Re: [Harp-L] Attack on Overblows



If memory serves, the straw man is a rhetorical technique which involves a flawed or insubstantial argument (the "straw man") being put
forward purely for the purpose of being easily knocked down (because
it's made or, er, straw). Easy to see that it can be very effective
when the straw man is made to resemble an opposing point of view. 

Anyway... Great post, Mike, which IMHO hits several nails squarely on the head and to which I'd like to add:

#7 The point of incorporating overbending into one's style doesn't seem to be about the overbends per se. 

Rather, the point seems to be:

(a)
opening up the expressive qualities of the rest of the harmonica, i,e,
if one can find the "missing notes" that make a tune possible in any
position, then one has the freedom to choose the right position for
that tune, to get the "expression" notes where one wants them;

(b) to play the melodic lines that one hears in one's head, particularly over complex chord changes;

So...
Overbends are about freedom of musical expression, really. (Not that I
always enjoy what players do with that, but that's another issue
entirely...)

xxx

PS I'm always amazed when I hear someone
like Howard Levy referred to as an "overblower." 36 notes on a
diatonic, 4 of which require overblows. What about the other 32? OK, 3
overdraws too. So... what about the other 29 notes? Is it only those 4
OBs or 7 overbends that some people's ears hear?






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