To a great extend it's all about proper set up off the harp. If the gap between the reed and the plate is too lage it's really impossible.

You mentioned watching the videos so,

If you bend the a blownote down slowly...there's this moment where it stops sounding..if you've gotten so far.

On that very moment, I really cant tell you what to do..It's to hard to explain I notice. But the one thing you should avoid is simply blowing harder.

What I mainly do, and how I did it the first time. Is adding presure(while keeping your mouth/tongue position the same)by using you're muscels in the throat. quite alot actually. I sure over did it at first, now I play them relaxed, but I remeber getting them cost alot of force.I also make adjustment with my mouth tongue but thats mainly to raise pitch.

seriously it might be just as hard as explaining it. There probably various ways of doing it, this is just how I do it.

Hope it helps,

Good luck!

Second, try using 6 blow as your target overblow note, I think that one is the easiest. And don't blow too hard.

For the earlier writers, regarding how to overblow...You must first be able to run the harp up and down with all bends in all three octaves, pucker not tougue blocking, with all clean single notes. If you can do that, then your ready to overblow. First, you need to learn how to set yours harps. Research on line, then experiment with old harps. Before you do, you must understand what your trying to accomplish. Overblowing is blowing into a hole and causing the blow reed to choke out causing the draw reed to vibrate, creating a sqeeky sound 1 1/2 steps up the chromatic scale, which is a 1/2 step above the draw note. You want to get both the draw reed and the blow reed as close to the reed plate as possible without causing either of them to choke out with normal blow/draw playing. If you have never hit an overblow before and are ready to try....hears the secret. With the cover plates off, place one finger over the 6 blow reed. A finger on the blow reed will manually choke out the blow reed causing the draw reed to vibrate much easier. Once you can do that, the cover plates go on and you can go to work. You should focus on the 6 overblow for a few days. Work on tight lips and pushing upward from the stomach into the throat while noticing that back off your tongue trying to go backwards down your throat, almost pressing up against your Uvula (the thing hanging in the back of your throat). Remember, your trying to bend that blow reed to choke out against the reed plate, causing the draw reed to vibrate. Once you begin squeeking them out, then go conquer the 4 and 5...very similar. After you can hit the 4,5 and 6 overblows, its time for the games to begin. Now you get the pleasure of learning how to incorporate these guys into your playing. You will be amazed at all the new licks and opportunities that are available to you...Best of luck-

I'm no real TBer whatsoever, I also mainly block whith the side of my tongue...which make's it virtualy imposible to arch the tongue up (how I'd normaly play the OB)

For the record, I can take an off the shelf Marine Band and overblow 4, 5, and 6 without adjustments, in keys from A through D. But any harp will overblow easier if you make the necessary adjustments--narrowing the blow reed gap and, if necessary, narrowing the draw reed gap. My overblow style tends to use ob's as passing tones, quick hits. I almost never hit an overblow and just hang on it for more than a quarter-note (one full beat). Jason does that, as do all the best overblowers. And I never hit an ob, hold it, and then manipulate the pitch, as Jason and others do. I think that's extremely hard to do on a standard Marine Band.

For the record: at Bean Blossom '07, Jason and I did a clinic and I handed him my off-the-shelf harp and he could hardly make ANY overblows on it. He certainly couldn't do the amazing quick runs and other ob stuff that he does on his own customized harps.

I'm happy with my own approach, but it's clear to me that the next step, if I wanted to move further into overblowing, would HAVE to be custom harps. Even with my strong chops, there's a limit to what I'm able to do on regular Marine Bands.

I should also note that there's a difference between using overblows to play tonally--i.e., to play cross-harp blues with three extra notes, as I do--and what guys like Howard and Carlos del Junco do, where the key center frequently shifts.

Again: I've never claimed that I was a revolutionary, just somebody who took an obvious next step--one big but limited next step--above and beyond "classic" blues harp, which doesn't use overblows and tends not to play very melodically on holes 7-10. I think my approach is a good one for other contemporary players who want a little more. I will tell you that the moment I began overblowing, even in this limited way (only three extra notes!), everybody else sounded limited and old-fashioned to me.

