I’m looking for a source to purchase an inexpensive mic that can be clipped to an accordion. While playing in a session I am unable to hear myself play and its easy to get lost. I’m thinking of a control that might be attached to my belt with a single ear bud. Is such a thing made ? I’m not up on all the latest gadgets.
Thanks
Don
You mean you want some kind of monitor system to give you “foldback” so you can hear yourself play? You must be a very discreet kind of box player - or your session is unbelievably noisy.
Assuming that finding a quieter session is not an option, I’d be tempted to find some acoustic means of getting your sound to reflect back at you - rather than trying to play louder, although depending on the context, that might be in order.
Try jamming the box against the inside of your right thigh - I think you’ll find you’ll hear it a lot better. Or try wearing a Paddy Keenan style hat - this has a dramatic effect when you’re playing fiddle (although of course that is less far away from the hat). Or try changing where you sit - close to a corner, or something like that.
A microphone of any sort seems like overkill, and a bit out of place in the kind of sessions I’m used to. But in this digital wireless age someone might have a solution for you.
Steve
Hi Steve, thanks for your thoughts, being the newbie, I tend to play alittle too quiet for fear of my blaring mistakes. One of the sessions I frequent has many players and is very loud making it hard to hear myself play. I’ll get past this though with more experience and confidence.
Regards
Three pints (full of course) lined up on a table in front of you makes a fine acoustic reflector. The problem is keeping them full. 
dave boling
Hey Dave, good idea, I’ll give it a try. Might help my confidence too.
Playing too quietly for fear of being too loud is a bit of a blight. It isn’t too much of an issue with harmonicas, unless it’s one in the morning, everyone’s gone home and I’m accompanying a quiet bloke singing Nancy Spain (genuine example, BTW!) If I play through an amp I’d rather set it so as to play with my normal unamplified force. If the amp’s up too high I have to try to play quietly, and it throws up all kinds of issues to do with tone and attack that I don’t need, so I resist calls to turn myself up. Are you sure you’re as loud as you think you are? Ask the others what they think (tell 'em to be candid). Maybe you can just play as loud as you do at home and it’ll be OK with everyone. Another good idea would be to get more secure on your core repertoire so that you’re not fretting about mistakes all the time. I think it’s a phase we all go through, if it’s any consolation. Just hammer away at a handful of tunes to begin with until you are really confident with them, then practise them some more. 
To be able to give 100% at the session you need to achieve 150% at home, to misquote an old cliché! To the woodshed with ye!
Good advice Steve, I need to settle on a few tunes that are most often played rather than trying to learn too many at once. I practice probably twenty tunes most every day. I might cut that back to a dozen or so.
By the way, on this side of the pond talk of the “woodshed” can mean an ass kickin or and education of sorts with the girl from next door. Ah those were the days
Eschew the ass-kickin’ and try to combine practice with the other…