Re: overblows - doing it

[Richard Lister <ric@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Crowley <Mark.Crowley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
on Wed, 24 Mar 2004 10:11:48 +1100:
>
> Subject: Re: overblows - doing it
>
> it's already printed out and nested in my - what 'overblowers do'
> folder - along with printed copies of just about every damn webpage
> on earth to do with the  &^%$ing things. - currenlty juggling back
> and forth between that page, tinus', some of G's stuff and some of
> Mike Stevens bluegrass book
> 
> There's a lot of variables i'm juggling of which i don't fully
> understand or that well versed - eg, pucker blowbends, gapping....
> 
> it's pretty much what George brooks stated - something like beginner
> drivers jumping into dodgy cars and can't understand why they can't
> hold a straight line down the freeway...
> 
> still endeavouring though it's probably a case of a "laying on of
> hands" required at this point  - i'd settle for a lump of 4x2 if it
> worked - knowing a few who would gladly queue for that...


Alright mate, we're going to get you playing an overblow if it
kills us :-)

I honestly believe learning to overblow is no harder than learning
to control bends. I would say that it took me a week of contortions
to get that first ugly C# on my C Special 20, and it took less than 
a week to that first squealing Bb on a C Golden Melody.

There are two problems however:

  - overblows are more sensitive to reed type and setup

  - they are "all or nothing" ... you'll blow silence or nasty
    wheezes for a week before that note pops out, which can
    be VERY discouraging

I do think that the maintenance of a myth that overblows are
a highly advanced technique does a huge disservice to beginners.
I'm a beginner. I'm a terrible harp player, probably the worst
on this list :-)  There are lots of hard things on the harp that
I can't do, but squeezing out a few overblows is not one of them.

Right, on to how I learned:

  1. get a Golden Melody in C

  2. go somewhere where you can relax: lying on the sofa in front
     of the TV, on the beach with a slab of VB, wherever, you'll be
     here a while and you don't need to concentrate a lot

  3. take off (or swing aside) the top cover

  4. cover the 6 blow reed completely with a finger

  5. blow hole 8, then in the same breath bend it,
     then slide down to 7 and *do the exact same thing*;
     you won't get a bend (or will get a quarter tone) and
     may make a horrible noise, but no worries; now slide down to 6
     *do the exact same thing* again. Do this over and over and
     over again. It's boring, which is why you're watching TV or
     girls in bikinis while you do it.

  6. vary your embouchure, try everything you can think of. I'm
     exclusively a tongue-blocker, I can only just get a single
     note with pucker, however I got all my first overblows with
     pucker. I think this was because I had freedom to move my
     tongue. Then once my throat and mouth muscles had learned
     the right position for each overblow I was able to get it
     using TB.

  7. blow gently; it is tempting to blow hard, but you're trying
     to tease that note out. I found that moving my tongue
     *slowly* from bottom/back of my mouth to top/front caught
     the OB somewhere along the way. But you will go shooting past
     that point. It is very delicate, you have to find the exact
     position. Try every possible shape of mouth and throat you
     can. Cough, gag, make syllables, *something* will work :-)

  8. get a tuner, like the little Korg. At first you can hear nothing
     coming out of your overblow attempts, or maybe some nasty
     squeals, but there might well be an overtone which makes that
     needle dance up to Bb for a second. This kind of feedback
     can really help you zero-in on the embouchure that you need.

  9. do this every day, when you're too tired for other practice
     or watching TV, etc.

 10. persevere! overblows are not really difficult. You just have
     to find that precise mouth and throat shape that hits the
     nail on the head.




BTW, I think you have a good advantage if you can control blow bends.
I'm not so good at the high blow bends: just one of many things
I have to work on. Now I've learned the right embouchure and
resonance for them, I find overblows easier than blow bends
because they "snap" in, unlike say blowbend 9 where I'm struggling
to keep those little reeds from getting out of control.

Once you've got the overblow with the blow reed blocked get back to us,
we'll throw a party and help you with the next bit.

We're rooting for you. (Wait, I think that means something
different in Australia ...)

Ric