I picked up a Lee Oskar A minor (natural minor) harp recently, on a lark. It's interesting - for harp players, the setup is a D dorian on the "straight" (ie, blows a D chord, and the B is natural) which makes for an A natural minor on the cross. There's also a good third position C major on it. I haven't quite worked out the details, but so far the Reel Gan Ainm in D minor sounds pretty spooky on it.
A B Minor might be a useful addition to the harp player's arsenal, since it would put all of your D major tunes into third position. Anyone tried this yet?
Also, for those looking for good harp tunes, try Mulqueen's. I could try to highlight other good ones I've found, if anyone's interested.
-jon kiparsky
How much did the Lee Oskar cost you? I saw them at www.harpdepot.com for about $25.00. They also have Marine Band Natural Minors for about $18.00 but the wooden comb doesn't make for a fast instrument.
I know a couple of tunes called Mulqueen's, the horpipe or the reel?
Could you please tell me a little about how you ornament your tunes. Many people have refered me to the Brendan Power site for this but his site only tries to sell his book which is $50.00 - $110 (at that price it should come with a small tub of vaseline). I don't need a hundred dollar book of tab for a five dollar instrument, I just want to know the finer points of ornamentation & phrasing for the harp in ITM.
Yikes! That price includes 2 customized harmonicas and the CD, but no vaseline (at least it's not mentioned in the site). It's cheaper to get the package than to get just the harps. There are some cool MP3's in the site too.
On the harp, the ornaments are less important than the phrasing. Of course, this is always true, but the harmonica really makes this stand out. On a whistle or a fiddle, you can roll and cut and twiddle your way through a tune and make it sound okay, and on the fretted instruments you can at least triplet your way through them, but I haven't found anything on the harmonica that is as generic as "a roll." The reeds just don't respond fast enough to make that sort of thing go. However, there are some "accidents" that you can turn into ornaments. These are very tune-specific, unlike, say, a cran, which is the same thing in every tune more or less. Any time you have to change breath and hole at the same time, you have a chance to slip in an extra note. Any time you skip a hole, you might drop that in as a grace. That sort of thing. That's not to say that slop counts in harmonica playing, but you can find something in it some times.
Take Egan's Polka for example - I know we're not supposed to put abc in here, but I'm going to. (So there!)
|:fA BA|fA BA|
Not much you can do with this. I will usually quack this out pretty staccato, chopping the notes with the tongue. Once in a while (don't over do it!) I'll let myself slide off the d on the way down, as a kind of grace note to the A. The rhythm should feel the same, with a little flick of a d in it.
d2 e>f|ed BA|
Again, this sounds best straight, but you can also play |d>f e>f|ed BA|
or even |df e>f|ed BA| if you want to get wild. I've even been known to turn the BA into a cBA triplet, but never in mixed company.
The rest of the tune is pretty much the same (it's a trance polka) but that might give you something to play around with.
Maybe I should record something on harp for this record that's being talked about... hm.
-jon
As long as we're talking about harps, I was thinking of getting a harmonica to play some Irish and Scots tunes with a friend. Not really as a lead, but more to supply choral accompaniment. Any recommendations as to makers and keys that work well in traditional music? Thanks in advance.
The Web site mentioned above (http://members.madasafish.com/~harmonica/) has a lot of interesting stuff and harmonicas, more expensive than the ones you'd get off the shelf, but still less expensive than a full-size piano.
I was just having a tune the other day with a piano-accordion player. He's a fine player on the box, but he also revealed himself to be a demon on the harmonica - he seemed to be able to do everything he does on the keys even better on the harmonica. Don't ask me HOW he does it - I'm just a mandolin player.
I'm from Brazil, and we have a couple great harmonica players there. It always *blows*me*away* to hear a good harmonica player do fast chromatic stuff with just as much clarity and speed as, for example, a sax.
I play the flute and haven't ventured on the harmonica more than a few timid blows and sucks, but i'm keeping it in reserve for the future, in case i lose one or more of my fingers and can't play flute anymore.
I don't know about chordal accompaniment on the harmonica. On a diatonic harp, you really have a very limited set of chords. You get the I chord, a V, and a minor II. Or, if you play it cross, a I chord, a IV, and a minor V. That is, on a C harmonica you can play a C chord, a G, and a D minor. The G and the D minor don't really have very compatible voicings, the D minor starts with the D at the top of the G chord, like so:
My dad really interested in playing ITM on the harp, but was having trouble playing the tunes on the diatonic harps that he owns. he recently ordered a D chromatic Hohner and is wondering how useful this will be for irish tunes---as so many of them are in the key of D and G. Any suggestions on what sorts of harps work best for ITM?
