[Harp-L] Re : Acoustic amplification - hands as megaphone



Winslow sez'd :

Excerpt .

" The player's hands can do the same job as that megaphone - better even, because the hand cup can be tuned to the note played, like a Helmholtz resonator. This can dramatically amplify volume.

Douglas Tate was able to "play loudly softly" this way. Without hand cupping, his playing and attack sounded very soft, but by cupping and tuning the cup, he could amplify that same soft breath volume to symphonic loudness.


Winslow "




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Hurricane sez :

Hey Winslow great example of dynamics in the Douglas Tate story , he was quite a fellow , I was not as fortunate as you and other's to have met him and listen to him live . I did miss out on meeting a monster , Douglas and I did exchange quite a lot of emails though once I established contact with him , thanks to this and and other forum of breath bandits . He was truly a statesman for the harmonica community .

On the hands thang :

Take a close look at how Sonny Terry used his hands and other like  him ( Charley McCoy , the late Terry McMillen , Duford Bailey and others .

Sonny could not only enhance the volume of the harp but also cause it to take on many other sound characteristics to numerous to try and mention, it's best if you take the time to learn what he did than read my meager attempt to explain on how he did it .

Personally , I can make my harp sound pretty close to/like a Leslie rotary speaker when on stage with my hands , it's rather a dramatic looking thing to see my big ole body waving one of my hands wildly as the other forms a cupping like rear hold on the harp . 

Sometime even with a loud band / guitar players blazin away it's doable . It's  sometimes not easy but I can still pull it off most times using my hands and getting close to a Shure Bros. SM58 or 57 or the like(s) . 

I do the slaps like Blind Sonny Terry used ( they are almost nasty ) heh heh  which are truly wicked sounding FX's . I don't claim to do it just like Sonny or any of the mentioned greats I just referred of , they sounded like they do/did and I s-s-s-sound like I do s-s-s-simply put. YMMV :)

I hope others here know about these and other techniques too and chime on in .

Sincerely :

Hurricane Ramon

Aka :

Party_Man1@xxxxxxxxxx

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