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Thanks Dave. Mickey has a great sound that is fun to try to emulate. I get the feeling that he uses alot of tongue blocking to get the really thick sound that make his playing so distinctive.

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Mickey is one of the players out there that I've known for a very long time. He is essentially a "play by ear" guy who taught himself. He does not, by default, use tongue blocking to create the majority of his notes. His sound is big and fat because of the quality of the air flow (no sucking and blowing from his mouth) and because of the large oral cavity created by his lowering of the jaw to maximize the size of the oral cavity.

Whether or not your tongue is on the harmonica has absolutely nothing to do with achieving a big, fat tone. That is a myth perpetuated by the folks that never bothered to learn to do the "Whistle Method" correctly. The harmonica does not know or care if your tongue is covering neighboring holes, it is merely about quality air flow and the size of your resonating chamber (your oral cavity).

Players that predominantly use the "whistle method" to make their sound and single notes include: Mickey, myself, Norton Buffalo, and Lee Oskar. Although, we all use a lot of tongue blocking to create special effects only available by tongue blocking, it is not the primarily single note technique.

I hope this helps.

Play on,
Dave Gage