Any harmonica players out there? What do people think is the best "off the shelf" harmonica for Irish jigs reels etc? I say "off the shelf" because I know there's a lot of info on the web about retunings, but what standard issue ones do people like best? So many melody-tuned harps just come in C, and Richter ones have missing notes, and if you use note-bending it sounds a bit bluesy for this music. I bought a Suzuki humming tremelo recently in D - I'm not sure yet if I love it or hate it. Is the tremelo liked best for Celtic music? Does a standard D chromatic work well? - I haven't got one of those yet but might invest...
I've always wanted to play the harmonica and have access to lots of different ones. But, is it really as difficult as it seems? The bit about blocking the holes with the tip of the tongue looks very tricky to me!
Plucker - Eddie Clarke, the greatest player ever of jigs and reels on the harmonica (who sadly passed away just last month) used a standard C chromatic, and played with the slide pushed *in*. This would be similar to playing on a C/C# button accordion. So he would be plaing tunes with the fiddle tuned up a half step, e.g. in Eb or Ab.
If you have a C chromatic laying around, just start trying a tune you know with the slide pushed in - start a major scale on the hole 3 blow note, and you'll be in G Major (actually Abmaj) or a minor scale from hole 2 blow for E minor (actually Fmin).
You can duplicate this arrangement but still play in standard keys by acquiring a Hohner 270 in the key of B. When you push in the slide, you will be in C. The reason for playing this way is that you can get nice triplets by rapidly alternating the slide on a note. Some players *reverse* the slide so that pushing in *lowers* the tone by a half-step, and that way you don't have to hold the slide in all of the time to play in standard keys.
The only problem is that playing in all keys on a B/C chromatic is sheer torture to learn. An easier way to begin is with an F# chromatic plaing in G (F#/G). F# is not a standard key, but these are made up especially for Irish music and available online from the F.R. Farrell company at www.frfarrell.com - a great resource for all harmonica-related stuff.
A chromatic harmonica in the Key of G is also nice because the range is identical to the fiddle, starting on the low G string, and the keys of Gmaj, Em, Am and Dmaj fall nicely on the note layout.
man_dola2 - nobody I know plays Irish music using tongue blocking, except for an occasional 'vamp' chord. Everybody seems to use what's called a 'pucker' technique. (Eat some persimmons before you practice And get ahold of Brendan Power's "How to Play Irish Music on the Blues Harp" he covers everything for beginners, beautifully, thoroughly, and his playing on a cheap ordinary 10-hole diatonic harmonica is astonishing. www.brendan-power.com
Wow, Bob - that's excellent information (I hadn't seen the Farrell website before). I have tried playing in different keys using a C chromatic, but D is really difficult (you hyperventilate breathing in all the time) - probably will add a G chromatic to my collection.
IMHO,the best way to go is with a Hohner 270 Chromatic , get one in D and one in G and between them , you can play 85% of ITM tunes. If you get more serious, add a C and an A harp to the mix and you should have it all covered.
It can be awkward having to switch harps during a set of tunes in a session, but as mentioned above, it' very difficult to learn multiple keys on the same harp , when the keys are so completey different ,e.g., an A tune on a G harp.
Definitely go with a Chromatic as it will allow you to play every note required, plus grace notes , etc.
Short of a custom harp, the next step is the Hohner X-12 which has a one piece body, making it much more airtight, and thus , more efficient beathwise.
The neat thing about the chromatic harmonica is that it is virtually a piano in your hand, with all the sharps and flats in 3 octaves. While my primary interest is ITM, the harmonica can be used to play a lot of other different music styles , genres, etc. After playing the harp for ITM for 20+ years,(as well as the B/C box a long time ago) I finally broke down and took up the concertina because I wanted to play in sessions regularly. I found that a lot of harp logic applies to both the concertina and the chromatic accordian.
However , no matter how well you may play, in a session you are "toast" if a box player or piper shows up since you will not be close to competing in the volume dept., and those two instruments will cover up a harmonica....
