[Harp-L] Offbeat topic, maybe!

[Steve Shaw]

Cheers, John!

I've heard great things about those Suzuki Humming Tremolos and I've been tempted to try them, but I've invested quite a bit in the Tombos and, with prices what they are, I might have to wait until one of my Tombos bites the dust...  Yes, that diaphragm  breathing... I've noticed after all these years that I now have to do some work on that!

Thank you for your good wishes, John.  Let's all give a good shout for the tremolo! (Never thought I'd hear myself saying such a thing!)

All the best

Steve

On 17 May 2025, at 23:30, John Kerkhoven <soulodancer at xxxxx> wrote:


Hey Steve,

Thanks for sharing. I play the Suzuki Humming tremolos for Québécois traditional music. Yes, the transition from 10-hole diatonics is not as simple as one might think. I was fortunate to have been coached by Robert Legault before he passed away nearly a year ago. Diaphragm breathing is *at least* as important as in the blues, and tongue-blocking a must if you are to get a big sound with strong rhythmic accompaniment. Robert encouraged me to get the Humming harps; he also played Tombo harps.

All the best in your new musical directions,

John



On Sat, May 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM Steve Shaw <moorcot at xxxxx<mailto:moorcot at xxxxx>> wrote:
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