughpete3534]

very helpful, like all your lessons, thank you

[@leonkeng]

Very useful technique I enjoy your lesson. Thanks! Subscribed

[@DesmoDreams]

Excellent! Very inspiring, thanks for the lessons :)

[@TheCaptainHoratio]

This video has been extremely helpful - thank you, Nick. Do you have a 'breakthrough' Irish harmonica course available via KZbin or elsewhere? Also wondering if you offer private lessons at all? Thanks so much!

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

Yes I offer private lessons on Zoom. Also, my course Irish Harmonica Breakthrough is one-on-one and hasn't got an online presence at the moment. If you want to discuss this more send me an email: nick at harmonica for the soul dot com (I've written it out this way to avoid bots finding my address).

[@fredhundy1155]

I love the sound you're getting with this technique on these tunes, but I'll be buggered if I can get it to work yet! I need to get my tongue blocking working better first I think...

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

Thanks Fred. I hope you go well with it. It's worth sticking with it.

[@ambroseharper8316]

Tremendous! 😊

[@tempestive1]

Wow. Been lip pursing since I began about 3 months ago, as I wanted to practice bending and have my tongue "free"... and after the Irish Kesh Jig I though I'd give Drowsy Maggie a go, but.. haha! Some tongue practice is in order, apparently. Thanks for this!!

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

If you're just starting you're in a good place for mastering both ways

[@sternad47]

It takes a lot of 'woodshedding' but it's worth it in the long run!

[@grandaddixon1146]

I like that you are very good

[@harmonicafun]

Very valuable content for me, thanks a lot! Sounds amazing with these techniques! I'm working on Drowsy Maggie at the moment but don't know where to start with these advanced techniques. Nobody talks about it but I'm always wondering if you block 2 or 3 holes with your tongue?

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I think it can be either depending on how far you put the harmonica into your mouth and open it up. I guess it might also depend on individual mouth sizes. I'm usually blocking off 2 holes, which makes those 4/6 tongue switches easy. I can go deeper into my mouth and block off 3 holes but it doesn't feel as natural. That's why the jaw switch works well for me, it gives me that extra reach. If I played these tunes by tongue switching alone it would mean getting precision from changing the depth of the harmonica in my mouth (at speed) - not something I want to consider, although I wouldn't dicount someone with a different mouth shape doing it well. For tongue split octaves, it's usually 1 hole open on each side of the mouth, and 2 holes blocked in the middle. Again, you can go deeper and block more holes in the middle if you want a bigger reach.

[@harmonicafun]

@@HarmonicaForTheSoul @@HarmonicaForTheSoul Thank you for your detailed answer! I block 3 holes and so I guess to do it the other way around: I have to do the jaw switching for the change from 4 to 6 and can do a normal tongue switch for the octaves. But changing the embouchure and the amount of holes blocked is really tough for me too 🙂

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

@@harmonicafun I guess we all just have to work out what works best for us as individuals.

[@TechTins_Projects]

This is very neat. Does this take a long time to get the technique down? I know we are all different. But did you personally find this technique take longer to master than saying bending.

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I don't know. Tongue switching was just something that happened and one day I was doing it to play certain Irish tunes. I developed jaw switching as a technique about the same time to solve the problem I was encountering with tunes like the examples I use in the video. This was back in the 1990s so I had already been playing (tongue blocking) for about 10+ years. I can't even compare it to bending because I never tried to master bending. It just evolved over the years without me making a lot of effort.

[@TechTins_Projects]

@@HarmonicaForTheSoul That is super interesting, as I think it means you will develop it without thinking on it too much, given enough irish tunes. But with this video as a heads up, it may come even quicker. Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful.

[@tomsurges3267]

Thanxs

[@TechTins_Projects]

I notice watching video that your head also turns at same time as you demonstrate the switching. Is that an unconscious consequence of the switching? Just about to start learning this method now.

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I'm not sure, probably not much to do with the technique.

[@cloggz8876]

Great lesson nick again nick ,you thought about a Facebook page

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I think I'll stick to KZbin at the moment for social media. I do post on other facebook pages sometimes to reach people there, but for now I like the simplicity of just being on youtube.

[@dannymccambridge7746]

Thanks Nick. What low d harmonica are you playing. Thanks Danny

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I think it was a Lee Oscar

[@finnjazz9113]

Nick, could you add the tabs to Drowsy Maggie for a better understanding? just a thought. Thanks

[@HarmonicaForTheSoul]

I've just pinned a comment with it.