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From: Winslow Yerxa <76450.32~ompuServe.COM>
Date: 09 Sep 96 10:29:17 EDT
Subject: Jon, John and overblows

TO: internet:harp~arply.com

Went by the local music store to look in the new revised version
of Jon Gindick's "Rock 'n Blues Harmonica." Cool book, by the
way, with the cave boy story and artwork.

The new version has little appendices about things like blues
chromatic and overblowing. It thanks Mike Curtis and John Thaden
by name, and also "all the guys and gals at Harp-l."

While not wishing to get ensnared in Jon's argument with John
Thaden about acknowledgements, I was curious to see just what Jon
said about overblowing. So I perused the section, which basically
contained four suggestions

1 - try stopping the blow reed with your finger to get the feel

2 - try playing a draw bend 6, then using the same position on
the blow note

3 - play them like coughing into a blow bend

4 - Lower the reed gaps

I don't know what John Thaden contributed, but the "coughing on
blow bends" is the only one I've never seen before. All the
others have been in common circulation for years. I've written
them up in HIP # 4, both as part of the overblowing article and
in Howard Levy's statements during and also on harp-l in recent
years. The opening-closing reed theory was arrived at, apparently
independently, by Robert Johnston in Australia and published in
his article, later cited by Steve Baker in "The Harp Handbook." I
remember coming up with the idea of lowering gaps for overblows
myself around 1980 after reading about gapping in one of Blackie
Schackner's books.

While John Thaden may have come up with all this stuff
independently and even published it first (Wasn't it the Harmonica
Hospital, and not SPAH's Harmonica Happenings as you stated the
other day, John?), very few people ever saw it. I applaud his
work in discovering these things, but apparently this stuff was
in the air and anyone who was interested was picking up on bits
of it and sharing it.

Will Scarlett taught me to overblow in 1974 (having recorded with
technique on Hot Tuna records in 1968-69), though he later gave
it up (he felt it was "unfriendly to the mammal") and concentrated
on the silent responder reed to expand bending possibilities (later
taken up by Rick Epping for use in his patented invention). I
took Howard Levy to meet Will about two years ago. At first,
Howard, who had long considered himself the first discoverer of
overblowing, asked pointed questions like, "And just when did you
start doing this?" but once we got going in talking and playing,
all that stuff dissolved and we had a ball.

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
Z
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