overblowing+ a little yarn.



I have been trying to learn to overblow for about half a year now, since I was 
first introduced to the subject through this list. Unfortunately I still haven't 
been able to do it very well.

I did succeed in producing overblows, but only on a few reeds of some of my
harps. Other reeds do not overblow at all, or produce a very high-pitched whine,
or even make no sound at all, whilst neigbouring reeds start to vibrate. This
problem is even worse when I try to do overdraws (in which I haven't succeeded
yet).

Now today I saw somebody on the list making a remark that 'every harp can be made
to overblow' (unfortunately I forgot who it was). I know that lowering the offset
of the reeds helps, but how far should they be bent back? Very small positive
offset, zero offset, or even a negative offset? Furthermore, are some holes ea-
sier to overblow than others (high pitched reeds with a big interval between blow
and draw are the only ones I have overblown so far?)

====

By the way, I am only a beginning harp player, (well, I played for a couple of
years now, but never in a band) but lately I have been attending some jam-ses-
sions, as I am doing a project in Brussels for a couple of months and I am trying
to get to know the town. Brussles is fascinating.

So I went to this jam-session in a bar near my house. First some people played 
pretty good 'Hot Club de France'-like Jazz on guitar and violin, after which I
could play along with  guitar player I had been talking to for a while. So I got
out all my harmonicas and prepared my self to honk away with some uptempo blues. 
I was as nervous as I  could be. 
Then the guitarist started playing.... "blowin' in the wind" by Bob Dylan, and 
suddenly about half the people in the place were playing harmonica!
Unfortunately there was only one microphone, in which the guitar player was sing-
ing, so I was the only person that heard myself playing. Anyway I had a lot of
fun. 
And of course I felt that I was the only harp-player that can communicate with so 
many expert harmonicists!

Just a little yarn to show how much I like the list.

Bart de Boer.




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