Bends, draw and blow, bend down. Overbends, overblows and overdraws, bend up. You can find tons of stuff about overbends in the archives here. Much talked about topic.
Last Edited by on Sep 17, 2010 6:55 AM
The description of how to do it that got me started is the one in Mike Quill's Harmonica Reference, which is linked to on the FAQ's page of this site.
Not all harps straight out of the factory will overblow as easily as others. Type something like 'gapping' and 'overblows' in the site's search box and you'll probably get about a trillion results.
Stick with OBs; they're not as difficult and exotic as they might first appear.
EDIT: That might be a bit misleading. A takes a lot of time to master them all, and a lot of players find that the OBs on holes 4, 5 and 6 are enough for most situations. I think I'm right in saying that. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Sep 17, 2010 3:38 PM
This is all correct, the normal bends, draw and blow, will give you the half-tone notes missing between the regular blow and draw notes in a hole. The over bends, blow and draw, will give you the tones missing between the holes.
The players could just be hitting the bent note and unbending to achieve the same effect.
As for overblows, essentially what you're doing is choking the blow reed (if you've ever blow-bent so far that the reed stops sounding, that is choking) and then allowing the draw reed to sound while blowing. This is all done via a very specific embouchure. It's not impossible for a noob. I started my journey into OB within my first six months. If you adjust your Harpmaster a bit, you can probably get some progress there.
There are some great videos on the subject. I think Chris Michalek's (Buddha) videos were the most helpful for me. Don't let people make you think that they're difficult. It just takes practice, just as much as getting clean bends.
in addition, overblowing is most commonly done on reeds 4,5, and 6. You can also overblow on 1, but it's REAALLY tough. I think I've gotten a weak one once. 6 is pretty easy. Overdrawing is essentially the same thing (but reversed) on reeds 7-10.
From what I can tell TNFrank you are a beginner player. If so, take it easy. Don't worry about Overblowing and Overdrawing just now. Those skills are for the pros (Buddha will disagree). Focus on you 2,3 and 4 whole bend. I see it like this; don't try to drive a formula 1 race car before you know how to work a clutch. I have seen a lot of beginners on this forum spend a lot of time learning how to overblow but can't keep time or follow the basics of a 12 bar blues. If you have maxed out your potential on riffs in a I,IV,V progression then it is time to look into overblowing and overdrawing.
---------- The Art Teacher Formally Known As scstrickland
"The players could just be hitting the bent note and unbending to achieve the same effect."
I don't understand what you mean, jonlaing. I'm not trying to pick bones or be funny, but I don't want our fellow forum member to get confused about the subject.
Hitting a bent note and unbending it (quickly) is sometimes called a dip-bend, or, in the equivalent Italian terminology an acciaccutura. It is not the same thing as an overblow, and sounds nothing like one.
No smugness or smartarseness intended.
EDIT: I just read Stickman's post, which he must have been typing when I was typing mine. Stickman is completely and utterly right in what he said. I wish I'd said it: a lot of harm can be done to people's playing by taking some of these techniques on before they've got the hang of the bread and butter stuff. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Sep 17, 2010 6:11 PM
Quoting TNFrank - "I've been watching some harp vids and it sounds like some people are bending notes up, I can do a draw bend and bring the pitch down but how do you bring it up, or is that even what they're doing"
All this talk of dip bends and overblows etc can be very confusing for a beginner. Nobody has even thought to ask TNFrank to post a link to the video so that the specific sound that he is curious about can be heard, evaluated and advised upon. I think that should have been the logical first step.
---------- "You will never get every possible thing out of an instrument, but the instrument will get every possible thing out of you" - Ray Charles.
I think the big issue with adding new notes to your repertoire is scales. If you have experience on other instruments and a good grounding in key structure it's not such a big deal. Then it's about embouchure and practicing scales. I'm somewhere in between. I can figure out what notes go in what key in my head, but not in real time. I've just recently started adding blow bends into actual playing.
"All this talk of dip bends and overblows etc can be very confusing for a beginner. Nobody has even thought to ask TNFrank to post a link to the video so that the specific sound that he is curious about can be heard, evaluated and advised upon. I think that should have been the logical first step."
Yes, you're right. On here, it's easy to assume that everyone will have the same understanding of all the various terms.
