Tuesday, December 6, 2016

What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 470 #515)

Playing On the Vocal Mic!!!

We had a little harp amp trouble in class last night, which led to people needing to play on the vocal mic and after performances, Joe spent some time doing review of the best way to approach the vocal mic as a harp player. What does he NOT recommend? Lifting it from the stand and hand-holding it. This does not sound great and has a very high probability that you will shred people's ears and just not come off looking or sounding like a pro.

Far better to work at your hand technique at the vocal mic with it mounted. This gives you both hands as well as your head tone to work with. Sure, it has the drawback of hampering your dance moves, but the trade-off is great tone.

Joe also made the point that everyone should learn to feel comfortable playing on the vocal mic this way, even if your preference is playing amplified. Amps fail. Bullet mics fail. So the vocal mic is a ready replacement if there's technical trouble. And perhaps more convincing, in Joe's mind, is that it is a valuable piece of your set to vary your sound by playing on the vocal mic some.

Joe also shared his Level 1-3 technique list, which is appropriate to all of us as we continue to discuss accompaniment. These techniques are the basis for accompaniment playing, so be sure to familiarize yourself with them.

Class Notes
  • Final Take - we'll record again in the Performance Class next week.
  • Next week is the deadline for anyone submitting an entry in Joe's Skip To My Lou contest.
  • And next week is the last class of the session, so be sure to get registered for the next session starting in January.
- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew