Prewar overblows



TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kim Field writes:

    In fact--correct me if I'm wrong, Winslow--I don't know of
    any use of the overblow on a prewar recording.

I know of only one - Mean Low Blues by Blues Birdhead. It's in
the little Overblow history in HIP No. 4.

I've heard claims that Ernie Morris of the Borrah Minnevich
Harmonica Rascals was doing overblows in the late 1930's, but the
source for this information is not known for accuracy, and never
produced the promised recorded proof.

As to Gwen Foster's bird trill, it's nothing but a tongued
tremolo - the alternating-note kind of tremolo.

If you tongue block a note - let's say on the right side of your
tongue - then slide your tongue to the right without changing its
width, you'll cover up the note at the right side of your
embouchure and expose a hole on the left side. By flicking your
tongue from side to side, you can alternate the two notes
rapidly. Depending on where you are on the harp, and how wide
your block is, you can do this with all kinds of intervals. And
you can have chords instead of single notes on either side of the
block. I believe most of Foster's were done with a Block 1
(blocking out one hole in the middle and alternating the two
notes on either side of it).

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
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