Re: [Harp-L] Bent overbends



All bent notes are "weaker" than non-bent notes because the reed is
vibrating a note that it wasn't built to sound, and it delivers less
amplitude because it's vibrating less efficiently.

But sustaining overblows and making them strong sounding is certainly
possible, and not that hard on a decently set up instrument. I've
played whole lines of sustained overblows, some of them bent up one or
two semitones - some here may remember a recording I made of a tune
called "The Tinge".

Winslow

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Chris Michalek" <chris@...>
wrote:


I don't do it that much because to my ears it sounds terrible. I also
can't stand the sound of the disreet comb or the XB-40.  If I'm
playing arabic style music then I'm apt to start bending "odd" note
but other wise the OB's are really used in a quick flurry of notes. 
OBs in general are pretty weak notes.



>-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Bowering [mailto:paul_bowering@...]
>Sent: Tuesday, August 8, 2006 03:27 PM
>To: harp-l@...
>Subject: [Harp-L] Bent overbends (was Suzuki Pure harp review)
>
>Chris M. wrote:
>
>>Bending the OBs up is a true problem because of the
>>short reeds. There are so few people that can 1.)
>>actually do it or 2.) hit the correct pitch or 3) can
>>do it but can't use it musically that I thought it
>>wasn't necessary to mention.
>
>I've loved the verstility of both the Overdrive and
>Discrete Comb. I use overbends for hitting a note
>crisply and 'valve' style bends for sliding into a
>note. Of course both these harp designs have their own
>quirks which make them a challenge to play.
>
>On regular harps I really miss the expressiveness of
>the isolated reed bends. Assume a 'C' harp. I can OB
>Hole 4 for the Eb. I can even bend it up to E natural
>(depending on the particular harp). I can't sustain it
>however and what I don't think feasible would be to
>hit that bent OB from a standstill. This is so
>desireable because musically, one would want to slide
>down from E to Eb just as much as slide up.
>
>Yeah, I've tried valved harps too. I like 'em on the
>blow bends but couldn't make any headway on the valved
>draw bends.
>
>I guess my question is for Chris or any other OB
>heavyweights that might be lurking. Is this something
>that can be done or do you just not bother with, say,
>the given example of a bend from E to Eb?
>
>Since I'm only looking for expression and would use OB
>to hit the missing notes one other approach might be
>to employ prebends. Just the slight, quartertone bends
>on Blows 4,5,6. How 'bout this option?
>
>Paul
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
>http://mail.yahoo.com 
>_______________________________________________
>Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
>Harp-L@...
>http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
>



_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@...
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l

--- End forwarded message ---










This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.