[Harp-L] Playing chromatically on a diatonic (was Will Scarlett's place in the history of overblows)

[Rick Dempster]

I can't say I can pick the OBs on this. It's a fairly 'stifled' tone, in
general,
which is what I hear from both reversed single reeds (OB/OD) and heavily
embossed
harps. I can usually spot the technique in performances.
If I listen to this on a lower speed, there are some 'click' sort of sounds
before quite a few of the notes,
but that may only be the recording.
Anyhow, it is just my opinion. A thirty reed harp, properly valved ( and
for my money, they do not need embossing)
has a far richer sound. All the bends sound the same, and just....better!
Also the technique is just plain old conventional bending, OB/OD takes a
fair bit of hard work to master
and the average harp customer, I believe, just isn't interested in either
that or the customising necessary.
I think the success of the 30 reed harp would have been much better for the
industry, let alone
my ears.
The XB40 failed, largely because of its tone (too much in the mids, I feel)
and the fact that it was probably TOO bendable, making it a little hard to
stabilize the pitch.
I think The Sub30 sounded like a conventional harp; just needed those extra
valves.
It failed, I suspect, because of a breakdown in the relationship with
Suzuki & Mr.Power.
Yeah, I know! Demonstrate!  Ok....I'll see what I can do.
Maybe I'll just wait until the whole thing "blows over" haha!
RD

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 at 23:08, Laurent Vigouroux <laurent.vigouroux at xxxxx>
wrote:

> Hi all
>
> In my opinion, it is now proven overblows can sound well and can’t be
> spotted in a phrase.
> But it seems not everybody agrees on that (cf RD comment below).
>
> As some people may hear tone differences better than me, I’d like to
> submit a sound excerpt to the community:
>
> https://www.planetharmonica.com/NextGen/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Audio038.mp3
>
> (it’s not played by me).
>
> Would you spot the overblows in this phrase, just by ear? Please don’t use
> an harp to find out. Just your ears.
> I would be very interested in your feedback.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Laurent
>
>
> RD wrote
> >>
> >>> I just think it sounds bad. Even from the very best practitioners
> (Filip
> >>> Jers, to name one) it sounds out of sorts with the rest of the
> >> instrument.
> …
> >>> Like I said some time back, it reminds me of 'Esperanto', artificially
> >>> created to make a 'universal' language.
> >>> The only place it seems to have survived is with Esperanto enthusiasts.
> >>> I think OB/OD technique will remain popular with devoted diatonic harp
> >>> players, but that's it.
> >>> I've been putting off saying this for years, but I'm getting old and
> have
> >>> ceased to care!
> >>> RD
>
>