Overblowing is producing a different note in a wind instrument by forcing air harder. This can be a deliberate technique to get additional notes, or an inadvertent problem which results in notes other than those intended. A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. ...

In simple instruments, overblowing can cause a change into a different register. For example, in the Irish tin whistle, the player can play in the upper octave by using the same fingering as in the lower octave, but blowing harder. In most more developed instruments, this transition from lower to higher registers is aided by a "register hole" which encourages a vibration node at a particular point in the pipe, causing the vibration pattern to change, so overblowing is not so important. Tin whistles in a variety of makes and keys. ...

Overblowing with bagpipes

Overblowing is a problem that arises when playing the bagpipes. A phenomenon perhaps unique to piping, it is the most common reason for unsteady tone. A piper playing the Great Highland Bagpipe. ...

When a piper plays, a rhythm is set up between blowing into the blowstick and squeezing the bag. Often, a piper will oversqueeze the bag while still exhaling, causing the pipe to vary its tone. This problem can be fixed in a number of ways: // Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ...

1. Using a slightly harder reed, or modifying the existing one to take more air.
2. Practising with a manometer to increase steadiness.

A reed is a thin strip of material which vibrates to make music. ... A manometer is a pressure measuring instrument, often also called pressure gauge. ...

Overblowing with harmonica

For harmonica, overblowing involves more than simply "blowing harder"; it requires a proper embouchure, such that the reed that normally only sounds during draw can vibrated with blown air, and vice versa. If done properly, it will be a semitone higher than the normal note. While the exact mechanism is still unknown, one common way to do it is to use a blow bend embrochure on a draw-bend only reed (hole 1-6), and to use draw bend embrochure on a blow bend only reed (hole 7-10), and try to pop into the proper harmonics. Due to the fact that it is to use the opposite reed, overblowing cannot be done on valved harmonica or XB-40. Wikibooks has more about this subject: Harmonica A harmonica is a free reed musical wind instrument (also known, among other things, as a mouth organ, French harp, tin sandwich, blues harp, simply harp, or Mississippi saxophone), having multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze reeds, each secured at one end over... The embouchure is the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of a wind instrument. ...