Back to the Bottle

New toys! A couple of days ago I received my first ever harmonica microphone and amplifier, the much vaunted (and alarmingly cheap for what it is) Bottle O Blues mic along with a dinky little Smokey Amp. The amp is so called because they originally came built into cigarette packs — you can still get them like that, but the one I have is plastic cased, although about the same size, which should give an idea of scale in the picture.

Now, I've never played amplified harp before, and I'm very much a novice harp player anyway, but plugging it all together and blowing a few simple blues licks was fantastic. It may not sound exactly like Little Walter, but there's this really thick, grungy blues sound in there, which made me (to my ears, though <3 may argue) sound better than I could possibly expect. I guess it's like playing electric guitar and getting your first effects pedal — it doesn't make you a better player, but it's great fun mucking about with those new noises you can suddenly make.

Now, of course, I need to practice, practice, practice. Lately I've been concentrating on playing folk music (that's what I get to play with other people) but the new toys may well bet me back onto working on the blues. (Though it's great fun playing a reel or jig through the mic!)