I was on a 5 day wilderness backpacking trip in the remote canyons of southern Utah with a group of 6 friends. BTW I am from eastern Canada so this was a new experience for me.
I had only been playing harp about a year so somewhat limited to what I could play, and this was before YouTube so my repertoire was mostly folk songs and campfire songs.
The canyons are narrow and deep and when it gets still at night every whisper can be heard as it echoes off the rock walls. The bullfrogs were croaking and the owls where hooting and I was playing my harp... songs like Streets of Laredo.... friends were singing... there may have been a coyote howling as well.
This may not compare to some of you who have played large venues and large crowds, or maybe with famous blues artists but to me it was special.
Bro it was 30,000 feet on a Flight from Main Land Australia over the Bass Strait in rout to Tasmaina visiting relo's and a spot of trout fishing:)
the flight hostess was asking people questions being friendly what we did for fun i told her i played Harmonica, she asked if i would mind playing for the passengers and crew,so i played it safe to cover all age groups:)
Oh when the saints go marching in this little Light of Mine House of the riseing sun and finished with amazing grace:) it went down a treat and i got a free feed and drink:) ---------- Warm pie and can of Coke:)
my favourite (odd) place to play used to be in the bottom of an abandoned swimming pool near my appartment. The place was tiled & had a glass roof- the acoustics were stunning. My harps, and pmore specifically, my tenor sax, have never sounded so epic (without resorting to electronic trickery. 'T's been converted into flats now.... :(
Last year I went trekking in Nepal. One night camping at 3000 meters in the Himalayas I let slip I played harmonica. I'd only been playing 6 months then. Of course the rest of the group forced me to play. I ended giving 16 trekkers, 10 porters and a bemused Nepalese family a passable version of Whammer Jammer and Off The Wall by Little Walter.
In 3 weeks I'm hoping to beat that. I'm going on another trek, this time to climb mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. If it all goes well, I'm going to try and play harmonica at the summit of Africa's tallest mountain at nearly 6000 meters (19000 feet). It might be difficult to breath enough at that altitude so don't know what to expect and how successful I'll be.
I guess it's even faintly possible it would be the first time anyone has ever done this.
When you make bell runs in SAT, it's two divers. The first guy locks out and goes to work, while the second remains in the bell. He is the standby diver for the lockout diver. After the designated lockout time, the first diver returns to the bell, gets out of his gear, the second diver dresses in, locks out and goes to work. When the second is done with his time, he returns to the bell, you grab a seal on the bell and they bring the bell back to the surface (still pressurized at "storage depth"), mate to the system, you cross back into the system and the next two guys climb out into the bell and go to work. This goes on 'round the clock for the duration of the SAT (usually about 30 days) while all the divers live inside the system.
While the locked out diver is working, the diver inside the bell is listening to the working diver and the Supervisor communicate. However, the guy in the bell can only talk to the Life Support Tech unless he keys a mic intentionally.
However......if you sit alone in that steel sphere, you can get tired of reading a book or magazine. It is a marvel of acoustical physics that a harp, played within the confines of a steel ball, can be heard through the water and picked up by even the working diver's helmet mic and thus carried back up to Dive Control and everyone out on the deck can hear it. The working diver can be a hundred feet away from the bell and still hear the harp clear as ever.
I've often thought that every whale, porpoise, seal and submarine sonar man in the ocean within a hundred miles can probably hear it, since water transmits sound so well. I was once told by a submarine sonar guy that they can hear essentially everything in the ocean, they just filter down to what they are actually interested in.
Top of a few lonely Cumbrian Fells is the best I can manage. Sheep make a very forgiving audience!
I'm just struck by a thought though, Buzadero has played the harp 700ft under the sea and the harp was the first instrument played in space (a Lil Lady I believe, smuggled onboard Gemini 6 in Wally Schirra's space suit), That's about as far as you can go in either direction!. I bet players of other instruments cannot beat that. +1 for the portability of the harp!