For starters, I would get a Hohner 270 chromatic in G major . A great cd with harp friendly tunes is The Branch Line, with Charlie and Jack Coen on flute and concertina, or anything from Gearoid o'Ghallurain or Mary McNamara, two concertina players from Clare that have a nice steady pace that is easy to follow. Also, for ITM, you should try to emulate the concertina as the "breathing" or bellows work can be very similar, depending on the key. Make your notes end cleanly or you will sound like a hillbilly trying to have a brogue....think concertina, not train whistle...
Good Luck,
Brian
Plucker,
Was the Regulation Band not supposed to be the "real harmonica" in celtic mists gone by.
Would the Auto Valve not be its successor?
It has air saving valves & the marvelous tone.
OK its not cheap £49.95 R.r.p.
Available from " most good " harmonica ( that's if the keep more than " half a dozen " diff. models ) shops
Best r.,
J.B.
This looks like excellent information. Would it be too cheeky, as a complete shamateur on the moothie, to add for the benefit of total beginners out there, that you can get a good number of tunes off a simple Blues Harp or Marine Band in D, without having to bend?
This is a cheap and simple way for a beginner to get going. Forget the tongue blocking as Bob has said, pucker up those lips and try for a single note. It really is a very nice sound in a small session.
And as I found, you can practise in a noisy environment by putting in earplugs (in your ears that is) - the sound will echo perfectly in your skull cavity or wherever,so you will hear it, but no-one else will be bothered!
Bren - You can get some tunes off a standard Marine Band diatonic, and D is a good key - so are G, A and C. Some tunes fall nicely on a standard diatonic, like 'Kesh Jig' on a G harp, or 'Boys of Malin' on an A.
But beyond that, you are really limited by the note layout of the Richter system, which is based on having full blow and draw chords on the bottom 4 holes.
I started out learning with Brendan Power's kit - booklet, CD and two modified Suzuki harps (in D and G). He retunes the hole 3 blow note from the 5th to the 6th note of the scale (sol to la). This really opens up the instrument to playing jigs & reels, rather than Chicago blues or campfire songs.
It is easy to retune one reed yourself, and there is plenty of information on the www on the proper way to retune harmonica reeds.
there are also Lee Oskar Melody Maker diatonic harps which are solo tuned and give two full octaves starting from 2 draw to 9 blow and avaliable in D,G,A,C (and more).
Thanks everyone - lots of really helpful advice. It's interesting that no-one mentioned tremelos, as these are marketed as "Celtic" - I think maybe they are a bit inflexible, but I'm glad I've got the Suzuki as an option - it's very sonorous and louder than any other harp I've tried - but I think money is better spent on a chromatic as the tremelo is only good for tunes that stick to the major scale. I've got a Koch slide harp in G, and I've retuned a couple of reeds on the "slide in" reed plate to make a full major scale of G available - that makes it quite handy, but I find it a fairly quiet instrument - I wouldn't recommend it. I've also got loads of blues harps littered all over the place. I need to get (as advised by flyfisher) a Hohner 270 chromatic in G major, but I've spent all my pocket money this month, and daren't buy one just yet...but I'm tempted... (my wife will kill me!)
What's the best readily-available harmonica?
What's the best readily-available harmonica?
Any harmonica players out there? What do people think is the best "off the shelf" harmonica for Irish jigs reels etc? I say "off the shelf" because I know there's a lot of info on the web about retunings, but what standard issue ones do people like best? So many melody-tuned harps just come in C, and Richter ones have missing notes, and if you use note-bending it sounds a bit bluesy for this music. I bought a Suzuki humming tremelo recently in D - I'm not sure yet if I love it or hate it. Is the tremelo liked best for Celtic music? Does a standard D chromatic work well? - I haven't got one of those yet but might invest...
# Posted on August 8th 2004 by RichardB
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
I've always wanted to play the harmonica and have access to lots of different ones. But, is it really as difficult as it seems? The bit about blocking the holes with the tip of the tongue looks very tricky to me!
