Actually, Will Scarlett was using the term "overblow" in 1974, long
before
Howard Levy. I heard him use the term in the spring of that year while
giving a lecture on acoustics at the Blue Bear School.
It's true that the "over" part of the term seems to imply force, but it
also indicates a higher ("over") pitch, which is the central feature of
the
phenomenon.
I've started to refer to bending notes down (standard bends) and bending
notes up (overbends) as a way of describing the phenomena in a
non-technical way. You could also talk more precisely about closing reed
bends and opening reed bends, and about isolated and dual reed bends.
Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Harmonica Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
------------------------------
*From:* Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
*To:* Edward Hart <hooligan6a@xxxxxx>
*Cc:* harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Monday, February 10, 2014 7:44 AM
*Subject:* Re: [Harp-L] Overdraw overbend overblow
Ed,
Bends make a note go lower in pitch. Overblows and overdraws make a note
go higher in pitch.
On a standard diatonic harp, you can only bend on the draw notes from
holes
1 thru 6. You can only bend on the blow notes from holes 7 thru 10.
On a standard diatonic harp, you can only overblow on the blow notes from
holes 1 thru 6. You can only overdraw on the draw notes from holes 7
thru
10.
Since bends and overblows do opposite things, they needed two different
terms to describe them. The term overblow was coined by Howard Levy, who
had played saxophone in his lifetime and overblow is a saxaphone term.
He
thought the concept was similiar enough to call them overblows.
Sadly, the term overblow is very confusing. It suggests you need to blow
hard. It suggests you can only do it on blow notes. Since many
harmonica
players teach themselves, when they discover how to bend on the blow
notes
from holes 7 thru 10 , they know only they are blowing and changing the
pitch. They must be overblowing! But they are wrong, they are bending
on
the blow notes.
Perhaps a better term for bending would be descended bend and a better
term
for overblows would be ascended bend. But I guarantee there would be
problems with that as well. These are the terms we use, I suggest taking
the time to make sure you understand and are speaking them correctly and
move on from there.
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com
On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 9:19 AM, Edward Hart <hooligan6a@xxxxxx> wrote:
> Why not just call them draw bends and blow bends? Why the over? Over
> what?
>
> Ed Hart
>