Re: [Harp-L] earplugs




On Apr 25, 2009, at 10:57 AM, Mick Zaklan wrote:


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.

I do that on one of my you tube videos. I do that a lot. I even use my wrist or forearm. The one band I play with sounds like Stalingrad under fire.


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.

That's why I quit the 64 and went to the 48. I figure I lost years messing around with the 64. Hard to index off the left end when you hardly ever need the notes in the low octave, except for Eb key.


The whole passage would be off then and I would get some hellacious looks from the
saxophonist.

TELL me about it. Having dabbled in sax, I can imagine the consternation. lol


smokey joe & the Cafe s


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
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