[Harp-L] names and spare parts

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

fjm wrote:

"  Sorry JRR I can hang with the
German Major tuning thing but I ain't gonna call them overbends."

Truth be told, I usually call them overblows as well--I'll be the  
first to admit that while overbends is technically more accurate, for  
various reasons, and has the added benefit of including the overdraws  
which are missed otherwise, it's not as easy on the tongue or the page.

Another thing I've been meaning to post on is the recent thread about  
learning overbends(:).  I'm not a very good person to speak on this,  
as I rarely use overbends and am not at all proficient with them  
(nothing to do with their validity or usefulness, but rather with my  
time and what I've wanted to play).  However, a very good tool that  
I've found for improving them is the Suzuki Overdrive.  Effectively,  
by blocking the appropriate cover-holes you can do the same as has  
been suggested vis-a-vis putting tape over reeds and taking covers  
off and blocking reeds with your fingers--isolate the draw reed so  
that it is forced to behave in the opposite manner to which it is  
designed, thus creating the overbend.   This is the same principal  
behind the Bahnson overblow design, except easier to purchase and  
much less likely to snap off a reed.  Winslow's discrete comb also  
works on this principal, and I would say that  is also an excellent  
tool for learning overbend technique.

Hopefully someone might buy either the DC or the OD in order to work  
on their regular overbends and then realize the massive potential of  
these two instruments beyond simply being great practice tools.  I've  
been having fun with the OD lately switching between single reed  
bends, double-reed bends and overblows on a single hole for musical  
effect and color--the various shading and expression possibilities of  
the Overdrive are massive.

The hard part is how to properly and easily control the chambers-- 
indeed, this and this alone are what make it less common-place or  
talked about than I think it deserves to be.  I think I'm developing  
a pretty decent technique for this, however, and hopefully by sharing  
it others can try it and see how it works for them and maybe give me  
other ideas as well.  Basically, I hold the instrument at the first  
nuckle of my index fingers, instead of the more usual grips.  I then  
use my index and middle fingers of my right hand (being right-handed,  
lefties might do the opposite) to cover all the blow chambers.  It's  
not hard at all to use the index finger to cover from 4-10 and the  
middle to cover the bottom 1-4.  Hole 10 requires a slight shifting  
along the nuckle to get the most comfortable position, but that's no  
different than the type of movement you would normally use for  
tremolos, hand-wahs and the like.  My left thumb easily controls the  
draw chambers simply by a combination of wrist movement and extending  
the thumb--this sounds more complex than it is.

What I'm finding is that it is surprisingly easy with this grip and  
technique to cover the chamber you want as you want without much  
slippage.  Also, one thing to remember is that if you are playing a  
single note then it doesn't matter if you are covering several  
chamber because only the one you play is effected.  Further, I think  
there may be an advantage to having each hand do a single task rather  
than try and do both the blow and the draw chambers--it helps to keep  
it clear in my mind about what the results are when I cover a chamber.

As I have a new i-Mac with a photo thingie, I may try to send some  
pictures to fjm for him to upload illustrating this hand-grip and how  
it relates to the chamber covering.  Of course, I have to figure out  
how to take photos and then how to keep everything but my hands out  
of the photos and so forth.

Another thing.  Recently someone (sorry I can't remember who or what  
the post was) mentioned swapping the blow and draw reed-plates on a  
standard harmonica.  I believe if you search the archives you can  
find some information on this--I recall posting a very similar piece  
about how I did it and how interesting I found the results.  I think  
that learning to blow-bend down low has many benefits, and perhaps an  
unexpected one is that it will improve the ability to hit and play  
overblows because your mouth becomes used to working with resonant  
shapes when doing lower pitched blows.  Similarly with how it helps  
overdraws.  This, I think, is another way in which an XB-40 can help  
with learning general harmonica technique, as it has such low blow  
bends and high draw bends built in.  One thing I've noticed both when  
I flipped reed-plates and when playing the XB-40 is that rather than  
blow bends being different from standard bends in general, it is the  
pitch of the bend which makes the greatest difference.  Thus, a low  
pitched blow bend (hole 3, for instance) tends to have more in common  
with similarly pitched draw bends than with the more familiar high- 
pitched blow bends (hole 9, for instance).  And, high-pitched draw  
bends more in common with high-pitched blow bends than lower/standard  
draw bends.





 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'