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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Setting up for Overblows and checking ease of OB 5
Setting up for Overblows and checking ease of OB 5
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Gnarly
2788 posts
May 02, 2020
4:44 PM
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Hi--
I am setting up some Seydel Blues Sessions for a customer, and am doing the usual--embossing and gapping.
But then I have to test them, and here's the reason I am posting.
As most of you know, I am not primarily a blues player. So I don't have a stock phrase from the blues lexicon for testing this. But what I did today is worth sharing.
First tho, I want to say that it seems worthwhile to me for anyone who plays blues in second position to be conversant with OB 6--otherwise you have to avoid the blue third in the second octave, and what fun is that.
OB5 is the major seventh of the cross key, and is certainly a useful note. Approaching it chromatically, playing 5 blow, 5 draw, OB 5 is a good way to coax it out--it's not as easy to get as OB6.
So what I have found is that the tune “Peg Of My Heart” lets me approach that note.
In second, it goes -3 -4 5 5OB.
Try it!
Last Edited by Gnarly on May 02, 2020 6:48 PM
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tomaxe
180 posts
May 03, 2020
7:06 AM
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Gnarly,
That is excellent advice—to use a tune that you are familiar with, inside and out, and to practice hitting a "difficult" note in tune—and it applies across the board for OBs or just draw and blow bends.
I am only recently trying to get good at OBs and have not used them in a live situation or improvising yet. I'm OK, but not quite there. For some odd reason, on almost any harp—set up for OBs or just a decent harp—I hit the 5 OB most easily. I have been told that this is a more difficut overblow, but I can hit it much more consistently. I think it's because it's the first OB I hit and I discovered it while practicing "Georgia", and the vocal line "still in peaceful dreams I SEE" needs one to hit that 5 OB, and I just "knew" it in my head and the muscle memory/mouth/tongue placement just kicked in! This was encouraging to me because my brain was not focusing on "OK, gotta hit the overblow now". It just popped in as I "knew" the note.
Last Edited by tomaxe on May 03, 2020 7:06 AM
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Gnarly
2789 posts
May 03, 2020
9:00 AM
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That’s what I think too—I would call it visualization but it’s not visual!
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Gabriel.Harmonic
26 posts
May 03, 2020
2:16 PM
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Thanks for posting this, I plan to try it! I have avoided investing the time to incorporate OBs in my playing. I typically go to third position and/or on Jazz Tunes (Miles Davis- Freddie the Freeloader as example) I will learn the head on Chromatic, then solos in 3rd position. However, there are sure times just 2-3 of those notes would be useful. I am going to try!
Gnarly, very cool that you tune harps and are here in SD. Starting in 1997-2002 I have about 1-3 of every key Marine Bands that Richard Sleigh built for for. He at times has done touch-ups too. Dick Gardener did my Chromatics. Past several years though I have just been buying Crossovers and have a build-up of MBs (mostly from Richard) that need tuning. I need to check with him and see if he can do.....if he does not, then perhaps you could help me. Would be great to have someone local to work with.
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Gnarly
2790 posts
May 04, 2020
12:36 AM
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Hey Gabriel—I got into harp by way of a steady job at the San Diego Zoo, got into tech stuff to save money on altered tunings, then landed the warranty repair job with Suzuki—their warehouse used to be in Santee, but the franchise was acquired by their largest distributor in 2018 so now I do it from home. I’m in Hillcrest, where are you?
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Gabriel.Harmonic
28 posts
May 04, 2020
2:13 PM
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I am in Escondido. Hillcrest is 25 minutes, no problem. Someone who just bought a set of speakers for their LTD Bassman, Tubes and two mics from me lives right there, was just there. There are a bunch of harp players since I have returned here asking me for lessons. I have done seminars at Blues Festivals when I was playing but, have not done one-on-one since Music store in Encinitas 1978. San Diego Zoo, only been there once, remember all the Penguins! I remember playing a Sea World once, they had us on stage with people walking by right at the "Shamu" Tank. You can send email: gabriel.music@earthlink.net
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Gnarly
2792 posts
May 08, 2020
10:45 PM
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I was a pirate at Sea World for many years, yo ho!
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