[Harp-L] Offbeat topic, maybe!

[Steve Shaw]

Hello folks

I used to post a lot to harp-l but I rarely do these days. The main reason for this by far is that I stopped playing my Irish tunes in public on my beloved blues harps (generally Paddy-Richtered!) over ten years ago because of my hearing loss - I still noodle away at home but, in public with other musicians, I was simply all at sea. 

But my reason for doing this post is that, harmonically-speaking, I'm a man transformed. I've joined a lovely local bunch of singers of folk songs and shanties who used to have a really good accordion player who sadly passed away last year. I can do all that lusty singing-along that they do, but, more crucially for me, I play the harmonica with them, occasional  Cornish tunes that I've had to learn as well as accompanying their songs and doing "starts" and instrumental breaks. I'm fine with the tunes, but the song accompaniment, I've discovered, is an art unto itself.  A new thing for me and it's taking a lot of work!

But the key thing is that my beloved blues harps are now almost completely unused. Instead, to try to match, at least somewhat,  that accordion sound, I'm now playing tremolo harmonicas almost all the time. This is a new thing for me and the transition has been a real challenge - my muscle memory has been in a muddle but I'm definitely getting there. In the past I've struggled to find tremolos that don't rapidly go south, but I've taken the advice of that greatest of all Irish tremolo players, Noel Battle, and turned exclusively to Tombo Band 3121 harps. They are loud, resilient and can be trusted to stay in the right tremolo tuning - and, unlike blues harps, all their octaves are complete. I hasten to add that I have no connection with the company and that I pay full whack for all my harps! 

That's my journey, now at the age of 74, a new lease of life and I'm absolutely loving it. Six gigs to date and more in the offing. Not mainstream harp-l stuff maybe. Cheers to all harmonicas, no matter which kind! And thanks for listening!

Steve Shaw