Overblow "speed" = gear or technique?

Technique
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Hi all! I’m able now to overblow on some notes (confirmed with a tuner app), but when it comes to overblow responsiveness/speed, it always seems to take around 0.5-1 seconds or so for the note to “wind up”, so in irish tunes this is too long and I end up going for a compromise where I do a sound that sounds kinda similar but isn’t the real/full overblow- is this something that can be improved with further training or is it dependent on the harmonica ( using an easttop T008K)

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Both. The brand of harp is not as important as how well it is set up.

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It will get easier and they will come quicker overtime. Having a Harmonica set up to do over belows is also very important to stated above. Hope this helps.

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I’ve got also little overblow lag. I made simple setup and some experience. But also I’ve got two tricks to deal with lags:

  1. Playing ahead to compensate this lag.
    I know that my overblow note will be little later, so I hit note little before. This technique is common in many instruments. If You play chord in guitar, then You starting to move hand ahead beat to get in-beat sound. This feeling can be practiced.
    If necessary - I need to shorten previous note to preserve time for playing ahead.

  2. Pre-draw
    I saw that overblow is easier to achieve when it is preceded by straight draw in the same channel. But this forces special melody. But, nice. In C harmonica for example:
    notes:

  • A and then Bb (in middle octave)
  • D and then Eb (in middle octave)
  • F and F# (this isn’t nice for me. I don’t know here I can use that)
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Eureka! I found where can be used F - F#. Works extramally nice in second position G major blues in dominant bar (D chord). Starting dominant with F# its great! That blew my mind. I’m really happy to discover that today!

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Yup. F# (in key of GMaj) gives you major 3rd of 5 chord, major 7 of I chord and flat 5 of IV chord. Very useful note! On a Richter tuned valved C harp, it is a blow bend of hole 6 or draw 5 on Country tuned (C) or Melody tuned. Being able to play a full chromatic scale is so rewarding in my opinion.

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