[Harp-L] Re: Seamless Overblow Challenge

[David Fairweather <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry I messed up the last reply with too much irrelevant quoted material.
Let me try again here:

>
> ICEMAN WROTE:
>
> Did you find the overblows I used in this clip to have noticeable
> differences in timbre from the other notes?


Yes I did.


> I have a pretty astute ear (Piano Techwise) and they sound pretty seamless
> to me, totally divorced from the fact that it was something I played. As a
> matter of fact, I'm more bothered by some of my 3 hole inhale first bend
> pitch near misses than any of the tone/timbres of the OB's.
>

I also hear timbre differences between ordinary draw bends, blow bends and
unbent notes.  Those differences sometimes irritate me too, but not as much
as OB's.


>
>
> The challenge you set forth below doesn't feel musical to me. It feels
> institutionalized and mechanical. Personally, I don't see how this relates
> to music. It is more of a laboratory challenge. I am not saying that those
> that go for this type of proof are wrong or misguided. It just doesn't
> resonate with my own personal alignment towards making music on a diatonic.
>

For many years the Amazing Randi offered a million dollar prize to any
self-proclaimed psychic who could reproduce his psychic feats in a
laboratory setting.   The psychics often offered similar excuses for why
scientific experiments were inappropriate and unfair tests of their
abilities.   (I'm saying this affectionately Iceman.  I did very much enjoy
your performance.)


> My whole focus is understanding them (OB's) for what they are and picking
> and choosing the moments/notes to minimize the differences, putting them
> into a musical context in real time. In a way, it adds another layer of
> challenge to creating musical lines with a diatonic, an intellectual one
> combined with an artistic/emotional one, with the hopeful final result of
> producing something very musical. In this way, I do not claim that OB's will
> be equal to given notes in all and any situations; rather that they can be
> used effectively within musical lines without popping out as mismatched
> timbres.
>

Well now you seem to be making a more reasonable claim than "seamlessness",
if minimizing their sonic deficiencies is the goal then there are certainly
some players who do that pretty well, often by playing swiftly and trying
not to linger on the OB notes. I don't disagree that there are some
impressive overblowers out there.   But even if I'm impressed it still
usually only takes a few minutes before I start to get annoyed too.