Chromatic harps are laid out like button boxes, pretty much. Unlike a diatonic, which has a pretty weird and idiosyncratic layout of notes, the chromatic is very straightforward. On my old Chromonica, which I can't really do much with but like to muck around on, it's like so:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Blow: C E G C C E G C ...
Draw: D F A B D F A B ...
and so forth, all the way up. Push in the slide, and everything's half a step up. On your D, everything should be a whole step up, but the same layout. Pushing in the slide would give you an E flat scale. Come to think of it, this could be pretty handy, since a lot of your tunes would need no slide work at all, and for those you'd be able to sit with E-flat players, no problem. Of course, as soon as you hit anything out of two-sharps, you'd have everything backwards, but you can burn that bridge when you get to it.
The problem I've always had with chromatics is that the reeds just don't respond very quickly. This might be because I've had old instruments handed off to me, but it's always turned me off to the instrument. However, if you can get past that, it sounds like a D chromatic might be perfect for trad tunes. Certainly it'll be a lot easier than a C.
There's a fair bit of D chromatic on Brendan Power's record, you might suggest your dad have a listen to that. It's fun stuff.
-jon kiparsky
Thanks Jon....I'll pass this on to my dad, and maybe get hold of the Brendan Power recording for him to listen to. What's your favourite harmonica for irish music?
More harmonica stuff...
More harmonica stuff...
I picked up a Lee Oskar A minor (natural minor) harp recently, on a lark. It's interesting - for harp players, the setup is a D dorian on the "straight" (ie, blows a D chord, and the B is natural) which makes for an A natural minor on the cross. There's also a good third position C major on it. I haven't quite worked out the details, but so far the Reel Gan Ainm in D minor sounds pretty spooky on it.
A B Minor might be a useful addition to the harp player's arsenal, since it would put all of your D major tunes into third position. Anyone tried this yet?
Also, for those looking for good harp tunes, try Mulqueen's. I could try to highlight other good ones I've found, if anyone's interested.
-jon kiparsky
# Posted on October 22nd 2001 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: More harmonica stuff...
How much did the Lee Oskar cost you? I saw them at www.harpdepot.com for about $25.00. They also have Marine Band Natural Minors for about $18.00 but the wooden comb doesn't make for a fast instrument.
I know a couple of tunes called Mulqueen's, the horpipe or the reel?
post your fav tunes for the harp if you could.
# Posted on October 26th 2001 by Mad Baloney
Could you please tell me a little about how you ornament your tunes. Many people have refered me to the Brendan Power site for this but his site only tries to sell his book which is $50.00 - $110 (at that price it should come with a small tub of vaseline). I don't need a hundred dollar book of tab for a five dollar instrument, I just want to know the finer points of ornamentation & phrasing for the harp in ITM.
# Posted on October 26th 2001 by Mad Baloney
Brendan Power
Yikes! That price includes 2 customized harmonicas and the CD, but no vaseline (at least it's not mentioned in the site).
It's cheaper to get the package than to get just the harps. There are some cool MP3's in the site too.
# Posted on October 26th 2001 by glauber
Re: More harmonica stuff...
Er. What's the vaseline for? Or should I ask?
Zina
# Posted on October 27th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: More harmonica stuff...
On the harp, the ornaments are less important than the phrasing. Of course, this is always true, but the harmonica really makes this stand out. On a whistle or a fiddle, you can roll and cut and twiddle your way through a tune and make it sound okay, and on the fretted instruments you can at least triplet your way through them, but I haven't found anything on the harmonica that is as generic as "a roll." The reeds just don't respond fast enough to make that sort of thing go. However, there are some "accidents" that you can turn into ornaments. These are very tune-specific, unlike, say, a cran, which is the same thing in every tune more or less. Any time you have to change breath and hole at the same time, you have a chance to slip in an extra note. Any time you skip a hole, you might drop that in as a grace. That sort of thing. That's not to say that slop counts in harmonica playing, but you can find something in it some times.
Take Egan's Polka for example - I know we're not supposed to put abc in here, but I'm going to. (So there!)
|:fA BA|fA BA|
Not much you can do with this. I will usually quack this out pretty staccato, chopping the notes with the tongue. Once in a while (don't over do it!) I'll let myself slide off the d on the way down, as a kind of grace note to the A. The rhythm should feel the same, with a little flick of a d in it.
d2 e>f|ed BA|
Again, this sounds best straight, but you can also play |d>f e>f|ed BA|
or even |df e>f|ed BA| if you want to get wild. I've even been known to turn the BA into a cBA triplet, but never in mixed company.
