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

[JersiMuse <jersimuse@xxxxxxxxx>]

I totally agree with you Larry.
There is just one point on which I wonder.
I don't have much experience on valved harps, as I said, but when I listen
to good valved harp players, I always have the feeling their sound on some
notes is quite close from the chromatic harmonica compared to "classic"
blues harps.
Is that something which comes from my imagination (which is possible) ? Is
that something coming from the players themselves (and I don't know enough
valved harp players to have a relevant number of cases) ? Or has it
something to do with valved reeds (I think both reeds are not playing on a
valved harp, right ?) ?
What is your opinion ?

Regards,

Jerome
www.youtube.com/JersiMuse


-----Message d'origine-----
De : harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] De la part
de Larry Marks
Envoyé : lundi 18 avril 2011 16:31
À : Elizabeth Hess
Cc : harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Objet : Re: [Harp-L] Valving vs. Overblowing/Overdrawing

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