Re; Overblows and how to do them

[Steve Jennings <100010.1152@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Guys:

Just to clear up any remaining confusion on this one.

Holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 can all be overblown

Holes 7, 8, 9 and 10 can all be overdrawn

It's the reverse of the bending relationship.  With bends, it is the
higher pitched note of the two notes in the hole that can be bent, and
the bend will go down almost to the pitch of the lower note in the hole
- see my post a while back about bending 5 draw.

With overblows/draws, it is the lower pitched note that can be abused
to another pitch, and I'm afraid that minor thirds have nothing to do
with it. What happens is that the blown or drawn reed is stunned and
the opposite reed then vibrates approximately a semitone higher than
the note it is tuned to. The resulting note can then be moved into tune
by slight adjustments of the pressure you're using - working with an
electronic tuner helped me a lot here.

If we look at a C harp:-

	 Eb  Ab   C  Eb  F#  Bb
	_________________________________________
	| C | E | G | C | E | G | C | E | G | C |
	| d | g | b | d | f | a | b | d | f | a |
	-----------------------------------------
				 db   f  ab  db

the overblows/draws are shown outside the "frame" - some of them are a
little redundant, since they are already "built-in" or more readily
available in other ways - ie O/b 2 & 3 and O/d 8.

It's a little different on a natural minor though (this would be
labelled GNm - in 2nd position):-


	 Eb  Ab   B   Eb  F#  Bb
	-----------------------------------------
	| C | Eb| G | C | Eb| G | C | Eb| G | C |
	| d | g | bb| d | f | a | bb| d | f | a |
	-----------------------------------------
				  db  e   ab  db

Notice that the redundancies are different, they are now O/b 1, 2, 4 &
6 and no O/d's.

On the harmonic minor it's like this:-


	  Eb  Ab  C   Eb  F#  A
	-----------------------------------------
	| C | Eb| G | C | Eb| G | C | Eb| G | C |
	| d | g | b | d | f | ab| b | d | f | ab|
	-----------------------------------------
				  db  e   ab  db

So now the redundancies are O/b 1, 2, 3 and 4 (a full chromatic octave
in 1 - 4, using bends only!), but only O/d 9.

On the Melody Maker, (labelled G) it's

	  Eb  Ab  C   Eb  G   Bb
	-----------------------------------------
	| C | E | A | C | E | G | C | E | G | C |
	| d | g | b | d | f#| a | b | d | f#| a |
	-----------------------------------------
	                          db  f   ab  db

Again the redundant notes differ - now it's O/b's 3 & 5, and none of
the overdraws.

See Steve Baker's "Harp Handbook" for the full SP on all this - and HIP
#4 has some detailed info. on the subject, too.

Hope this helps.

Steve Jennings,
Editor, "Harmonica World"