GermanHarpist
346 posts
May 19, 2009
3:44 PM
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Some Harps allow bends to very low pitches (i.e: close to the blow note at a difference of about 30 Cents), others max out half a step over the blow note (at about 80 cents from the blow note).
The same with overblows. Some harps allow overblows that are very close to the draw note (about 30 Cents) and other harps have overblows that start at about 80 Cents above the draw note.
All the Cent idications are guessed,...
It's possible, that the pitch differences on overblows are because of my technique, however I'm sure about some bends going lower on some harps than on others.
So my questions: In your experiences, are there differences between harps (models, brands) on how far you can bend and where the overblows start? Is there a way that you can influence that (by tweaking)? Did anyone ever measure the exact pitch where the overblows start and the bends end?
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germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
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jonsparrow
315 posts
May 19, 2009
3:48 PM
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i have noticed that differnt keys can bend lower then others. for instance i just got a D harp yesterday an i noticed it i bend to low on certain holes it will squeal an kinda return to an unbent sound. but then if i take a lower key like an A or Bb i can bend it way down so easy.
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Patrick Barker
294 posts
May 19, 2009
4:13 PM
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It's tricky, but try opening or closing your mouth slightly while OBing- this changes the pitch a little. I'm not sure how, but some people can bend OB's up a step or two up.
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"Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
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GermanHarpist
348 posts
May 19, 2009
5:01 PM
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Patrick: My question is, what's the pitch before you bend the ob up? (compared to other harps or in cents)
jonsparroe: it's possible that it just depends on how easy it is to bend on a harp (as higher harps are mostly harder to bend on). So it would turn out to be something about how well the harp is set up/i.e. the quality of the harp.
Anybody knows of a good tuning software, that shows the pitch of the sound input in cents?
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germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
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Buddha
450 posts
May 19, 2009
5:05 PM
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"I'm not sure how, but some people can bend OB's up a step or two up."
tighten your mouth and increase the pressure.
I can bend most OBs up 4-6 semi tones with vibrato. I was talking to Brandon Bailey the other night about it and he can do 4 semi-tones.
I know Howard Levy and Allen Holmes can hit 6 semi-tones above the tonic.
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Patrick Barker
296 posts
May 19, 2009
5:59 PM
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Oh wow thanks buddha- I was able to succesfully bend an OB up 1 semi-tone after playing with that technique for five minutes.
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"Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
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jonsparrow
317 posts
May 19, 2009
6:48 PM
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the only software i know of is bend-o-meter. i havnt tried it yet though so i donno how it is.
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Andrew
346 posts
May 20, 2009
12:18 AM
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"I'm not sure how, but some people can bend OB's up a step or two up."
You need the right harp. I can get 5 semitones on the 4 overblow on my GM in C, but nothing like it on any other harp. My method on that harp at that pitch is tip of tongue pressed very hard against bottom teeth for the OB and centre of tongue up and forwards to get the bend.
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DaDoom
97 posts
May 20, 2009
12:32 AM
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5 semitones?? That means that Andrew can hit an Eb on hole 4 on a C harp and then bend it up to a G# which is a half step higher than 6b???? My physics classes are far away now but isn't that against some law of nature?
I knew that you can get a semitone higher on each OB by bending it up. And that seams to be what Jason Ricci plays in his videos on Joe Spiers harps.
Oh and tweaking can change OBs quite a lot. I tweaked an A harp so that when you OB on 4 you don't get a C which would be the regular OB but you directly hit a C# which is the same note as the 5b. On other harps I can normally bend it up to that pitch. But no further.
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GermanHarpist
349 posts
May 20, 2009
1:39 AM
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thanks for the respondses, however the question was not about bending overblows. The question was what exactly the pitch is of a full bend, and a unbent overblow is.
The idea that I am curious about is: how much of the three octaves can we cover frequency- or cent-wise. I.e what is the draw note frequency and where does the ob frequency start. And the same with bends: what is the frequency of the blow note and where does the bend start.
And the follow-up questions: Is this different from harp to harp? Can you tweak them to get a bigger frequency range?
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germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
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GermanHarpist
350 posts
May 20, 2009
1:42 AM
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Btw.: feel free to start a new thread about bending overblows...
jonsparrow: thanks,... it's not really the accuracy I am looking for, however it should be a start to determine if there is something to all of this, or if it's just my imagination ;).
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germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
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Luiz
36 posts
May 20, 2009
2:10 AM
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Hey, GermanHarpist, it's cool to read it now as just a couple of days ago I noticed that in one of my C harps I can bend the 2 hole up to an E.
Only then I realized I had to start working on this bend since I was used to pull it down the most I could.
I think it definitely depends on the harp. And also on the harp key. I have the impression that it shouldn't happen on higher key harps. And maybe it's again all a matter of gapping the reeds. I think the others can tell us more about it :)
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