I don't know if this original (probably not - nothing is!) But I've just discovered that the Egyptian snake-charmer tune is great for practising the 4OB in 1st position.
("-6," means 6 draw bent down a semitone) It's also good for practising that 6 blow without the OB (where I've put an asterisk). If you OB there by mistake, it may be technique or it may be your 6 gap is too close.
6OB is trivial - just include it more in some blues in 2nd position, and then you can practise bending the 6OB up at the same time.
But I haven't found anything good for the 5OB yet. Does anyone have any suggestions?
"To practice OBs the best way is within a strong and well known melody"
Can't disagree. But your melodies merely contain one or two examples of the OB at most; they don't actually give you any practice at them.
My melody is strong and well-known, and I've found that it works if you begin on the 4 blow 5 blow or 6 blow, so you don't have to remember which tune you are playing or which hole to begin on. And it gives you repeated practice at the OBs.
They're OK, but a bit boring, same as diatonic scales would be in preference to playing melodies. And most of us only bother with the 4, 5 and 6 OBS, so full chromaticism is overkill. Lots of us don't bother with the 1OB.
can you play them cleanly and seemlessly? That's the point. I could give you hundreds of ways to plays OB within tune but why when most can't include one of the cleanly?
So you have a little snake charmer melody that uses them. Where that going to get you? Heck why not play jingle bells or oh suzanna in 7th or 8th position?
Take any tune an play it in all 12 keys. The problem is you won't because it's frustrating and will generally sound like shit.
Ok Andrew, I would like for you to record yourself playing over this blues track using a C harp.
You have 24 hours to do it. Let's see how far you get. Then I want you to play those other tunes that only have one or two OBs and let's see which one gives you quicker success.
Last Edited by on Jul 11, 2009 3:50 PM
I like to jam around on some kind of oriental scale in 1st position because you can use all overblows and many bends, its not too difficult to play and it sounds pretty nice:
