RE: [Harp-L] re: Seamless overblow challenge



I am sometimes very impressed by some of Howard Levy's work, but I wouldn't
think of him first when speaking about seamless overblowing.
This video is a good example : I love what he does here, and I even admire
it, but it is far from being seamless.
Is it important ? Relevant ? This is another question.
Some other players (Octavio Castro, Sebastien Charlier, for example), have
gone much farer in playing in different keys in a much more sweet & cool
way.
Howard does great things, but I don't think this part is neither the most
interesting part of his work, nor the best example in the world.
I know saying that may be seen as provocative on this list, but I think it
is important to clearly see & accept what each harp player can & cannot
bring, even the most talented ones.
Because if you think "Howard is the best, an outstanding alien" and "Even
Howard is not always very smooth on his OBs" then you conclude "It is not
possible to be smooth on OBs".
Maybe there are other possibilities too.

Best regards,

Jerome
www.youtube.com/JersiMuse


-----Message d'origine-----
De : harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] De la part
de martin oldsberg
Envoyé : dimanche 24 juillet 2011 16:18
À : ron@xxxxxxxxxxx; harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Objet : [Harp-L] re: Seamless overblow challenge

My ears are very unperfectly pitched and yet I hear several (slightly)
disturbing notes in this piece. Because I´m a harmonica player I can
identify them as OB:s. 
  It has been demonstrated before on Harp-l and elsewhere that Howard L has
come a long long way towrds seamlessness (there´s a fantastic C major blues
of his, played in 1 pos in the middle octave that comes to mind, but I don´t
remember from where it was taken.) but it´s not there all the time. 
  Whether that´s an "issue" or not is for the individual to decide. The
general audience may not react but I know for certain that musicians and
discriminating ... listeners can hear it. (Yep, I´ve done some unsystematic
research here.)
 
As for me I think that many harmonica players suffer from a form of "aspect
blindness" when it comes to the OB question: they may have perfect pitch and
so on but just doesn´t hear that some notes stand out in an unpleasant way. 
  This is true as well for some musicians who also sing: they may be
formidable instrumentalists, wouldn´t dream of accepting a sour note, but
they can´t hear their own crappy singing in it´s crappiness. It just doesn´t
register.
  This may cause some awkward moments, it´s a very personal thing to
critizise, a bit like saying "Eh, you are ugly."
 
Many years ago a very notable presence on Harp-l, competent musician w/
perfect pitch and all, demonstrated generously his playing in a hell of a
lot of keyes on one harp, and I, and a whole lot of others, only heard those
fatally sour bends that where all over the place, beautiful tunes
energetically massacred. He himself appeared totally untroubled by this, and
I found it quite fascinating.
 
Cheers,
Martin
in Sweden (w/ a serious cold and fever so forgive if I´m muddy)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "RON SMITH" <>
-What a waste of time and space on the Overblow Challenge. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PIa-T3pJDY

Does anyone need to get anymore seamless than the above.  I think NOT.
You must have really fast ears.....
Ron





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