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From: b~-2000.com (Robert Bonfiglio)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 10:15:02 -0700
Subject: Bonfiglio: Overblows and Bach

Winslow Yerxa writes:

>But there is a sort of bogus morality that seems to come along with this.
>The natural pitches of the reeds are legitimate. To blues-oriented players,
>bent notes (in the traditional sense) are legitimate - even though to many
>players around the world they are not. But overbends, even though they are
>a product of the same technique that produces bends, are somehow bastard
>children that do not deserve consideration from the same players who have
>at times had to fight to convince the outside world that bends themselves
>are legitimate. I don;t see how anyone can draw a line been legitimate
>(traditional) and illegitimate (overbend) bends. yet I hear it implied all
>the time.
>
>I say, any noise that any musical instrument can make can be used
>musically. Being that every traditional bend on a diatonic contains an
>overbend inside it, overbends are well inside the accepted norm. The only
>new things is that they have been isolated and used in their own right.

I just played an entire Bach concert with the Westchester Philharmonic
Orchestra. Ani Kavafian and I played the Bach C Minor Double Concerto.
The Orchestra played Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2.

THE ORIGINAL TRUMPET PART WAS ALL LIPPED!! The were no valves on trumpets
in Bach's time, so the player had to bend the pitch to create the runs.
This is why the part is so high, because it was easier to get the full
chromatic scale in the high register using lipping.

Overblows are no different on the harmonica. Now days the trumpets have
valves, i.e., they went the way of the chromatic harmonica to get the
pitches. But brass players, and most wind players, still use lipping and
the harmonic series of upper partials to get certain pitches.

If the object in music is to be creative, then learning a new technique
should be something that players are fascinated with, curious about, and
completely enthralled with.

Even the most rudimentary blues guitarists took something from Stanley
Jordan when he came out hammering the guitar with both the left and right
hands. Our LW players should throw a nice overblow in every now and then
to perk up people's ears, even their own.

Harmonically yours,

BONFIGLIO

http://www.robertbonfiglio.com