RE: [Harp-L] Howard Levy overblows out of the box

[Marc Molino <mmolino54@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Maybe it's 'cause I'm frugal, but I'd encourage players to sit down and work with what they've got. All these posts encouraged me to get off my arse and give the overblow thing a true effort today. I took the covers off a stock Special 20 and pretty much followed the directions over at http://www.overblow.com. I made the gap on the 4 blow reed tighter gentlely pushing it up with a toothpick and then I followed the directions on the site. 

First I worked on choking the blow reed (with the coverplates off). I covered the 4 draw reed with my thumb and blew on the 4 hole. It probably took me about 30 minutes to get the hang of this and I had to work on tightning the gap a little more on the blow reed. After I got this, I took my thumb off the draw reed and tried to get a sound. I got nothing for another 15 minutes or so. I tightened the gap on the draw reed a little and I put the coverplates on held down only by my hands and finally got this horrendously wonderful mix of both reeds, which I was able to turn into an overblow after about 5 more minutes. Now I fully expect it to take many more years to get a good tone out of this--I've only been playing for about 18 months. My point is that if I can pull this off, just about anybody on this list can. After getting the feel of it, I found I could get the 4 overblow on my stock Bb marine band with no adjustments and the 6 overblow on a stock golden melody (Ab; also, no adjustments/tinkering). Again, it's not a pleasant sound (yet!!!), but it was eye-opening in terms of how much it was about me and not the equipment. I'd save your money and work with what you got first. And think about what note your playing--for the 4 hole, play 4 blow, 4 drawbend, 4 draw, 5 blow and listen--the overblow belongs between the 4 draw and the 5 blow and it's easiest to get it by starting with the 4 blow and then moving to the overblow. I have tried overblows in the past and gotten nothing even remotely close, but I hit it with a lot of patience and focus today for about an hour straight.

A super-dooper thanks to Tinus and his wonderful overblow.com site.

-marc



The RP Muse Blog ~ Highlighting local arts & culture. Submissions welcomed.http://therpmuse.blogspot.com

----------------------------------------
> From: frank@xxxxxxxxx
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Howard Levy overblows out of the box
> Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:56:56 +0100
> 
> Am Freitag, 28. März 2008 schrieb Philharpn@xxxxxxx:
>> Just because Howard can overblow ANY harp doesn't mean that
>> everyone else has the potential and   if they can't, they need to
>> work more on their technique. Howard could probably overblow a tin
>> whistle. But then he's HOWARD.
> 
> Yes. Thats what i meant when i wrote "An experienced overblow player 
> will get overblows with most any harp".
> 
> If you want to _learn_ overblows, the harp should be as overblow 
> friendly as can be. Even then it's hard enough to get even the first 
> ugly squealing overblow sounds out of that beast.
> A custom harp is a good thing to start with, even when there are off 
> the shelf harps that do overblows pretty well for somebody who 
> already knows how to do it.
>  These off the shelf harps are still made in mass production and some 
> are better, others not quite as good. If you buy a custom harp thats 
> guaranteed to overblow easily, you _know_, that somebody has tried 
> the best to make it real good.
> 
> So i'd opt for spending the money and getting a custom one.
> 
> -- 
> Gruß,Frank
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l

_________________________________________________________________
Test your Star IQ
http://club.live.com/red_carpet_reveal.aspx?icid=redcarpet_HMTAGMAR