Hey Jon...I've got a jews harp but I don't seem to be able to get a good sound out of it. So far all I've got is sore teeth. Let me know how you get on with it.
As you can probably tell from all of the posts I'm doing a weekend of night shifts at work and it gets a bit boring.
i think a problem with playing low harps is that you cannot play loud, and if you try it is very frustrating. without very exact breath control, good clean notes are tough and bends tougher. but they are easy to make very quiet chords and chugging, so good to practice at times when quiet is required. i kind of like the thing that happens when you seal up really tightly and the draw notes sound when you blow, makes for some strange, but sometimes pleasing sounds.
Walter, I can play my low F loud without any problems, but I agree that my low D has to be treated with caution. But you play a different style of music on a harp that low.
"I've got a jews harp but I don't seem to be able to get a good sound out of it."
Oisin I got a BJ02 from here: http://www.soundforhealth.com/jewharps3.html
It's great, but the key was random. It was a D. Now if I wanted an E as well, I'd have to buy a different type, unless the site tests them for you.
If yours is a cheap harp, then it's probably the harp's fault rather than your technique, but there are some good tutorials on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn9Dxe--P9k These 5 are good. They're in Hungarian, I think, but it's easy to figure out what to do. Search for "Doromb", obviously. The man is Aron Szilagyi. He's pretty cool.
One day I'll look at some American country music tutorials too.
(I had to type all this out twice. Why is it ONLY when you don't copy your text that you get a fucking "node error"?)
Last Edited by on Sep 07, 2009 3:29 AM
You can make a great sounding and easier to play jaw harp out of bamboo. In fact, tribal peoples in southeast Asia still make them out of bamboo to play their traditional music. Search google or instructables.com for "bamboo jaw harp" or "bamboo jews harp" to get some pretty easy to follow intructions. I've made one and it sounds great. It's louder and much easier to play than my metal one, and there is much less chance for you to break a tooth! :)
PS. Low harps are the bomb! I've been working out with my Low E CONSTANTLY the last month or so. I love it! FWIW, I think Son of Dave uses low harps on most of his songs... ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Last Edited by on Sep 07, 2009 12:37 PM