As for those terms, that Harmonica Reference by Mike Quill, which I mentioned above, has a section that describes many of them and has links to soundfiles that demonstrate their use.
That reference is one of the most useful things on this site, but rarely seems to get referred to or cited. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
As for traditional bending, you can bend the draw notes (draw bends) on the first 6 holes of the harp and bend the blow notes (blow bends) on the last 4 holes of the harp. The reason for that is because on the last 4 holes, the blow notes are higher than the draw notes. You can only bend the 5 hole draw and the 7 hole blow a quarter step because there's only a half step difference between the natural notes in those holes. As for overblows, that's a subject I'm not qualified to comment on. I have not learned to do it yet.
@HarmonicaMick Yes I guess I did mean a dip-bend. I am well aware that it sounds nothing like an overblow, and isn't even remotely similar in technique. However, TNFrank's original post made me think that he was hearing a dip-bend, not an overblow.
This point is argued ceaselessly on this forum, so I won't waste more forum space defending my point, but I think overblowing is important and not THAT difficult.
@TNFrank - Overblows and overdraws are not tricks. If you refer to them as such you'd have to label draw and blow bends as tricks also. OBs are just another technique. No more, no less. Thinking of OBs as a "look what I can do" flourish puts them on a pedestal and you then create your own mental block. I agree with Buddha when he says that they are no more difficult to do than a draw or blow bend, they're just different, but I believe it's advantageous to become proficient at draw bends first because they are more essential and useful musically than OBs. You can play great blues without OBs, but you wouldn't get very far without draw bends.
Now some people will like the sound of OBs and some won't, and there have been numerous debates and arguments, but it can't be denied that (for second position) if you want to take your complete blues scale (R b3 4 b5 5 b7 8) into the higher half of the harp you'll need to learn them.
The more notes belonging to the chromatic scale you can play the less limited in choice you'll be. You can then play what you want without having to resort to as many workarounds.
---------- "You will never get every possible thing out of an instrument, but the instrument will get every possible thing out of you" - Ray Charles.
"some people will like the sound of OBs and some won't"
No, what tends to happen is that a beginner gets an OB that sounds like shit and says "I don't like the sound of OBs," whereas when he hears Jason or Chris playing one, he doesn't even realise he's listening to one. ---------- Andrew, gentleman of leisure, noodler extraordinaire.
@Andrew - Most beginners also wouldn't know the difference between a draw bend which is intonated correctly and one that isn't. There are many things that a beginner wouldn't realise or pick up on when it comes to analyzing a competent players efforts. However, I'm positive that there are plenty of intermediate or advanced players who could tell when Jason or Chris are using an overblow. Some of those will like the sound or style and others won't. They're entitled to their opinion too, whatever it may be.
Quoting TNFrank - "I wasn't saying "Trick" in a bad way, I'm sure for some OB's have a real spot in their playing technique. I was saying Trick as something fancy that a beginner really doesn't need in order to learn to play. It's like when I'd to right hand hammer-ons on my electric guitars. Sounds really cool but it's not something that a beginner would need in order to play guitar, it's just a "trick" that more advanced guitar players (and bass players, look up Billy Sheehan sometime, he's amazing.) to add to their playing."
Except that all your notes are available easily on a guitar and the hammer on affects the sound of those notes. An overblow, just like a draw bend, is just a means to get you the missing notes to begin with.
---------- "You will never get every possible thing out of an instrument, but the instrument will get every possible thing out of you" - Ray Charles.
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2010 7:04 AM
@TNFrank: Don't feel guilty or defensive about not learning to OB. I've been playing over 30 years and I don't OB. Nothing against it. I just never learned to do it, although i probably will at some point. Instead, I learned to play in multiple positions in order to get the notes I need to handle different kinds of material. I actually get quite a bit of mileage from playing more or less proficiently in 5 positions.
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2010 8:50 AM
It might be useful if someone who overblows well to post a really simple video going through all the notes on one harp, with the names (both the note name and how you are achieving the note) for each one. It would make a good reference.
hvyj is right on about position play. I've been studying 4,5,6 after getting a pretty good hold of 1,2,3...I'm amazed at how many licks work well in more than one position. nacoran is right. I don't have a vid showing overblows but i do have one comparing harps that gives an idea how they are used. In this vid i use 4,5,6 OB in first position.....6ob,7od, and 10 od in 2nd position and 9od in third position.
