Density of sound
I’ve often heard guitarists say that harmonica amps need to be turned down because the harmonica cuts through sounds; I’ve even had a sound engineer say the harmonica doesn’t need more than the general room mike not a cupped dedicated mic. To be heard. That’s rubbish, only part of the sound gets through not all of it. For harp players the problem appears to be that the sound from everything else is just too dense to hear the harp fully, unless it’s too loud. Conversely, when guitarists give lots of space the harp can appear to dominate, then they do need to turn down. Guitars seem to habitually play constantly but when the guitars are playing constantly the harp has to turn up the volume to be heard or even for the player to hear him/her self. I originally thought it was the guitars playing too loudly or my hearing going but it’s not, it’s that they are playing too much and taking so much space that the only way to hear the harp is for it to be louder. We should know not to play over someone’s solo or vocals but equally other musicians should know not to totally take all of the space. Many people think playing harp is easy, requires less skill or musical knowledge than playing guitar and in many cases they are right but the difference is playing harp well and understanding music theory take a lot of time, effort and skill so GOOD harp players need some of their own space. Harp players have a questionable reputation, that’s because there are so many people out there who think they can play harp but can’t. They might be able to vamp out a tune or even some basic riffs but they only think they can play, they can’t and it gives other harmonica players a questionable image. At one time drummers had the same problem but today’s drummers are consummate professionals. So, what do we have to do to educate other that harmonica players are real musicians? I’ve found there’s a big difference in the attitude of other musicians when I pull out and play chromatics rather than diatonics when, in reality playing a diatonic really well takes just as much skill.
Discuss please. Jay1
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