Uncle Eddie
3 posts
Jan 18, 2015
9:26 AM
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I am amazed after reading many of these posts as to how out of touch I must be related to blowin a harp. I picked up a $2.79 Marine Band back in '73 while in the Navy. First song I learned was Love me do by the Beatles. Then I played that old wood comb until my lips literally bled learning Led Zeppelins remake of Bring it on home by SBW. In the 40 plus years since then I have played for one person and in front of thousands. I have and still do cut heads with anyone out there. In all those years I have never needed to adjust, refine, replace, file or alter a harp. I have played through every manner of mic and amp and never used a box or effects and have achieved a pretty good skill at this often overlooked instrument. I read about players that feel you have to have a pot on your cable in order to take the volume down. I just back off. I see where some feel you have to have volume to make yourself heard. That's where skill and an ear come in.
Your cupped hand, being able to breath through your nose while using your diaphragm and a lot of practice are the only thing you need.
I'm just curious but it seems that so many depend on something other than the chops and knowing when to lead and when to comp. not knowing how to back off in to the background and when to play those little fills that put the perfect little fill where it belongs.
I am really surprised that I have lasted all these years and am still asked to play and all I have ever done was blow a little harp with nothing more than an ear and a love of the harp.
1940 JT-30, Fender Champ and a love of Blues is all you'll ever need in my opinion.
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Thievin' Heathen
473 posts
Jan 18, 2015
9:46 PM
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Welcome aboard. Several factors might be contributing to your inexplicable longevity.
1) Maybe you just stumbled upon it, but a 1940 JT-30 through a Fender Champ is a very good blues rig.
2) 90% of the general population is tone deaf
3) You might be a fairly decent harp player.
Why Howard Levy picked up a harmonica when he probably should have been practicing piano, right about the same time the Berlin Wall was coming down and the internet was coming up, I don't question it, but what's going on right now is a Harmonica Renaissance.
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Littoral
1190 posts
Jan 19, 2015
4:39 AM
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40 years, jt30 and a champ -me too. I noticed harps aren't 2.75 anymore though. When those octaves bleat it's great to get them back in tune. Gapping is simple and worth it. What about getting the grunge off the reeds every once in a while? Spark plugs in an old truck are occasionally useful too.
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Barley Nectar
608 posts
Jan 19, 2015
6:43 AM
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Well Eddie, some folks come by it natural. Some folks will never come by it no matter how hard they try. I think it is born right into us. It's not the gear that makes the player, it's the soul. Wow, there should be a song in here somewhere...BN
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A440
314 posts
Jan 19, 2015
10:01 AM
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Great post Uncle Eddie. Thanks.
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Danny Starwars
14 posts
Jan 19, 2015
1:57 PM
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It's a teensy bit hard to argue for purity/old school when you're amped ... before that, it was sitting out in a field playing acoustically. Initially, even standard mics and amps for harp were 'newfangled' developments. I do agree though that if you haven't got the stuff WITHOUT the gear, you won't have it WITH.
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jbone
1867 posts
Jan 19, 2015
9:47 PM
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Acoustic first, but a mic and amp is not all bad to learn once you hit a certain point of competence. I got my first rig before I "should" have. It worked out.
Jolene and I have Vibro Champs that we use all the time lately, before that it was Silvertone 1482's. I have some good mics for harp. I am never afraid to busk on a corner though, that's a good part of where good chops and good wind control are learned. To me if you can draw people from half a block away or get them to cross a street to hear you better, you are doing well.
Occasionally I will gap a reed if I must. I do keep the harps rinsed out usually with gentle pressure warm water.
The guys who got this whole blues harp thing going had much less options for brands and types, no internet video lessons, no instruction book/cd sets, yet look at what they gave us!
I say Old School is THE school.
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