Re: [Harp-L] Valving vs. Overblowing/Overdrawing

[Larry Marks <larry.marks@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Elizabeth,

Typically, the half-valved harp has valves on the six lower draw reeds 
and on the four upper blow reeds. That gives you the ability to 
blow-bend the six lower blow reeds and draw-bend the four upper draw 
reeds. In this way, the harp is a fully chromatic three octave 
instrument capable of playing 38 tones: 36 notes from c (hole 1 blow) to 
b (hole 12 blow-bend) plus the high c and the b below the low c, which 
you can get by blow-bending the 1 blow reed.

The overblow/overdraw approach also gets 38 notes (you get a high c# by 
overdrawing 10 instead of the low b on the valved harp.)

I have no trouble with either approach, but I mostly do valved harps 
because I learned that way first and it is (at least for me) a more 
logical arrangement.

Many people say that one can get cleaner tones with the 
overblow/overdraw approach, but I have listened over and over, and I can 
get just as good a tone from my valved harp as anyone can get with an 
overblow or overdraw, so I take the comments on the difference in sound 
to be the result of people who are familiar with overblow/overdraw and 
less familiar with valved playing.

Basically, I think it is still the shape of the oral cavity and the 
breath that makes a sound on a harp. I have heard good overblows and 
incompetent valved playing, and I have heard good valved playing and 
incompetent overblowing. I haven't heard that a good valved player 
sounds any worse than a good overblow player.

Repeating: I sincerely believe that the difference in sound some people 
hear between valved playing and overblowing is the result of technique 
or lack thereof.

I know that the martinets out there who are convinced that there is only 
one way to play will have a fit as a result of this message, but I 
really don't care. I know what I can do and I am not interested in 
theoretical BS about why one is good and the other bad.

Here's another one that gets some people squealing: I can cleanly and 
rapidly tongue my instrument while tongue blocking. I am a trombone 
player who has practiced tonguing exercises for hundreds of hours. What 
I do on my harp works.

BTW, I will be the last one to tell ANYONE that tongue blocking is 
better than puckering or that valved playing is better than overblows or 
... Whatever technique you choose that works for you is clearly the 
right one.

-LM