In the shower...with the water on!!! LOL. The acoustics in th shower are awesome. ---------- -[][][][][][][][][][]- Everyday is an opportunity to learn something new...
For me top of the Eiffel tower in Paris having walked up 674 steps and played some blues harp to some chinese tourists. Oh yeah and in a hot air balloon, though my wife told me to shut up for disturbing the silence.
Mine was in a HAS(Hardened Aircraft Shelter)on Incirlik airbase in Turkey during a break installing an engine in an F15. I dug the acoustics. A few years later found me in another HAS on a deployment to PSAB in Saudi. The HAS in Turkey sounded better, possibly because we actually had access to beer, unlike in Saudi. ----------
Crescent City Harmonica Club Todd L Greene, Co-Founder
The club rode and played The New River Train Fall Excursion in 2008 and 2009 (and next month in 2010). We walked through more than 20 cars playing to the pasengers on this trip from Huntington to Hinton,WV.
---------- intermediate level (+) player per the Adam Gussow Scale, Started playing 2001
Not a unique location, just a unique situation: at a club gig, we recently had to take our break (which was longer than usual) around an Ultimate Fighting bout on TV. Hey, it's Mississippi. :)
On top of a doorway entering into a restaurant. One of those two doors that form a box. Very strange view of the club. That's the place I met Chubby Checker and then he stole my drummer.LOL ----------
We used to jam in a laundrymat many years ago. Loved how the sound bounced around off all the machines. Stepped out into the wee hours outside the laundrymat once and a guy that later became known as Prince pulled up in a car and borrowed my buddy's guitar to play a few chords to which I blew a few notes. Last time that I ever jammed with Prince.
In a Japanese bath with 4 (drunk) Japanese harp buddies in the middle of the night.. You won't believe how good that sounds... and the hot mineral filled water was great to rinse the harps (anyway, that's what we thought at the time)
BTW Never had any problems that harp afterwards (Delta Frost) and 3 years later, well.. I'm still using it now.. ---------- DutchBones Tube
Any time I go to the "Bean" in Millenium Park. On the steps. Scary, like a hundred people walking by. Never been in a crazy place though. When I go skydiving finally by myself I'll bring one with me. I'll tape that one and put it up. ---------- ---Go Chicago Bears!!!---
Dutchbone- I was just watching a TED video on how isolated different communities still are by language- even in the era of the internet, even in countries with good internet access. When I look at our forum map we've spread out a bit, but we don't seem to be able to break into Asia much. We've only had two people come in from Asia that I remember (Malaysia and the Philippines). I've tried internet searches and translation software. Did they key you in to any harp players we should be listening too?
edit: The other day I noticed we had our first Brazilian pin. That's another community that supposedly has a big harp community that I'd like to find out more about. I signed up for the Bends harmonica email list but they keep sending flyers with the text embedded in the image. I can't figure out an easy way to drag it into Google to translate. I sent a message (translated as best I could) asking for text only, but I haven't seen anything so far.
Strangest place I can remember was at some formal holiday dinner, maybe it was St. Niklas Tag or something, in front of a bunch of Austrians at Haus Wartenburg in Salzburg, Austria. They invited me to come play or something like that. What was kind of strange about it, was I played "Dixie." I was 20 at the time. I can probably think of something weirder. I did play at Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Berchestgarden, I actually bought the harmonica at the bottom of the hill, on the main drag in Berchestgarden. It was an Echo octave C. Still have it.
www.hauswartenberg.com/
---------- www.harrisonharmonicas.com
"There are only two things money can't buy - true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Lewis Grizzard
Last Edited by on Sep 12, 2010 8:45 PM
I played a show with a Jimi Hendrix impersonator and an Elvis Presly impersonating one man band at a 50's bar on a stage made out of a red 1957 Chevy Bel Air.
Last Edited by on Sep 12, 2010 9:24 PM
Played in the gym of a Catholic Church for a parish supper and dance. The best part was when we started Sympathy For The Devil the Priest got up and played tambourine and boogied for the whole song.
