[Harp-L] Overblows

Michael Rubin michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxx
Fri Nov 16 12:05:54 EST 2018


I totally agree with you Richard.

However, I predict that there will be countless people who can play in all
12 keys soon.  It's the nature of the beast.
Michael

On Fri, Nov 16, 2018 at 10:45 AM Richard Hunter <rhunter377 at xxxxx>
wrote:

> I meet very few professional harmonica players nowadays who don't use
> overnotes (nice word).  They're too useful to ignore.
>
> I don't meet many professional harmonica players who use overnotes to play
> a single diatonic instrument in 12 keys, for the simple reason that it's a
> lot easier to use overnotes within the context of traditional 1st/2nd/3rd
> etc. than it is to take a C harmonica into the key of F#.  For any but the
> most practiced overnote masters, it's also a hell of a lot more musical.
>
> Howard Levy is an acknowledged master of the technique, and if you read the
> notes on his website, he does NOT generally play everything on a single
> harmonica.  He switches harps when he changes keys.  Why?  because it's
> easier and more musical.
>
> When I interviewed Toots Thielemans for "Jazz Harp," he said that there was
> a lot of "look Ma, no hands!" stuff in the harmonica world.  Playing in 12
> keys on a diatonic is a nice trick, but what does it do for you that using
> a few overnotes in 1st/2nd/3rd or (gasp!) playing the music a on a
> chromatic harp doesn't do more easily and more musically (for most
> people)?  That's not even taking into account that there is NO known (or at
> this point imaginable)  technique for playing harmonies in 12 keys on a
> single diatonic (or a single chromatic, for that matter).  If you want a
> wider range of chords on the instrument, non-standard tunings like natural
> Minor/Dorian Minor/Melody Maker, etc. work a whole lot better than
> overnotes (granted, not a high bar, given that overnotes don't work at all
> for anything but single notes).  If you want to play realtime counterpoint,
> which is one of the things I routinely do on diatonic harmonicas and
> something that chromatic players were doing before I came on the scene,
> overnotes are useless.
>
> Summary: overnotes are a valuable but limited technique, and they're far
> from the answer to every musical problem that a harmonica player faces.
> Every pro should know how to perform them, but I wouldn't advise every pro
> to aspire to play everything on a single diatonic instrument in a single
> key, the outstanding contributions of Levy/Peyrelavade/etc.
> notwithstanding.
>
> Regards, Richard Hunter
> --
> Help fund Richard Hunter's "Blue Future" killer blues record!
> https://igg.me/at/bluefuture/x/18098212
> Check out Richard Hunter's 21st Century rock harmonica masterpiece "The
> Lucky One" at https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/richardhunter
>
> Author, "Jazz Harp" (Oak Publications, NYC)
> Latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
> Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
> Twitter: @lightninrick­­­‪­‪­­­‪‪­­‪­‪­‪­­­­‪­­‪‪‪­‪‪­­­‪­‪­­­­‪‪­­‪­‪­­­­
>


More information about the Harp-L mailing list