Re: overblows, was Same Old Thing

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> When I first stated listening to these guys I thought that a lot of their
> overblows stood out. In many cases, the music was so complex, that I never
> bothered to try to figure out what they were playing. Once I finally got
> around to figuring some of it out, though, I discovered that, in most
cases,
> it was actually the regular bends that were sticking out more than the
> overblows. This takes us back to the "Ode to Joy" challenge, which I
thought
> demonstrated pretty well how hard it is (impossible?) to bend a note to
the
> proper pitch and maintain consistent tone and timber.

That bears saying again. My first experience with this was listening to HL
with Rabih abou-Khalil on Sultan's Picnic (one of my all-time favourite
records. If you don't know it, go and get it !) On the first track there's a
great upwards run that just sounded impossible to play without overblows. I
always loved listening to that run and always assumed i heard many
overblows. Turned out it was in 12th position with exactly one overblow...

That's not to say you can't hear them when you know what to listen to. OBs
do have a specific edge. But that can be used advantageously. One of my
first identified overblows was on a gorgeous version of Your Funeral and My
Trial by the Belgian band El Fish. Steven De Bruyn starts his solo by
playing a 6 blow followed by a long sustained 6 overblow. The note really
rips in, with a lot of edge and menace. Like the way you'd pull or growl on
the 3 draw semitone bent for a similar effect only more powerful.

As with any tool, overblows have ways of being used well and ways of not
being used well. Who'd use a screwdriver to drive a nail in the wall ?

Ben FELTEN, Editor
www.planetharmonica.com