On a cruise ship in the Caribbean. One of the bands asked me to sit in during their night show. I don't remember how if all got started, but they were really cool guys. Had been playing together almost 20years.
Next would be in front of a classroom of 5th graders. ---------- Mike
Probably. The density of the helium no doubt does effect pitch. But, I really couldn't tell you. It sounded fine to me. But, then every note was in relationship to the other. So, I suppose an "A" harp might be up or down (like slowing an old record). I couldn't really tell. I was more just enjoying myself and killing time. (and, driving those who could be, crazy)
Hmmm...probably a toss up between an island in the Okavango delta in Botswana, or the back seat of an Apache helicopter waiting for my turn to shoot. ---------- Still trying to figure it out...S
astronaut wally shirra took a hohner little lady along on a rocket ride. he wore it around his neck on a string. forgot what tunes he played. ---------- MP hibachi cook for the yakuza doctor of semiotics superhero emeritus
This is not quite OT, but churches! Loads of churches. Big and pompuous and small, when I'm traveling, or just coming home from grocery shopping. They're often open, mostly deserted and the sound is aweseome.
Most churches have some of the most phenomenal acoustics around and just playing acoustically into a PA is just heavenly. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Great Wall of China, I had only been playing for 6 months and felt very self conscious, but figured it was my only chance to ever do it so I could say I did it if this question ever came up(!)
On a bushwalking trip in our outback ca 1000ks from where I live is a National Park with a Gorge called Carnarvon Gorge. Ca 20ks round trip on foot and climbing is a place they call the Amphitheatre. To get to it we climb up a ladder on the cliff face and enter into a tunnel ca half way up. The tunnel is actually a creek that flows during the wet season and cascades down through the cliff face. Following through the tunnel it eventually opens up to a huge cavernous space ca 100m X 100m. Completely enclosed except for the entrance in and a narrow opening to the sky. The place is one big moss & fern garden but the accoustics are something else. Anyone can sing & sound like Pavarotti. I played my harp there recently and I think I sounded superb! Every one else who was there said so! Forget about all your fancy amps, reverbs, echos, volume controls this amphitheatre does it all for you.Can't wait to revisit.
Me and my wife, were on a date... My wife needed to visit the toilets for more then just a quick visit... If you know what I mean... So as any good husband I waited outside... So I did the math... Free tome equals playing harp... So there I was jamming near the ladies room door, getting ladies smiling a stupid look towards me after... I think they enjoyed my playing cause all of them had a stressful face when they came and a smiling face when leaving....
Last Edited by on Sep 16, 2010 7:23 PM
I'll whip it out anywhere (a harmonica!), but surprisingly, nothing really "out there"...
on the crapper in countless public bathrooms in dozens of ice rinks, several while skating on a bike, while riding
I, too, have played at Eagle's Nest - or, more correctly, behind it, up on some rocks off the path that goes further up the mountain. Shame on me, though, I bought a camera lens in Berchesgaden proper. Spent a month in all in the country, and didn't buy a single harp!
On an island in Bahia del Sol in El Salvador. It was my first gig and experience playing into a mic amped with a battery powered Micro Cube. Played Summertime along with a couple guitars. My wife and I sat out the 2005 hurricane season there with about 50 other cruising sailboats. I got lots of practice that summer. Surprising how many musicians there are out there.
Another quite unique location where I have played is in a disused munitions bunker. The Bunkers were used during the war to store munitions & the location is alongside a disused rail siding. They are underground & dome shaped ca 25 x 25m - great accoustics.
The location is now a popular RV Caravan & Motorhome Park ca 500ks from our city. Many of the Bunkers have been converted into accom units, canteen, TV Room etc. There are a number disused ie empty void which provides ideal accoustics for harp playing.
Sing Sing Prison upstate New York. But I was playing baseball not harmonica. (No,I wasn't playing for the home team.)
Last Edited by on Sep 18, 2010 7:30 AM
@Mike C -- I see a bad Three Stooges joke coming on! LOL ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
