Playing Chromatic Harmonica Acoustically with PA Mic
At a local blues jam last Tuesday - where before I got on I got the chance to see John Nemeth perform with some of the members of his band and a regular blues jam guitarrist! - one of the songs called was in D, and I decided that it would be the perfect time to try out my Super Chromonica on stage for the first time. However, I found it rather challenging to work with the PA mic. Usually I place the lower end of the harmonica a couple of fingers away from the mic (sometimes I cup the harmonica in front of the mic but never around it). This was exactly what I did on Tuesday, but the amount of sound that was coming out was very uneven. It ended up being very frustrating.
I expect that this has to do with the fact that when I was playing in the middle of the instrument and the mic was a bit far away. The following day, not coincidentally, I saw in your interview with the same John Nemeth that he tapes the low end of the harmonica. He plays amplified, so I'm guessing this is to make it easier to cup the mic and the Chromatic, but I'm wondering if the same principle would apply here. I could tape the lower end and place the middle of Chromonica on the mic. Or can you suggest a good technique with the Chromatic and the PA mic that would not involve taping?
Afternoon SFJorge. I believe John tapes the high end of the harp, not the low end... so that when he holds a bullet mic or plays in front of vocal mic the sound is primarily going out the left-hand side of the chromatic. Even with that, there is sound leaking out the upper holes (front of the harmonica), but John and Aki both feel it helps.
Here are two methods you can try...
1) Using the thumb and forefinger of your right hand, use this "pinch" to move your chromatic in your hold so that where you're playing, the mic is always directly behind it. I show this at 1:15 on the video titled "Holding the chromatic & cupping a bullet mic" in the Blues Chromatic Study 1 lesson.
2) If you don't cup the chromatic like you would a bullet mic, i.e., just holding the left and right ends of the chromatic, then you simply move the chromatic side to side when playing, so that your head stays in front of the mic... this way the harp is never off-access of the mic.