An East Indian player named Ramasesh has recently uploaded a couple of videos in which he plays an ascending chromatic scale on a diatonic harp from the 1 blow to the 10 draw. What makes it notable isn't just that he does that--Howard Levy was doing it at least twenty-five years ago--but that he's an average Joe, so to speak, rather than a Levy/DelJunco level phenom.
It's a very basic, no-frills video, but that's part of its charm. He starts with a one-octave diatonic scale, just to make clear that he's playing a regular ol' harp:
I still can't get reliable overblows. I can blow bend, and draw bend just fine, but the overblows, aside from a few random squeals from time to time, escape me. :(
Such performance may not be relevant to the music. However, if the harmonica not prepared, this is really a difficult trick. I have managed to get this only once, it was a Suzuki Harpmaster (key A) OUT THE BOX. If harmonica prepared, the chromatic scale of 1-10 is not complicated, and it can play any. ---------- www.ermonica.com
I suspect that Todd could do it quite easily. I can't do it. I can't hit the OBs in the first two holes and I'm not great with overdraws on the upper end.
Arzajac, no. I can tinker with one reed but when I start having to deal with the relationship between two reeds my tinkering skills fall apart, and my budget hasn't had enough breathing room for a custom. I do have a Db SP20 that will, on occasion, let me pop a weak overblow on the 4 if I work on it for half an hour, but the next time I go back I seem to be right back where I started.
BRAVO to Ramasesh! I contacted him via YouTube, and he also seems like a very very nice guy, and one who just seems to love playing the harmonica. He lives in South India, and he has a very nice collection of YouTube videos where he plays the theme from classic "filmi songs" (songs from classic Bollywood movies), where he plays the diatonic in a traditional tongue block style, as well as the chromatic. You should check out his other videos! I just LOVE seeing another South Asian harpist featuring prominently on YouTube!
In another vein, he looks remarkably similar to my dad! :)
I can think of four off the top of my head - myself, Todd, Boris, and J-Sin. He does a solid job, especially on the overdraws, but you can hear some of the limitations of the harp.
Adam knows first hand how I set up my personal harps as I gave him one last week (sanding and profiling only...I don't emboss, etc, my personal harps) and he asked me to play, sustain, and bend a few overbends. People make overbends out to be this whacky thing, but if you have a good harp, it is just as easy as any other bend.
The two hardest things, IMO, are getting a setup that works for YOU without choking (easy enough to do, but takes trial and error), and dealing with squeals (see OP).
My solo stuff is all pretty much diatonic progressions for vamps played in 2nd and 3rd...I play the shit out of the 6OB, 7OD, 9OD, and 10OD. Those are wail notes, IMO.
Playing the chromatic scale in all three octaves is easiest on middle-keyed harps, IMO. The ODs are easy or lower, and the OBs easier on higher, so you gotta find the sweet spot.
The real pain is the 1OB, for me. On something like a D or C though, I can sustain and bend it. Not so much on something like an A.
I bet there are more...I am sure people work on it just for the practice...that doesn't mean you have to/or want to do it as part of performance.
I don't really play any first position live (unless following a blues progression with a band), so the 4 and 5 obs are something I don't use a lot right now, but I practice them a lot. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
j-sin's real name isn't actually "Jason", and he's from Finland, not the uk. adding to your list, however, probably flip jers, christelle berthon, jay gaunt, Bart lescezky, and tinus from overblow.com can all do it too. probably several others well.
EDIT: but that doesn't take anything away from ramasesh's accomplishment! it's quite an accomplishment, and one I certainly can't claim to be anywhere close to achieving myself... ---------- == I S A A C ==
C'mon! Let's be real. I'm sure there are many dozens of people here who could play a chromatic scale on a diatonic.
There are a handful of customisers who post here - how could they sell "overblow" harps without being able to play all the overbends? And they have many customers. If I dropped some cash on an overbendable harp, I'd want to use it to it's fullest, even if it was just for practicing scales...
