Will Overblows Soon Be Outdated?

MBH forum currently has a thread with plenty of relevant and some not so relevant opinion on this very question (have you seen it, or perhaps it was you that created it there as well?).

I doubt that valved diatonics, alternate tunings and overblow technique are things that many members here have a great deal of experience with. So somebody can now happily chip in and correct me on that score!

All three options will be attractive to some players and not to others.

PT Gazell does great things on valved standard-tuned harps.

Brendan Power does great things on harps that are both half-valved and alternate tuned.

Carlos del Junco, Jason Ricci, Adam Gussow, and, of course, Howard Levy all do great things with overblows in standard tuning - most of the time. Carlos has been known to use the alternate tuning where you lower Blow 1 by 2 semitones and raise Draw 2 by 2 semitones, for a really wide Draw bend..

You can combine overblows and alternate tunings.

You can combine alternate tunings and valving or half-valving.

The only two among these options that can't be combined are overblows and any form of valving.

Each of these three means produces the ability to play notes that would otherwise be unavailable using a standard tuned harp and traditional bends.

But each offers something different, and that fact, along with personal preference, will inform the choice made by any particular player.

Bending, overblowing, and valved bending all produce different tonal colors. Traditional bends use both the blow and the draw reed sounding at the same time, and have a rich sound. Both valved bends and overbends are technically isolated reed bends, but the opening-reed sound of an overblow differs from the closing-reed sound of a valved bend.

Bending characteristics are also different among the different methods.

--Traditional bends go down from the starting pitch, and by a limited amount determined by the pitch of the other reed in the same hole.

--Valved bends also go down, but are not limited by another reed. Depending on reed adjustment and player skill, a 4-semitone bend is well within reach in the lower and middle registers of the harp.

--Overbends can be bent up instead of down. Again, depending on reed adjustment and player skill, upwards bends of two to three semitones are well within reach.

Alternate tunings change the available chords on a harmonica, and possibly the familiar breathing patterns you use (Lee Oskar's tunings avoid radical changes. They keep the familiar patterns and just change the "flavor" of the licks and chords you play). They may also change the depth of standard bends available as the relationship between blow and draw reed changes in any given hole.

I dunno, I don't see it as a competition or a dilemma. Just a whole lot of very cool possibilities - and combinations.

Today alot of players start learning to play with bends and overbends from the beginning . I've heard about overbends after I played for a couple of years (1997) but I never got interested in it because I was mainly into old school blues. After hearing Carlos and Jason I started to incorporate the technique into my playing. What Winslow Yerxa points out is true : A whole lot of very cool possibilities