[Harp-L] Overblows

[Jerome P.]

BTW, let me precise something.
I've said it before, but I'm not sure that was clear.
I don't think people should play in the 12 keys on a single harp.
In fact, I even think this is totally crazy if you don't need it in the
music you want to play.
And I know what I've been through, I know it's a tremendous work, so you'd
better know why you do it (apart from the "hey, look what I can do" thing).

I just say 2 things :
1. if you need it to play the music you love, if you need it because the
lines in your head mix different colors from different modes & tones, if
you have a real appetance for it, then go for it !! It's feasible !!
Personally, I would have never done this work if few other guys wouldn't
have done it before me. I don't know how they had the courage to go through
this without knowing if it was possible.
But now we know, so just do what you think is the best for you !

2. knowing that some guys can play in 12 different keys, and mix all kinds
of modes and tones in a solo, maybe one can at least learn 2 or 3
correctly, major & minor, and see if this wouldn't help to improve, by any
chance

Jerome
www.jeromepeyrelevade.com

Le ven. 16 nov. 2018 à 18:06, Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica at xxxxx>
a écrit :

> 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
> >
>