Re:[Harp-L] Overblowing

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Mike Best (WGE)" wrote:
<I've known about the concept of overblowing for years, and I can easily hit overblown notes on holes 4, 5 and <6.  I haven't got it completely under control but I think with a bit of concentrated practice I would nail it in <a pretty short space of time..
<
<My question though is, even if I did put the work into mastering OB's, I can't imagine when I would ever use <them.  I've played harp in various blues bands for 30 years and I have never needed to use OB's.  I usually play <in 2nd position, relatively fast if I need to, and along the full length of the harp.  Maybe it's not the most <imaginative playing in the world, and if you listen to me long enough you'll start to hear the same phrases <coming through, but the audience always seems to like it.
<
<Sometimes if I'm playing a horn line and there's a missing note or two then I can usually solve it with a <natural minor harp.   So am I missing something here, or am I just not trying hard enough??  Any advice from the <experts out there would be much appreciated

Ultimately, it's about expressing what's inside you, and you only really need the techniques that make it possible for you to do that.  One of the great lessons of the blues is: get it any way you can.  So if you're getting what you need without overblowing, you're not obligated to overblow just to prove that you can.

Blues artists seem to be able to express themselves just fine without overblowing.  I've never heard an overblow from either Charlie Musselwhite or Kim Wilson.  Brendan Power also doesn't overblow, so far as I know, though Brendan evidently has no problem tuning his harps into configurations more radical than most of us can imagine.

It's good to learn new techniques--it keeps us from ending up in a tight little box where we just repeat ourselves over and over.  But overblowing isn't the only new technique out there for most people, or the most important technique for everyone.  

Regards, Richard Hunter







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