Interview With Howard Levy, Harmonica Innovator
The Man Who Unlocked a Harmonica’s Full 3 Octaves With Overblowing
Aug 9, 2009
Every once in a while, a musician’s unique style pushes beyond the explored limits of an instrument and revolutionizes technique for musicians who follow. One such musician, who charted new territory as a harmonica player is indisputably Howard Levy.
Levy’s thriving career spans several motion picture soundtracks, a hefty stack of CDs, several instructional videos, and even a Grammy. Ultimately though, his discovery of the technique known as overblowing has left a far larger mark in the world of music.
Howard Levy Learns to Play Piano
Howard Levy’s introduction to music was an early one, thanks to his parents. According to his mother, he refused to go to sleep at night unless she played classical records for him in his crib.
A few years later, Levy remembers watching as the tuner worked on the family piano. As the technician collected his payment, he gave Howard’s parents a word or two of advice, “You know, this kid is just sitting here listening to me tune the piano. Maybe he’s ready for some lessons.”
During his third week of lessons at age eight, Levy began improvising. Throughout childhood, he studied classical piano and was constantly improvising and writing his own music. Later, he delved into rock and roll, blues, and jazz.
Howard Levy Learns to Play Harmonica
Levy was getting regular gigs with a few high school friends at the age of 18, but was growing frustrated at being able to play music only where he could find a piano. “Our band’s drummer, had taught himself harmonica and sounded really good,” he remembers. “So, I went and bought a harmonica and sounded really terrible.”
Then, one day Levy experienced a long-awaited breakthrough. Suddenly, he could play all the licks that had been trapped in his mind. What sparked this accomplishment was the simple bending of a pitch.
Since standard harmonicas are built around a chord, they offer the diatonic scale in a layout perfectly suited for chording and simple melodies. But, thanks to some principals of resonance and vacuum, musicians are able to bend the notes along that chord to deliver all the texture and feel of the blues scale.
Levy picks up a harp, plays a simple chord then diverges from it into a soulful blues riff filled with colorful grace notes and slides. “And that’s how the Bavarians accidentally invented the world’s greatest blues instrument,” he muses. “It’s just unbelievable the coincidence of it all. As a matter of fact, the German makers saw the possibility of bending notes as kind of a defect in the instrument. Now, of course, probably ninety percent of the diatonic harmonicas sold in America--the world’s biggest market--are sold to people who want to play the blues. It’s a custom-made blues instrument designed by people from the Black Forest.”
Levy is a self taught harmonica player. And since the harmonica does a fairly good job of hiding its secrets when it comes to the embouchure required to bend a note, many players can relate to his exciting moment of self-taught success. “It just happened suddenly,” he recalls, “Kind of like learning to ride a bicycle. One minute you’re falling down and scraping your knees, and the next minute, there you are, and you’re never going to fall and scrape your knees again.”
Levy describes his first months of learning the harmonica as a revelation. He’d never played a wind instrument before. For him, the harmonica opened up a whole new dimension of expression and felt far more personal than playing the piano.
Howard Levy’s Contribution of Overblowing the Harmonica
Down the road, Howard Levy would wind up with a Grammy for his expressive harmonica playing in the song The Sinister Minister, recorded with Bela Fleck on a live Flecktones CD. “There’s a video of it shot in New Orleans for the original recording,” Levy remembers.” “They had me dressed up in a long black cape and a beret. It was a lot of fun. I usually hate music videos, but this one really looked like the tune sounded.”
Levy’s Grammy and host of recordings all came in time, but surprisingly, his biggest contribution to harmonica playing was made within five months of his introduction to the instrument. Frustrated by the harmonica’s limitations, he took his ability to bend notes to a whole new level and found the six notes harmonica players had been missing since the instrument was invented. Through his technique of overblowing, also called overbending, Levy turned the diatonic harmonica into a chromatic instrument with three full octaves.
Though Howard Levy is a master of several instruments, the harmonica is where his heart is heard. “I discovered these techniques that no one else had really ever done before,” he explains. “I felt like I had a mission to try to do this as well as possible.”
In related articles, musicians can check out more on Howard Levy’s discovery concerning overblowing, his thoughts on improvising andtransposing on the diatonic harmonica, as well as reviews of his current projects.
Quotes taken in conversation with Howard Levy on August 6, 2009.
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