Kettlewell of Masters of Harmonica on Youtube has invented something called the "slider" which appears to be a completely new embouchure. This means that there are now at least three distinct ways of producing sounds on the chromatic: puckering, tongue blocking and Kettlewell's slider When I began playing, I used the puckering technique, but not long after my debut, I heard that to become an accomplished player, it was absolutely necessary to master tongue blocking. I tried and tried to perfect this technique, but had to abandon it because of the excessive salivation it caused. Every fifteen seconds, it seemed, I would have to collect the saliva in my mouth and swallow before I could continue playing. I think my face, mouth and throat are those of a normal person. I still don't understand why I produced so much saliva, but whatever the reason, I had to resign myself to the fact that tongue blocking was beyond my reach.
Then something strange and totally unexpected happened when I was puckering and attempting to learn tongue blocking: one day I realized that I was producing sounds with great ease using a technique that was neither puckering nor tongue blocking. I seemed to be playing with my nose! I don't mean that I was putting my nose over the holes and "blowing." Something else was happening. My lips served only to hold the harmonica. The air flow seemed to be coming from my nasal passage (something akin to sniffing). Since that epiphany, this has become my principal manner of playing. I can play for long periods of time in total comfort. I can produce beautiful single notes effortlessly and even chords although I don't know if the latter have the same quality as those produced through tongue blocking. Has anyone here developed a similar technique? With respect to tongue blocking, it's still something I would like to be able to do just because of the challenge it presents. I would be interested in any advice as to how to solve my salivation problem. Now to return to Kettlewell and his slider. He seems to be touting its merits over any other way of playing. If this is true, does this mean that tongue blocking may have been dethroned as the best embouchure?
