Re: Same Old Thing

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy Vincent wrote:
<<
Can anyone steer me towards some commercially available
recording of 
overblows/draws done to enhance the feel/musicality of a song?
<<

On my recording of Blue Monk on "The Act of Being Free in One Act"
(Turtle Hill Productions THP03CD, available since 1997 from amazon.com
and CDBaby.com), overblowing is used to play the chromatic tones in the
melody in the second octave.  Without overblowing, I'd either have to
use a different harmonica or change the melody, the latter of which
would certainly detract from both the feel and the musicality of the
song.

Larry Eisenberg's point in this thread is exactly this: if the player
knows what he or she is doing, you won't hear overblowing; you'll just
hear a note like any other.  In other words, the point isn't to draw
attention to the technique.

Lame players can use any technique to produce lame sounds, of course. 
I've heard a lot of players use bends in ugly ways, even though bending
is a technique that's been around for a long, long time.  That doesn't
mean bending sucks; it means some people don't play either the harmonica
or music very well.

So if the point of this thread is to gather evidence as to whether
overblowing, or any other technique, is a waste of time, I say the
effort is better spent elsewhere.  Every technique is useful; no
technique is the be-all and end-all. 

Regards, Richard Hunter
www.hunterharp.com