Do I Need Chords

[CaryK]

You are not alone Conrad. When I cease being able to hear my playing in a group my fingers tend to walk about also. My solution has been to "hear" the music in my head, focus on that, and trust that my fingers are following what my brain is playing internally. It usually seems to work out. This practice also helps me to play solo in front of others without losing the tune through distraction or nervousness.

[Don Taylor]

I wonder if a little pocket recorder like a Zoom H1 or an H2N that has a monitor jack for headphones or an earpiece could be set up to give you a little personal monitor?

 

Alternatively, I don't think it would be difficult to write a mobile phone is app to do this.

I just tried this with my Zoom H2N and it works.

 

I do not have a decent external mic but I used an old Plantronics telephone headset mic plugged into the 'Line In' socket of the H2N. I used an ordinary stereo headset plugged into the 'Line Out' socket.

 

Initially it did not work as it did not recognise the mic, but it turns out that these type of microphones need some power. Zoom calls this 'Plug In Power' and by default it is turned OFF.

 

Turn it on with:MENU->INPUT->PLUG-IN POWER'.

You also need to set MONITOR to ALWAYS ON.

 

Obviously, my mic and headset set up is not very practical. I think that a cheap Lavalier (lapel) mic and a mono earpiece would do the trick and not be too obtrusive. I don't think you need a high end mic for this as you are not making studio recordings for archival purposes.

 

I think that the tiny, cheap Zoom H1 would do the same job.

 

Added later. Thinking on this a little further, I think that a pair of directional mics are needed for this application, along with some cabling to present the two mics as a single stereo mic to the Zoom. Directional because you just want to pick up the sound from the concertina and not everybody else. Most lapel mics are omni-directional.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Don Taylor