The rest of the tune is pretty much the same (it's a trance polka) but that might give you something to play around with.
Maybe I should record something on harp for this record that's being talked about... hm.
-jon
# Posted on October 28th 2001 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: More harmonica stuff...
Trance polka. Heh.
Of course you should record something, Jon.
zls
# Posted on October 29th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: More harmonica stuff...
As long as we're talking about harps, I was thinking of getting a harmonica to play some Irish and Scots tunes with a friend. Not really as a lead, but more to supply choral accompaniment. Any recommendations as to makers and keys that work well in traditional music? Thanks in advance.
# Posted on October 30th 2001 by whistlin_fool
Re: More harmonica stuff...
The Web site mentioned above (http://members.madasafish.com/~harmonica/) has a lot of interesting stuff and harmonicas, more expensive than the ones you'd get off the shelf, but still less expensive than a full-size piano.
# Posted on October 30th 2001 by glauber
Re: More harmonica stuff...
I was just having a tune the other day with a piano-accordion player. He's a fine player on the box, but he also revealed himself to be a demon on the harmonica - he seemed to be able to do everything he does on the keys even better on the harmonica. Don't ask me HOW he does it - I'm just a mandolin player.
# Posted on October 31st 2001 by granama
Re: More harmonica stuff...
I'm from Brazil, and we have a couple great harmonica players there. It always *blows*me*away* to hear a good harmonica player do fast chromatic stuff with just as much clarity and speed as, for example, a sax.
I play the flute and haven't ventured on the harmonica more than a few timid blows and sucks, but i'm keeping it in reserve for the future, in case i lose one or more of my fingers and can't play flute anymore.
On this note, happy Halloween to you all!
glauber
# Posted on October 31st 2001 by glauber
Re: More harmonica stuff...
I don't know about chordal accompaniment on the harmonica. On a diatonic harp, you really have a very limited set of chords. You get the I chord, a V, and a minor II. Or, if you play it cross, a I chord, a IV, and a minor V. That is, on a C harmonica you can play a C chord, a G, and a D minor. The G and the D minor don't really have very compatible voicings, the D minor starts with the D at the top of the G chord, like so:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
C E G C E G C E G C
# Posted on November 3rd 2001 by Jon Kiparsky
Mulqueen's
Mulqueen's Reel, I meant. It's in the site here.
-jon
# Posted on November 3rd 2001 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: More harmonica stuff...
My dad really interested in playing ITM on the harp, but was having trouble playing the tunes on the diatonic harps that he owns. he recently ordered a D chromatic Hohner and is wondering how useful this will be for irish tunes---as so many of them are in the key of D and G. Any suggestions on what sorts of harps work best for ITM?
# Posted on November 4th 2001 by aoife
Re: Chromatic harmonicas
Chromatic harps are laid out like button boxes, pretty much. Unlike a diatonic, which has a pretty weird and idiosyncratic layout of notes, the chromatic is very straightforward. On my old Chromonica, which I can't really do much with but like to muck around on, it's like so:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Blow: C E G C C E G C ...
Draw: D F A B D F A B ...
and so forth, all the way up. Push in the slide, and everything's half a step up. On your D, everything should be a whole step up, but the same layout. Pushing in the slide would give you an E flat scale. Come to think of it, this could be pretty handy, since a lot of your tunes would need no slide work at all, and for those you'd be able to sit with E-flat players, no problem. Of course, as soon as you hit anything out of two-sharps, you'd have everything backwards, but you can burn that bridge when you get to it.
The problem I've always had with chromatics is that the reeds just don't respond very quickly. This might be because I've had old instruments handed off to me, but it's always turned me off to the instrument. However, if you can get past that, it sounds like a D chromatic might be perfect for trad tunes. Certainly it'll be a lot easier than a C.
There's a fair bit of D chromatic on Brendan Power's record, you might suggest your dad have a listen to that. It's fun stuff.
-jon kiparsky
# Posted on November 4th 2001 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: More harmonica stuff...
Thanks Jon....I'll pass this on to my dad, and maybe get hold of the Brendan Power recording for him to listen to. What's your favourite harmonica for irish music?
# Posted on November 5th 2001 by aoife