Hey, hope you’ve enjoyed the site so far, here are my ideas for more topics to cover when I get the chance. Please let me know what you think would be most useful, or make your own suggestions.
Playing the Blues
A more detailed look at blues licks, 12-bar blues and soloing.
Other Positions
Looking at playing in other less used positions
Harp Tuning
How to tune your harp, reed clearances, note tuning, etc.
Equipment
Harp Setup – mics, amps and effects.
Blues Backing Tracks
Various blues backing tracks in different keys and styles for you to practice soloing over.
Bending Overbends
Yes it’s true you can bend overbends! A look at how it’s done.
Love you explanations of overbending, I think they’re the best I’ve heard. You mentioned in one of the videos that you had another video of how to set-up harps for overbending, but I can’t find it.
When you demoed blow bending on hole 10, you mentioned that there were 2 bends possible, but you never demonstrated the technique for getting both the whole & half step blow bends on 10. In fact, it is very, very difficult to get the 1/2 step bend because the harp wants to pop to the whole step bend. Howard Levy and Norton Buffalo are the only two players that I’ve ever heard do it. You might mention something along those lines and demonstrate the tecnique for getting each of the two different blow bends on 10.
Hi John, thanks for your feedback. I haven’t got round to doing that ‘set up for overbending’ video yet, hopefully soon! Regarding the 10 blow bend on the ‘How to Bend – 8, 9 & 10 Blow ‘ video, I do the semi-tone bend at 0:27 and 0:48, maybe I should go in to more detail if folks are having trouble with this? As mentioned, the 10 blow is quite difficult to control, try going from the full bend in to the semi-tone bend, remember that the half bend is higher in pitch so your mouth volume is even smaller and the pressure point seems to move from the middle to the tip of the tongue.
Hope this helps. Cheers, Will.
Great lessons! Looking forward to your “Playing the Blues” lessons.