Re: [Harp-L] Re: amps for beginners?

["Bill" <bill.eborn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> No only that, but if an amp makes it more fun (it did for me) you 
> play/practice more. I think it should be fun at all time, or I wouldn't 
> bother.
> Jerry

Totally!

I've been playing diatonic for a very long time, on and off over 28 years i 
think, but I taken up the chromatic recently and i've taken to practicing 
that through an amp, usually a little 30 watt mini p.a. that I've got.  It 
was reasonably cheap, at just over Â100 in British money.

I'm doing this partly because I love sound of amplified chromatic and 
working on mic technique seems the right thing to do but also because with 
this, I can play along with backing tracks with head phones on late at 
night.

It's the kind of thing that whatever you do musically, will always be useful 
and it lots of other ways too - as a portable sound system for a party in 
the garden for example.

Cheers

Bill




> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Rick Davis" <bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: "harp-l" <Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, January 9, 2009 6:57:19 PM GMT -07:00 Chihuahua / La Paz / 
> Mazatlan
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: amps for beginners?
>
> I respectfully disagree with the many Harp-Lers who (as I predicted) feel
> certain that a beginning blues player should not buy an amp.
>
> Amps do not cover up bad playing; they expose it brutally. Bad playing
> sounds, well, bad when played acoustically, but it sounds truly wretched
> when played through an amp. Amps encourage better technique.
>
> Nowhere did I suggest a new blues player should practice ONLY with a mic 
> and
> amp; that would be silly. But it is equally silly to suggest a new player
> will be somehow ruined by buying a small tube practice amp and working 
> with
> it occasionally.
>
> As some on this thread have said, amplified playing is a skill unto 
> itself,
> quite apart from the basics of the harmonica. If a new player is drawn to
> the sound he hears from players such as Kim Wilson or Big Walter, by all
> means he should get a small tube amp and work on the technique. He
> certainly won't sound like Big Walter right away, but neither will the
> beginning acoustic player sound like Howard Levy right away. It takes
> practice. And it takes practice to sound good with an amp, too. The
> beginning player might as well get started sooner rather than later, if 
> that
> is the sound to which he aspires.
>
> -Rick Davis
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