Except Dennis Gruenling, because he took a different "next step" and used low-key harps and other positions (5 draw as the root).

I'm sure that what I do sounds sorta old-fashioned to Howard, Carlos, Chris Michalek, and others who move the tonal center. We're all part of a continuum. I'm just a blues/funk guy who plays harp and didn't want to let the sax players have all the fun.

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"The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare."

I never even knew they existed before hearing Adams tutorial. I wen googling and adjusting (a few harps down the drain...) and reading and trying..

Lessons learned?

* Its hard. 6 Overblow is really the only one I can do , and its not as responsive as the normal notes. It keeps getting better and better though.

* Lee Oskar/Tomba is REALLY hard for me to produce a useful overblow on... Marine Band and Special 20 are easier.

* Amateur-adjusting your harp is an expensive hobby.

Rock on.

Adams YT-lesson (adjusting reeds to overblow ) is very good too.

With those tuts i learn to overblow holes 4, 5, and 6.( My A, D and G Lee Oskar's too )

Probably the same group of nerds who perpetuate the myth that there are more than 6 useful holes in a Marine Band!

I tried explaining putting it together..I've a YT account and posted on there: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMZVMgyDrNY

Maybe it works for you,

Cheers

When you're on the overblow, and can maintain it you can of course experiment with your mouth-tongue position to change the pitch. But in order to 'get it' first, you really should keep your mouth position in the same place.

1. First of all, I visited www.overblow.com and i strictly did what it's written in the "overblow technique" step by step.

2.Always keep in mind the pronunciation of "Hey" which keep your mouth and cheek relaxed (H-spot). Pronunce "hey" and feel how is the back and the tip of your tongue.If you can get the blow reed to stop sounding easily, it means you are in the correct way. Dont't try to hit the harp!

3.Try a lot of differents harmonicas in the usual keys (A,Bb,C,D). Try differents brands...

4.If you can't choke the blow reed, it means you have problems with your tongue or the gap of the blow reed is to big or your reeds are strong...

5. Start oweblowing with the one you fell better.

6. The most difficult part is to adjust the gap of the blow reed in order to have a harpe responsive enough...See what "reedbuster" is doing on youtube for exemple.

7.THERE IS NO NEED TO BLOW WITH TO MUCH STRENGHT!!!

In addition, I still can't overblow in my Lee Oskar Tombo in D
The easiest harp for me are:

Hohner blues harp in C
C.A. Seydel söhne blues in C
C.A. Seydel Söhne 1847 in A

Once you're able to bend an overblow up, it gets easier on that harp, almost as if you've created a groove for it. I've heard Allen Holmes bend an overblow up several semi-tones, to the point where he can play the entire chromatic scale on just two or three holes. That ruins harps quickly though.

+4 4OB -5 5OB +6 6OB +7

I think you're absolutely right. And I daresay that the blues scale you describe--middle octave, first position--is the most outrageously under-utilized straight-ahead-blues thing that overblowing lets you play. I mean it's RIGHT THERE FOR THE PLUCKING. It's not Levy / Del Junco far-out stuff. It's down-home blues. It's something that guys like the Walters and Sonny Boy would have clearly been using if overblowing had been current when they were refining the blues harmonica language.

From time to time I noodle around on that particular scale, and I always come away from it thinking, Damn, this isn't jazzed-up extensions of the blues. This is pure blues. Why isn't everybody working this vein? Yet as far as I know, none of the contemporary revivalists--Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin, Mark Humel, Jerry Portnoy, etc.--have gone there. Why haven't they? I don't get it.

Please make us all proud and lay something down on record using that scale. I hit a 6 ob in first position on the new (old) Satan and Adam album--in a tune called "Set Break," where I play "Darling You Send Me" and use the 6 ob, first position, as the flat seventh in a particular run. But I don't really exploit the hard-blues potentials in the scale you describe.

Right now, I can successfully overblow without thinking about it about two thirds of the time. It depends on the harp too. F anf G (high and low) are challenging. C is easy. It's cool when you can start to incorporate overblows into your standard improv riffs. Adds a whole level of musical complexity and texture, especially in 1st and 3rd position, and that's exactly the challenge I wanted. God I love this instrument.