Overblowing and Bending Notes on a Harmonica
A Technique That Opens the Chromatic Scale for a Diatonic Harmonica
Aug 9, 2009
The technique known as overblowing or overbending was discovered by Howard Levy only five months after he got hold of a harmonica. A simple blues lick ascending to the minor third in the second octave just wouldn’t come out of his harp. He recalls wondering, “Why can a musician play this on any instrument, except the diatonic harmonica?”
“It was very frustrating to me,” Levy remembers. “I thought, ‘What kind of instrument doesn’t have all the notes on it? That’s crazy!’” So, Howard set out on a quest to bend notes down that didn’t bend down.
Bending and Overblowing on a Diatonic Harmonica
On a diatonic harmonica, each hole has two reeds. One sounds as a player blows air into the instrument, and another sounds as a player draws air out. Blues musicians had been using interaction between these two reeds to bent notes for years.
The higher reed will bend down to just above the lower reed’s pitch. This happens because the sound actually transfers to the lower pitched reed and bends up. But, if musicians try to bend a lower pitched reed down, there’s nothing below for it to interact with.
Howard Levy kept experimenting, and then got his breakthrough. “What happens during overblowing,” he explains, “is that the higher pitched reed bends up. I didn’t know this at the time, but I knew that the note I was looking for came out. That minor third was right there.”
When Levy’s initial shock wore off, he decided to try the technique on other holes. Of the six pitches inaccessible to harmonica players through blowing, drawing, or bending, it turned out every one could be reached by means of this overblowing and overdrawing.
The Six Missing Notes on a Diatonic Harmonica
As its name implies, a diatonic harmonica is designed to give access to the diatonic scale—Doe, ray, me, fa, so, la, tee, doe. But, complicating the scale on the lowest octave of a standard harmonica is a handy layout for chording known as Richter tuning.
“Harmonicas were originally designed to play chords in the first octave and melodies on the second and third octaves,” Levy explains. “It’s kind of a random thing. The Germans left out a bunch of notes on the bottom of the instrument so you can get that five chord on the inhale.”
Due to this layout, three notes from the major scale were omitted across the harmonica’s three octaves. On a standard diatonic C harmonica with Richter tuning, F and A are absent from the lowest octave and B from the highest octave. These three notes could be accessed through bending. Though bending added a large number of notes to a harmonica player’s arsenal, six notes across the harmonica’s three octaves remained inaccessible.
The six notes which require Levy’s technique of overblowing to play are the Eb in the first octave, the Eb, F#, and Bb in the second octave, and the C# and Ab in the third octave. When musicians master the technique of overblowing to play these notes, they gain access to the a diatonic harmonica’s chromatic scale in three full octaves.
Before Howard Levy’s breakthrough, there were several examples of musicians hitting one or two of those missing notes. “There’s one on a 1931 recording,” Levy says. “And then I heard about a guy in the 60s who played a few of the notes.” But Howard Levy stands out as the first musician to discover all the notes and then incorporate them as an integral part of his style.
How Overblowing Got Its Name
The term overblowing is actually a misnomer. On demonstrating his findings for a saxophone player shortly after his discovery, Levy asked, “What am I doing? How am I getting these notes?” The sax player shrugged and answered, “It sounds like you’re overblowing a harmonica.”
Woodwind players, like the saxophonist, overblow to raise an instrument’s pitch by increasing the pressure of their airstream. Though overblowing on a harmonica bends the pitch down and has little to do with a player’s airstream, the name stuck.
Overblowing Catches the Attention of Harmonica Players
More and more musicians eagerly explored Howard Levy’s discovery. “When I showed harmonica players they were kind of blown away by it,” he remembers. “It opened up new possibilities.
Levy continued to demonstrate the benefits of playing in different keys on one diatonic harmonica. “You can do this even without those extra notes,” he admits, “but a lot of guys hadn’t thought about doing it before.” Steadily, harmonica players began branching out from the standard first or second position to explore a whole new level on their instruments.
How to Overblow on a Harmonica
The process of bending a note and overblowing is very similar,” says Levy. “All of this stuff has to do with resonance and vacuum.”
Teaching the concept is tricky since everything that goes on is completely hidden inside a player’s mouth. “You pull a pitch down by bending the distance between the two notes on the same hole,” Levy explains. “You can bend that second note of the scale to right above the first note. All the holes work the same way, but there are larger distances between notes on the lowest octave. You can bend further on the lower part of the harmonica, but it has nothing to do with how hard you pull. It’s all determined by the position of your tongue.” For detailed tips, musicians can check out Levy’s DVDs or interactive lessons at artistworks.com.
In related articles, musicians can read more on Howard Levy’s start as a musician, his current projects, as well as his thoughts on improvising, and transposing on a diatonic harmonica.
Quotes taken in conversation with Howard Levy on August 6, 2009.
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