RE: [Harp-L] Irish Reels and the Octave Harp

[Steve Shaw <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

> Anyone who has joined into an Irish Trad session will know that a harmonica
> finds it hard to be heard against the competition of the usual fiddles,
> banjos and button accordeons. Mind you this can be a blessing at times.
> Often the only way you can even hear yourself is by putting a finger over
> one ear.
> 
> However anyone arrogant enough to bring along a harp amp to a session is
> likely to find himself being ostracised. 
> 
> In Trad circles this just is not done.
 
> Aongus Mac Cana

Well, I use a little battery amp (a Roland Mobile Cube with a Microvox harmonica mic) all the time in our sessions and the other chaps wouldn't have it any other way. No fancy reverb or weird settings, and just enough volume to get me up with them.  I would never show up to to a "foreign" session expecting to use an amp, but I would always have it about my person... If you're in a quiet setting with perhaps three or four other, sympathetic, players, you're fine, otherwise you just have to do something, otherwise you might as well not be there. A  reasonable solution for players of Irish is to go along with XB40s in low D and G. They are mighty loud harps and can cut through very well in most settings. You do have to like those harps, though, and eschew subtleness. There are no rules, except that you must go about things with due diffidence and diplomacy. Works wonders.