Christelle Berthon does this bad ass over blow. What is she actually doing. Is it a 1/4 to 1/2 step O/B then up to 3/4 and then a whole step? Man! seems like it is a whole step then another 1/2. Thru the roof. Just wondering how far up you can humanly OverBlow. Mike
In a thread on harmonicaspace, Jason said he's seen Allen Holmes bend an overbow up by 5 whole tones which sounds truly amazing to me. I thought I was doing well will 3 semitones! I recall Chris saying he uses 6 semitones as a yardstick when setting up his customs for overblows
Damm! 6 semi tones. I can get prity high but I'm not sure what to compair it to. I don't think I'm getting near what Christelle is getting to. Like Jon points out"some thing new to try" I got to get the G harp out and work on this. Thanks' guy's Mike
Shredder, I think you misunderstood. As Andrew pointed out what Christelle does in the vid is a 10 hole blow bend. I don't think that I have ever heard Christelle use overblow bends.
To check how far you bend the ob just compare it to the 7 draw (a little more than a half step) or to the 7 blow (a little more than a whole step) etc.... this is for a 6ob of course.
I kind of wondered if she was bending the blow 9 up to where you can slide up to the 10 blow and it's seamless then continue up with the bend. I also am confused with the termanology, G/H is pointing out.10 hole Overblow bend verses 10 hole "blow" bend? Whats the differance. Is the overblow already bent when you hit it? I can do a lot of diffrent things on the harp, problem is I am unsure just what to call them. I'm the only one of a few in this area that plays harp so I call them what I think the board is talking about. Mike
Holes 1-6 inclusive, the draw note is higher than the blow note, so you can bend the draw note down to about a quarter tone from the note of the blow reed (something to do with physics). Also you can overblow (in theory on all 6, but, in practice, 4, 5 and 6 are easiest and most useful), which involves getting the draw reed (? I read this is how it works, but I don't know if I'm convinced) to resonate a semi-tone higher than the blow reed. With a lot of practice you can bend these overblows up by varying amounts.
Holes 7-10 inclusive, the draw note is lower than the blow note, so you can bend the blow notes down to within a quarter tone of the draw notes. Also you can overdraw (in theory on all of them, although I only use the 7 and then only on the two harps that are set up right), which involves getting the blow reed (if what I read is correct) to resonate a semitone higher than the draw reed. You can bend these overdraws up. The 7 overdraw is a semi-tone below the dominant or 5th note, and so it's useful to be able to bend it up to the dominant (if you play a C harp in second position, G is the tonic note, D is the dominant). ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
I gave one listen and don't have a harp nearby...sounds like she bent the 10 blow down and then back up.
If you check out the tune Leave Your Light On the MySpace page in my sig, you can hear an example of a 6ob bent (last note of the solo). I did this more for the vibrato and didn't bend it up as high as I could have.
Winslow had some clips up a few years ago that had bent obs all over the place.
Jason Ricci bends the 6ob up to match the 7 blow on How It Came to Be (don't have the disc with me...it is the turnaround of the song Shawn sings).
I have been really working on embossing and gapping lately. I can bend the 4, 5, and 6, overblows at least a couple of semitones each. It is pretty sweet. The trick is to use a mouth vibrato like Chris Michalek (which I have practiced a lot). A deeper blues vibrato won't work. ---------- Mike Fugazzi http://www.myspace.com/niterailband http://www.youtube.com/user/NiteRail http://www.twitter.com/NiteRail http://www.facebook.com/mike.fugazzi
Yeah, HarpNinja's right, I believe. John Popper has done this very lick on a few tunes, most noteably the solo in Hook, and also on Great Big World. ---------- ~Todd L. Greene crescentcityharmonicaclub@gmail.com
Todd brings up a good point about Popper. Like him or not, his use of blow bends is pretty amazing. Be careful as he tends to use them for inflection and sometimes they aren't the "right" notes for the chord. ---------- Mike Fugazzi http://www.myspace.com/niterailband http://www.youtube.com/user/NiteRail http://www.twitter.com/NiteRail http://www.facebook.com/mike.fugazzi
That's the best explanation of the family of bends and overs I've seen yet. I think I finally might understand the big picture on that subject.
Can someone else independently confirm that this is correct? I mean it makes logical sense. No offense andrew, not that i don't trust your info, i just want to make sure that if i commit this to memory it is correct.
I'm sorry Honkin', but I'd say the simplest answer to all your questions is probably no.
When you bend a note down you just bend a note down. This is helped by the fact that its sister reed is at a lower pitch. I don't know why you can't raise the pitch of the lower pitched reed by bending. If physics explains any of these issues, it doesn't really help, because a player doesn't employ the physics.
"Jason Ricci bends the 6ob up to match the 7 blow"
Yes, that's two semitones and it's exactyy what Christelle has done but an octave higher. I was thinking about the 6OB possibility today. It's useful to bend the 6OB up a semitone to the major third, but Christelle (if not Jason before her) has demonstrated the musical value of bending the minor third up a tone. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Not "exactly"...pitch wise, yes, but as a technique, Christelle is doing a blow bend and the Ricci example is an over blow...but I get what you're saying. It is the same set of tones but an octave higher. And in all actuality, the technique is similar in both cases.
You bring up an excellent piece of information, Andrew.
---------- Mike Fugazzi http://www.myspace.com/niterailband http://www.youtube.com/user/NiteRail http://www.twitter.com/NiteRail http://www.facebook.com/mike.fugazzi
Thanks' guy's Ninja, Andrew. I understand better now. I apparently I can do over blows and blow bends. I just didn't know what they were called and the differences they have. I need to go to one of these harp camps so I can sit down with some one that knows the tech. aspects of the harp. Then they can say this is what I'm doing, O/B-- B/B or your playing this in 3rd position etc. I found out from another post about "Last dance with Mary Jane". I use a "D" harp with my band. A lot of others were calling off all these other positions and harps. Then some one else chimes in and says use a "D" harp and play in what ever position. I was just using what worked best for me. Thanks for the schooling, Mike
On Mary Jane, not sure what key your band plays the song in, but if you want to play it exactly as the guy in Petty's band does, its a G harp with all the notes falling from the 6 hole to the 4 hole.
Yank out a G harp and play along with the CD. That nails it. But hey, if a D works for you thats cool too. By the way... great song choice...crowd always digs it!
Honkin, my band does it in Am. It works for me. Yeah, the women really hit the dance floor when we take off on it. Mike
Last Edited by on Jan 08, 2010 7:46 AM
i can't tell you how impressed i was with the video.ok,play it on chromatic,no problem,but i realize just how far i've to go. i haven't attempted overblows and draws yet.my harps are pretty much OOTB,and i understand they need setting up for them.i'll be giving it a go in the next few days though. the gal can play.is this the christelle that left this board?
