Learning to Overblow with off the shelf harps

["George Brooks" <gbrooks1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rob Lowe asked:

>should a player expect
>to be able to play all of
>the notes on an UN-modified
>diatonic harp?

It depends on two factors, the airtightness and the gapping.  These factors
can vary widely with out-of-the-box harps.  If the harp is sufficiently
airtight and the gaps are low enough, there is no reason why a player
skilled in producing all of the bends, including the overblows and
overdraws, should not be able to play all of the notes of the chromatic
scale over the full range of the harmonica.

But that is, in my opinion, a very poor way to go about it.  I am not saying
you have to buy a custom harmonica.  You have an option: either buy a custom
harmonica or learn to improve your harps for overblow/overdraw play
yourself.  If you want to follow the latter course, there is a great deal of
information now available on the Internet.  Additionally, some of the
rudiments are taught at Joe Filisko's teach-ins held each year at Buckeye
and SPAH.  Carlos del Junco and Jason Ricci both do their own work.

My feeling is that if a player is serious about checking overblows out, he
or she should avoid climbing two learning curves at the same time and begin
with a custom harmonica set up for overblows and overdraws.  If this type of
play still seems worth pursuing a few months out, the player can then face
the customized-by-pros  vs. self-customized issue.

Trying to learn to overblow at the outset with a harp that is fighting you
is a bad idea, in my opinion.  It has the potential to turn the student
completely off.  Imagine trying to first learn to drive in a car that has a
sticky throttle, that steers harder to the right than to the left, and that
has brakes you have to stand on in order to stop.  My guess is that one
could learn much more quickly with a car where everything worked properly
and smoothly.  And have a much better time doing it.

Tim Moyer's experience matches my own.  Once you learn to overblow, it
becomes much easier to do it on any given harmonica, even some box-stockers.
But the note-to-note consistency won't be there unless someone, a pro or the
player, does some work on the harmonica.  Without the consistency, it is
hard to play with overblows/overdraws either smoothly or fast.

When I speak of a custom harmonica, I have in mind a harmonica that has been
made much more airtight than a stocker and that has had its reeds and reed
slots worked on for the proper response and consistency of response.  I
believe that there are some customizers out there who do the first part but
do no reed or slot work other than tuning.  The increased airtightness
helps, but it's only a part of what goes into a good overblow harmonica.  I
use harps, mostly Marine Bands, customized by the Filisko Method guys (Joe
Filisko, Richard Sleigh, and Jimmy Gordon).  Many of the people seriously
trying to integrate overblows and overdraws into their playing do so.  These
harmonicas are superb, and I can recommend them without hesitation.  I have
not tried anyone else's custom harmonicas, and so cannot comment on those.

George