@chris3 I’m gonna refer you to this post on the main over-blow thread on this forum.
I’d take it a step further and say so advanced that most (more than 50% of) professionals don’t use them.
Give me your top 5 favorite harmonica recordings and let’s see how many of them contain OB’s!
I always feel a little bit exasperated when beginners get fixated on over-blows and over-draws because I’m like:
- Can you play all your draw bends on holes 1,2,3,4,6 and blow bends on holes 8,9,10?
- Can you play -2" and -2’ at will?
- Can yo play -3’‘’ -3" and -3’ at will?
- Can you play 10’ and 10"
If the answer to any of these is NO, then I wouldn’t worry about OB/OD’s. Why? Because all of these you can play with big fat tone, they are used in 95% of all harmonica recordings, and there is an infinite amount of expression you can accomplish with these.
On the other hand OB/OD’s are the “thinnest and most unstable” sounds in the words of the great Joe Filisko, as quoted on the link I provided at the top of this post.
When it comes to learning new techniques, slow and steady wins the race! Or, as I like to put it: the faster you wanna grow, the more you have to go SLOW!
So, learn the deep relaxed mouth position before learning single notes.
Learn single notes before learning to bend.
Master ALL your bends before worrying about OB/OD’s.
That’s my advice.
I agree with @slim that private instruction may be the fastest way to advance. One great option for a teacher is @davidkachalon .