[Harp-L] earplugs

[Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>]

   Don't know about earplugs, but after 30 years of not being able to hear
myself on stage (especially when I have to play unison lines on chromatic
with the saxophonist and guitarist), I've developed a unique mic technique
that I've never seen anyone else use.  Probably because they don't need to.
I hold the mic and chromatic in my left hand, stick my right thumb in my
right ear and use the heel of my right hand to depress the lever.  Because
of the thumb in the ear, I can actually hear the lines I'm playing then. As
opposed to imagining them as I hit the sequence of holes on the harp.  In
the old days, I would occasionally get lost on the 16 hole chromatic and
start a long string of memorized notes one hole off.  The whole
passage would be off then and I would get some hellacious looks from the
saxophonist.  But it served him right, he always insisted I play these lines
on the chromatic because they sounded more in tune than on a diatonic.  Even
though I wasn't really a chromatic player.

Mick Zaklan