[Harp-L] re: Winslow as a concert performer

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

What the video captured was a small group set that was one small part of a two-hour concert with intermission. Most of the concert I spent embedded in the sea of fiddlers, with Alasdair out front leading. I do sometimes lead this group (or a smaller version of it, typically 25-40 players) and generally offer the audience some humorous explanantion as to why a fiddle group is being led by a harmoncia player (thoguh when leading a large group I find my self doing more arm waving and traffic management than actual harmonica playing).

In this kind of setting, I want the sound of acoustic hand cupping - shaping your tone with hands is a fine art and produces completely different results from cupping a mic, which is a sound I don't want in this context. I could hear myself fine in the monitors, and could have made myself louder in the mix by simply getting closer to the mic - I was about 8 inches (20 cm) away for most of the video. But when the big group came in, the focus shifted to the larger ensemble; I didn't feel that it was all about me by then â not that it ever was, as I was part of a trio and was an equal voice with the solo violin.

WInslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Sat, 11/7/09, martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: re: Winslow as a concert performer
To: winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx, harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 10:51 AM

Two questions:
1: ItÂs interesting that the Scottish FIDDLERS are fronted by a harmonica player. Any particular reason for this? (IÂm always -- no...Â-- mostly ... --Âhappy to see the harmonica turn up in various contexts.)
2: Evidently you choose not to cup the mike, forfeiting the option to compete with volume. Any particular reason for this?
Â
 Thanks for posting, enjoyed the clip.
 
 Cheers,
 /Martin
-----------------------------------
From: Winslow Yerxa <>
I write a lot about harmonica but perhaps few of you on harp-l have heard me play.

Below is a link to a concert performance I did in May 2009, with a violinist, Tuula Tossavainen Cotter and guitarist Ehlert Lassen, with the orchestra-sized San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers joining in at the end.
(...)
ÂThe guy in the kilt is Alasdair Fraser, one of the world's top Scottish traditional musicians and the founder and leader of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers.

I hope you like it. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsJkRcwZkCw

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5