[Harp-L] Over Blow Survey



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> Do you angle the harp up or down or do you keep it fairly straight in your
> mouth? Do you play with the same angle or lack of angle when not playing
> over blows?


Straight.


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> Would you say that you breathe straight into the hole or do you tend direct
> air flow towards the top or bottom of the hole?


Down.

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> I am curious to hear responses. I am finding that my method for getting my
> OB's with my standard harps isn't working the same way with my new OB
> optimized custom harps. They are so sensitive / responsive that I am
> experiencing a lot of choked notes as I run up and down the harp. The
> problem isn't with me breathing too hard. I am being very gentle with air
> flow. As I experiment it seems to be related to my questions above; angles
> and direction of air flow. I guess my overall question is; are there
> consistencies amongst all players or is this a very individual process.


I don't know I am like lots of folks. 5 and 6 OK... others... rarely.

That's it in a nutshell. I have to say that this overblow thing seems to be
this abstract idea like the perfect amp, the perfect mike, the perfect harp.
Why are we trying to do this? I was listening to some Coltrane last night.
And somehow realized after all these years that on a lot of the atonal stuff
he was really just noodling around with what a sax can do. It was instrument
driven. Technique driven. It was licks. Sometimes I think we harmonica
players are trying to make a silk purse our of a sows ear. Why are we
pursuing this? Why can't I do Charlie Parker runs? Well you can with years
of practice and pain but as good as he was Parker was doing things that he
could only do on a sax. He didn't try to do his stuff on a tin whistle or a
bag pipe. He was using a specific instrument with it's attributes and
liabilities. He too at some level was doing licks. And even if you are
Howard Levy a harmonica is still going to sound like a harmonica. Which can
be a really wonderful sound.

I am encouraged by this four key tuning. And Jazmaan seems to be on to
something. It seems musical and capable of  an improvisational way of
thinking... not really lick based. And the tonalities are pretty viable.

For me the diatonic richter tuned harmonica works best at blues based
pentatonic stuff which includes a lot. And it works great. But when it slips
to far into jazz land after my initial awe and amazement I find myself
thinking that I would really rather hear another instrument play those
lines. OK... rock improve wise wise Jason Ricci is in a world of his own but
for jazz... I dunno and forgive me but I keep hoping to be moved but so far
the diatonic just sounds often like a novelty. Chromatic is another story
altogether.

Robin



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