I'm sure MP, Hakan Ehn could do it. Superchucker, Alex Paclin for sure.... And many more.
I think some people believe that it's a mind-over-matter kind of thing and that they should be able to do it with an out-of-the-box harmonica. No. If the notes ain't there, they are not there. If you are lucky enough to get a harp that can play like that out of the box, well, great! But it's luck, not skill.
Once you tweak or buy yourself a harp for the purpose of overbends, there is work involved in learning to play, but it's hardly the most difficult thing to learn on the harmonica. It's just a scale like any other. And in of itself, it doesn't make you a good harp player either...
So maybe some people chose to not spend the time to do it because they probably would never use the chromatic scale on a diatonic. That doesn't make them lacking either...
I agree with everything arzajac said. Overbending was not the hardest thing for me. Hitting the three bends of hole 3 draw clean and in tune was harder for me. I could do it if I was on the hole, but it was hard if I jumped from say 6 blow down to 3 draw 1/2 step bend quickly.
I guess I misunderstood the intent of this thread. I was hoping everyone that overbends would share their best efforts.
I decided to take the challenge, but instead of my BEST effort this clip represents my FIRST effort in front of the camera. So there.
I've been using this as a warmup exercise for quite some time. I don't know if it's ever 100% perfect, but it gives you a wider view of the instrument every time you play it.
That said, I think there are way harder exercises for the harp. Chromatic interval jumps for example. Try to go up in fourths chromatically, for example.
@Harpdude61: Not too fast, but basically yes. My weakness has always been 10b half step bend. I never really use it, nor do I use the 10 overdraw. Maybe it's because I've been using stock harps, so it's very hard to sustain those notes. Usually they are also unpleasantly high.
Btw, I'm playing a Spiers harmonica above, it makes the scale a bit easier to play. It's not that much harder for me on a stock harp though.
I agree j-sin. Once I got pretty good on my customs, I found it much easier on my stock harps. I also agree that the 1/2 step blow bend is toughest on hole 10. If I can do it with my throat and stay relaxed as opposed to hinging my jaw and squeezing it out..it works much better.
I don't mind at all playing 10 overdraw on a low harp...an awesome note to wail on!
Yeah, I guess it's just a question of how much you want to torture yourself and your family by practicing those 10 hole notes :) Also I've found it really hard to setup my 10 so that natural notes still maintain their fast response. And I really NEED those fast natural notes!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've understood that brass instruments also have "theoretical" high and low notes that only few players can achieve. I've never heard anyone play higher notes so clearly on a trumpet as Arturo Sandoval. There are probably others.
I think the characteristics of overbent notes on a harmonica could be seen similarly. I can bend overblows 4,5 and 6 a whole tone up each. Eventually it comes down to the players skill and physical limits of the mouth cavity.
I LOVE to hear great trumpet players wail on those high notes. Awesome!. Doc Severensin used to do it.
7 overdraw is a great note to bend up as well. If you can wail between the two it is the same as what you can do on hole 4 draw bent and unbent in 2nd position. I feel comfortable doing this live on my Buddha harps.
I guess I am lucky that I am home alone a lot and can practice these high notes.
Last Edited by on Jul 09, 2012 3:19 PM
Just thinking, would be nice to hear 10od and 10blow 1/2 step bend used in a nice musical context. Maybe guys like Levy do that but I just missed it. Might give me inspiration to play those notes more. Every note in the harp has a very special meaning to me, except for those two. I never end a riff to either one of those, for example.
I'm sure there's thousands of players in the world that can do a full chromatic scale on a diatonic. It's one thing to be able to do it, but it's another thing entirely to be able to apply it and utilize it. I'm gonna up the anti a little bit and post this video I found of David Herzhaft playing Flight of the Bumblebee on a diatonic. If you haven't heard of this guy before, You should check him out. He is just ridiculous.
