[Harp-L] Will Scarlett's place in the history of overblows

[Laurent Vigouroux]

Hello all

Hey, this 3’’ at the end of the first phrase of Summertime in 3rd has made me sweat for year. Same for the first phrase of House of the Rising Sun (1 2 3” 3’). I’m still working on them.
Jean-Jacques Milteau (top harmonica player in France in the 90’s) had a CD/Book songbook including this two tunes. And it sounded great on these phrases.
On the opposite, Lonnie Joe Howell had a tough rendition of Summertime in his CD/Bookd, with a 3 draw bent a whole step which clearly sticked out.

Actually, I think the 3rd hole bends are more of a challenge than overblows.

But thanks to the new tongue position technique (only 4 tongue positions to obtain all the notes), we can now play tunes with bends and overblows with a more consistent tone and still keep the soul of diatonic.
To the point it is not possible to hear wichh notes are overblows, and which notes are not



De : Harp-L <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx> de la part de David Naiditch <davidnaiditch at xxxxx>
Date : samedi, 12 février 2022 à 12:56
À : Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica at xxxxx>
Cc : L-Harp <harp-l at xxxxx>, Ronnie Schreiber <autothreads at xxxxx>
Objet : Re: [Harp-L] Will Scarlett's place in the history of overblows
Can the harmonica create consistent tones?  The answer isn’t yes or no, but a matter of degree.  On chromatic, perhaps more so than the diatonic, blow and draw notes have a pretty consistent tonal quality.  (I remember reading that Larry Adler was questioned whether blow and draw notes had a different tone.  Adler challenged the questioner (can’t remember who it was) to tell the difference and he couldn’t.) The difference in tone between an unbent note and bent one is far more pronounced than the difference between a blow/draw, and with overblows, the difference is even more pronounced.  For the music I typically play, I think it is often very desirable to keep the same tone and timbre throughout.  And when the tone is changed, I want it dictated by me, and not by the instrument.  When I hear “Summertime” played in 3rd position, for example, I cringe when I hear the 3 draw bent down a whole step.  It’s sticks out like a sore thumb comparted to the other notes.


> On Feb 10, 2022, at 4:59 PM, Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica at xxxxx> wrote:
>
> Blow notes sound different than draw notes.  Bent notes sound different
> than either of them.  Overblows sound different than all of them.
>
> If you want consistency of tone, pick another instrument.
>
> That said, there are only a few players who consistently use overblows in a
> way that I like them.  Personally, I am not one of those players and
> therefore tend to only overblow in situations where I must hear that
> particular note.  My years of learning to play in all 12 keys on a diatonic
> strengthened my understanding of music and my non overblow harp improved
> due to that understanding, so no regrets there.
>
> But there are players who sound great to me and I believe in the 100th
> Monkey concept, so one day, there will be plenty.
>
> On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 6:48 PM Gary Lehmann <gnarlyheman at xxxxx> wrote:
>
>> OB 6 is a pretty safe bet, in a cross harp context--no one expects the blue
>> thirds to be anything but wild (well, I don't anyway).
>> OB 5, used a lot in 12th, is a different matter.
>> My observance about the strange timbre of the whole step draw bend on hole
>> 3 was answered (by a well known overblow player and Mooncat) with a quote
>> from (I think) Paul DeLay, "Why are you trying to make the harmonica sound
>> like anything but a harmonica?"
>> Artifacts can be overlooked and even celebrated, the ear of the behearer
>> you know . . .
>>