[Harp-L] Overblows aren't crap!

[dh@xxxxx]

.  Overblows sound like crap.

Yep that's why I always play 2 overblows in a row to cancel the effect

Now seriously from the time I started to play overblows till now all the other musicians I met were just so excited by the fact that I could play much more than they expected from a diatonic harmonica
Double bass, Cello, violin, voice are all instruments that are only in tune if the player is in tune
Musicians are human beings so they will fail at some point even the best will make this note that might be a bit out of tune but I don’t think it will take away the performance or excitement of the music
Humanity is what makes music great 
Nowadays we can hear hyper polished production where everything is autotuned (live too)
I'd rather hear Sinatra anytime over this kind of crap
We also have hyper trained kids who are technically very impressive but again creativity and emotion might be lacking
Technique is one part of the puzzle and you have to work your butt off to be the best possible but at the end of the day one note is all you need to make music great and it might well be an overblow !
Just because it happens to be there, right there in your harmonica. So you can valve it, retune it try to choke him even ... but the good old standard richter tuned harmonica has them all and overblows were there before we were even born !


David Herzhaft

www.davidherzhaft.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Harp-L <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx> On Behalf Of Laurent Vigouroux
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2018 8:13 AM
To: jaguire <jaguire at xxxxx>; harp-l at xxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Overblows aren't crap!

Jaguire wrote:
"The fact of the matter,  the emperor's new clothes notwithstanding, is that a nice well crafted harp sounds beautiful only when played to its strengths and within its limitations. "
It's a matter of taste. I totally respect your taste.

" What i am trying to say here is that overblows sound like crap.  Overblows sound like crap. They stick out like a sore thumb as lousy unpleasant timbre and out of tune. I've heard howard levy and carlos del junco live numerous times. Overblows are a delusion. "
Actually, no. This is not true and this is a fact.
You do need proper technique to make overblows sound good. But when you have the proper technique, overblow can sound quite well.
Listen to Sébastien Charlier or Jérôme Peyrelevade. I bet you won't be able at all to spot the overblows in their playing. And there are lots of them.

I'm a pure amateur, but I'm not sure you will spot the overblows in a tune I composed 2 years ago either. It's far, far from perfect. There are lots of defaults in this tune, especially pitch inaccuracies I do hear today that my ear has a bit improved (I need to record this tune again!), but I would not say my overblows sound like crap or are a delusion.  Are they? 
https://soundcloud.com/laurent-vigouroux/blues-in-the-key-of-l-1

And what about this tune where there is an overblow on a very strong note of the melody?
https://soundcloud.com/laurent-vigouroux/et-je-lappelle-encore-1

Again I'm a pure amateur. Pros do far better than that.

What do you think?
Happy harpin'

Laurent