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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
overblow and blow bend questions
overblow and blow bend questions
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AW
29 posts
Apr 29, 2010
9:25 PM
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So I'm working on the overblows and blow bends on my Bb Bradical.
The 6 overblow is pretty easy and I can sustain it most of the time with no squeal.
The 5 overblow has more squeal to it and I can't sustain it as well.
The 4 overblow I can't get to sound at all.
For the blowbends, I find that I can bend down the 8, but even though I don't feel like I'm changing my mouth the note pops back up.
So my questions:
Is it normally harder to overblow on the lower notes or on lower harps?
Am I just trying to bend down the 8 too much and that's what keeps me from sustaining a bent 8? Can you play a blowbend as the first note? (I can't)
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Kyzer Sosa
463 posts
Apr 29, 2010
9:32 PM
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is the 8 blow bend to the 8 blow to the 7 blow is the same as the 3 draw bend(full step) 3 draw 2 draw? sound like it, but anyway....yes I can hit the 8 blow bend first on my Bb Manji and Sp20...the OB's other than the 6, thats a diff story.
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conjob
53 posts
Apr 29, 2010
9:51 PM
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damn it i thought if i saved up for a bradical i wouldn't have to worry about this shit, thanks for shattering my dreams.
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ToddParrott
14 posts
Apr 29, 2010
10:34 PM
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AW, it's hard to answer your questions because it sounds like part of your problem could possibly be your technique. The 8 blow bend shouldn't be a problem to hit as a starting note, but as for overblow squeals, these can happen on any harp, even the B-Radical. This could be the harp causing the squeal, or it could be your technique. Some may disagree, but I think the lower notes (1, 2 & 3) can sometimes be a little harder to overblow until you master the overblow technique, especially on lower keys. I use the 1 overblow in 2nd position, but only tend to use the 2 & 3 overblows when playing in other positions besides 2nd. Prior to your B-Radical purchase, were you using overblows and overdraws in your playing, or is the B-Radical your first harp for this? Again, it's really hard to say what the root of your problem is, but if you feel that the harp isn't set-up well, I would suggest that you contact Harrison Harmonicas. They should be happy to make an adjustment if the harp requires it. The B-Radical is not really a custom harp; it's an out-of-the-box harp. However, the overblows and overdraws should be fairly easy to get. The B-Radical I have in the key of A (which has since been customized) was great for overblows and overdraws right out of the box. The only squealing I got was when I tried to BEND the overdraws on 7, 9 & 10. 8 was fine. The overdraws themselves were fine - no squeals until trying to bend them upward. The overblows and overblow bends seemed fine to me also. Brad offered to have me send the harp back for an adjustment, but I already had plans to have it customized. So... they should be able to help you further at Harrison as far as the harp goes. I hope this helps a little.
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harpdude61
120 posts
Apr 30, 2010
2:34 AM
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AW.......8,9,10 blow bends are a lot of fun once you learn to control the bends. Usually, bends that fall off either lose air volume or you don't hold the embochure. Don't blow hard. Some people close their mouth when blow bending because they are closing their lips. Form relaxed lips around the hole for the blow bend. THen when you blow, keep you mouth and throat open, but relaxed. Think of relaxing as you bend and don't pinch off the hole. You can open a phrase with a blow bend.
Last Edited by on Apr 30, 2010 2:42 AM
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GermanHarpist
1386 posts
Apr 30, 2010
7:54 AM
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Try to bend with the back of your tongue. Also, when the bend pops back up, simply don't bend it down too much. I had the same problem. You only have to bend to the 'floor' of the bend. Learn to control that embouchure/tongue position and you'll be able to start with the bend too.
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YT
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barbequebob
770 posts
Apr 30, 2010
9:45 AM
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Todd Parrott is 100% corrct when he's telling you that the B-Radical is NOT a custom harp because it IS an out of the box harp. There are things with these harps that for most manufacturers, it would be too expensive to do, plus being this is an American company with the ENTIRE instrument and parts PLUS labor being done here in the USA, all of those things are FAR MORE EXPENSIVE in terms of costs than it is for getting an OOTB harp made in Germany, China, Brazil, or Taiwan for ALL of those reasons.
I also agree that a huge part of the problem here is flat out technique more than anything else.
Several months ago, I had a phone conversation with Brad Harrison and he said there are always going to be some things that you get out of something customized that you will NEVER be able to get out of the box regardless of how good it is, and he should know, because before he had his harp company, he was one of the best customizers in the business.
He did mention in his call that it was setup to be overblow friendly out of the box more than any other OOTB harp presently in production, but even he mentioned that some players may still want to further tweak the gap as some OB players may need a somewhat different setup than the more "normal" (and I use that word loosely) OB gap.
Look at it this way: take acoustic guitars as an example. A hand made production line guitar Martin at a cost of $1100 is still a far better guitar than a production line Yamaha acoustic is by a wide margin, but there are STILL people taking their Martins to get customized by a luthier to suit their playing needs that the production line can't.
Regardless of what the instrument is, be it harmonica, guitar, horns, etc., no matter how well they're made as a production line (OOTB) instrument, there will always be a need to customize them for a musician's personal needs that can't be done on a production line, and that's the reality.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Apr 30, 2010 1:28 PM
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AW
30 posts
Apr 30, 2010
5:00 PM
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Thanks for all your replies.
I'm pretty confident that the problem is my technique and not the harp.
Harpdude was right about the 8 blowbend. It was airloss causing the problem. If I focus on maintaining a constant stream of air, I maintain the blowbend. I still can't quite start a riff on the bend, but it's only been a day.
As far as the overblows go, that's a work in progress.
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