I have recently found some good bluesy fiddle music that I think translates well to the harp. The artist is Tom Rigney, you guys may already know his music, and the songs that I'm noodling around on are(links will open in current window) "Snakewalk" (I think this would make a cool lesson) and "Adeline Shuffle", this one sounds alot like Slim Harpo's "Got love if you want it" to me. I try to linked to the amazon previews because thats all I could find. I think I sound pretty close just playing along with the tracks. But I'm concerned that I may have to use an overblow, which I cant do at the moment, to make it sound right if I were to try to play this with an actual fiddle player. So the question is, is there an easy way to tell if a particular song requires an overblow?
Last Edited by on Jul 26, 2012 7:34 AM
You can hear it. If you're playing in first position, you'll hear a note that's out of scale. There's a flatted seventh in Ashokan Farewell for instance that's really noticeable. That note happens at 1:37 in this video. That note is a 6 overblow. Notes that sound like that are the ones you are going to be overblowing.
The overblow notes are extremely useful in first position. The way the harmonica lines up, the overblows fall in the THREE MOST CRITICAL PLACES for flatted notes in the scale. It lines up perfectly. The following is for a D harmonica, which I'm sure is your most used harp for fiddle tunes: Your main overblows are: 4 overblow - F (flatted third) 5 overblow Ab (flatted fifth) 6 overblow C (flatted seventh)
If you want to get crazy, you're 1 overblow is also an F. The two overblow is a Bb, which would be a flatted sixth. Of course, the three overblow is the same note as four blow, a D, although it will be flatter.
But, in first position, the three main overblows, 4,5,6 line up with your three most critical flatted notes.
If I were playing a lot of fiddle tunes, I'd be looking at Richter chromatics, Paddy tuned, in D, A and G (in that order). Then, all you have to do is draw and push a button and you have those notes. ---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
"I ain't gonna sing no 'Home on the Range.' No. sir. Not if it means I rot in here another month. I'm gonna sing what I'm a gonna be! A free man in the morning!" Andy Griffith (as Lonesome Rhodes, "A Face in the Crowd).
Thanks for the reply. That note is really hard for me to pick out. I think my ears just arent good enough yet. Gives me something to shoot for though. You mentioned the chromatics, do you think that similar results could be had with a "Turboharp" for fiddle tunes? Thanks again
I think on the turboharp, you'd be playing the blow note of the next hole and engaging the magnets. The Turboharp sounds sharp to me. I would think you'd want it the other way around, a little flat like an overblow or on pitch like a Richter note placement chromatic.
---------- David
____________________ At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong. R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
"I ain't gonna sing no 'Home on the Range.' No. sir. Not if it means I rot in here another month. I'm gonna sing what I'm a gonna be! A free man in the morning!" Andy Griffith (as Lonesome Rhodes, "A Face in the Crowd).
