Re: [Harp-L] My "unused" 7-10 holes

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I've played for years, but shy away from the upper four holes, mostly 
> because on the Lee Oskars I typically play, I :
>
> 1) can't get an overblow to work, or work well, and you know how bad it 
> sounds when you try, and it doesn't happen. It's like learning the violin

There are over 1 billion ways to use those holes - even in second position 
- that do not entail bending a single note.  Bob, one of the greatest 
breakthroughs you'll ever have as a diatonic harp player, is opening up 
that territory for yourself.

You are a knowlegeable player, it's obvious from your posts.  It's time to 
expand your knowlege again.

Put on a nice practice track in a mid-range key like G or A, pull out your 
C or D and play your current style, and in each verse venture up into the 
higher holes.  Do this for 20 minutes every day for a few weeks, and it 
will have all opened up for you.

The great thing about the high end is that most players only start 
venturing up there when they are already able with the lower end, meaning 
players who are already friends with the instrument.  You do not need to 
hear what other people do with it.  You are perfectly capable at this 
juncture of finding your own road maps, new sounds that nobody else is 
making.  Those new discoveries then filter down into the lower end, and you 
will have made an enormous leap in your playing.

I cannot recommend this enough: put some time in up there every day, 
looking around for that which works in second position for you.  Don't miss 
a day.

After the road maps open up for you, which won't take long, you can start 
'hearing' places where you really, really, really want to bend some notes, 
and you can start working on that.  But there is absolutely no reason to 
demand those bends before you know what the score is up in the high holes.

The harp solo on my recording "Baby I'm All Like Wow," is an example of how 
liberating it is to be able to fly up and down all 10 holes.  At no point 
in that solo do I bend a single high hole.  You can hear the whole 
recording at www.HarmonicaGuitar.com, where it is the first tune on my juke 
box.  If anyone just wants an MP3 of the solo, please contact me offlist 
and I'll send it to you, because that's the kind of hairpin I am.

Adding those high holes into your playing is Graduation Day.  I understand 
that weird barrier those holes constitute for a person who has put in the 
time on the lower ones - Bob, now is the time to break through and find out 
what's up there.  It'll be like discovering a whole wing in the house you 
live in, one you didn't even know was there.

Ken