Re: [Harp-L] Overblows

[Pierre <slavio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

So I've been able to play the 6 hole overblow for
awhile now, and I am starting to use it more and more
and understand where it fits in blues music.  Now I am
hitting the four and five with ease, but I don't know
the appropriate blues context for it.  Any help?

Yay Michael!

My experience with overblows is that they are not that hard to get, the hard 
thing to do is to get them in any context. I suspect the problem is partly 
technique and partly harp setup. I am told they are easy after the first 
10,000. I sure hope so :p

This is a bit off subject, but what I would suggest that you make sure you 
can play the following relatively smothly and quickly:

6Ob 6b   - overblow to blow transition can be hard, hole may not want to 
un-choke, or they un-choke very slowly.
5b 6Ob
7b 6Ob

Same pattern for 5 and 4 holes:

5Ob 5b
4b 5Ob
6b 5Ob

4Ob 4b
3b 4Ob
5b 4Ob

This is a good test to see just how good you and your setup are.

I don't practice OBs, I am working on other things. But they are getting 
better just the same. Working on vibrato seems to have helped, also working 
on intonation on the 3 hole bends has helped a lot.

Initially I could only overblow on harps with extremely small gaps .05mm or 
.002 in (blow holes fell slightly blocked - rather annoying). A while ago I 
received a Turbo/AX in the key of C setup for OBs. When I received it I 
could not OB, the blow reeds would not choke. The setup was so nice and even 
compared to my OB harp that I refused to touch the gapping, figuring the 
harp was right and my technique was off.   Anyways a couple of weeks ago I 
tried OBing that harp and I can do it now when warmed up, they don't sound 
good yet, but the're comming along.

At some point, you will probably have to work on getting the notes on key. 
This is boring stuff, but may be a good exercise in fine control which will 
help OBs and other skills such as vibrato and fine bends.

Pierre.




















----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Fugazzi" <mfugazzi67@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 12:22 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Overblows


> So I've been able to play the 6 hole overblow for
> awhile now, and I am starting to use it more and more
> and understand where it fits in blues music.  Now I am
> hitting the four and five with ease, but I don't know
> the appropriate blues context for it.  Any help?  Any
> riffs or context clues for those two overblows would
> be great.  Hopefully I'll get the 7 overdraw soon.
> That has been very difficult.
>
> I know that the overblows will let me follow chord
> changes and change the scales I can use over different
> chords, but I'd like to start a little smaller then
> that.  I still need to get all the scales with the
> overblows down.
>
> =====
> Mike Fugazzi
>
>
>
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