# Posted on August 8th 2004 by man_dola2
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
Plucker - Eddie Clarke, the greatest player ever of jigs and reels on the harmonica (who sadly passed away just last month) used a standard C chromatic, and played with the slide pushed *in*. This would be similar to playing on a C/C# button accordion. So he would be plaing tunes with the fiddle tuned up a half step, e.g. in Eb or Ab.
And get ahold of Brendan Power's "How to Play Irish Music on the Blues Harp" he covers everything for beginners, beautifully, thoroughly, and his playing on a cheap ordinary 10-hole diatonic harmonica is astonishing. www.brendan-power.com
If you have a C chromatic laying around, just start trying a tune you know with the slide pushed in - start a major scale on the hole 3 blow note, and you'll be in G Major (actually Abmaj) or a minor scale from hole 2 blow for E minor (actually Fmin).
You can duplicate this arrangement but still play in standard keys by acquiring a Hohner 270 in the key of B. When you push in the slide, you will be in C. The reason for playing this way is that you can get nice triplets by rapidly alternating the slide on a note. Some players *reverse* the slide so that pushing in *lowers* the tone by a half-step, and that way you don't have to hold the slide in all of the time to play in standard keys.
The only problem is that playing in all keys on a B/C chromatic is sheer torture to learn. An easier way to begin is with an F# chromatic plaing in G (F#/G). F# is not a standard key, but these are made up especially for Irish music and available online from the F.R. Farrell company at www.frfarrell.com - a great resource for all harmonica-related stuff.
A chromatic harmonica in the Key of G is also nice because the range is identical to the fiddle, starting on the low G string, and the keys of Gmaj, Em, Am and Dmaj fall nicely on the note layout.
man_dola2 - nobody I know plays Irish music using tongue blocking, except for an occasional 'vamp' chord. Everybody seems to use what's called a 'pucker' technique. (Eat some persimmons before you practice
Bob
# Posted on August 8th 2004 by Laughtonb
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
Wow, Bob - that's excellent information (I hadn't seen the Farrell website before). I have tried playing in different keys using a C chromatic, but D is really difficult (you hyperventilate breathing in all the time) - probably will add a G chromatic to my collection.
# Posted on August 9th 2004 by RichardB
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
What's the difference between a banjo player and a harmonica player?
.
.
.
... The harmonica player only sucks half the time.
# Posted on August 9th 2004 by grego
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
IMHO,the best way to go is with a Hohner 270 Chromatic , get one in D and one in G and between them , you can play 85% of ITM tunes. If you get more serious, add a C and an A harp to the mix and you should have it all covered.
It can be awkward having to switch harps during a set of tunes in a session, but as mentioned above, it' very difficult to learn multiple keys on the same harp , when the keys are so completey different ,e.g., an A tune on a G harp.
Definitely go with a Chromatic as it will allow you to play every note required, plus grace notes , etc.
Short of a custom harp, the next step is the Hohner X-12 which has a one piece body, making it much more airtight, and thus , more efficient beathwise.
The neat thing about the chromatic harmonica is that it is virtually a piano in your hand, with all the sharps and flats in 3 octaves. While my primary interest is ITM, the harmonica can be used to play a lot of other different music styles , genres, etc. After playing the harp for ITM for 20+ years,(as well as the B/C box a long time ago) I finally broke down and took up the concertina because I wanted to play in sessions regularly. I found that a lot of harp logic applies to both the concertina and the chromatic accordian.
However , no matter how well you may play, in a session you are "toast" if a box player or piper shows up since you will not be close to competing in the volume dept., and those two instruments will cover up a harmonica....
For starters, I would get a Hohner 270 chromatic in G major . A great cd with harp friendly tunes is The Branch Line, with Charlie and Jack Coen on flute and concertina, or anything from Gearoid o'Ghallurain or Mary McNamara, two concertina players from Clare that have a nice steady pace that is easy to follow. Also, for ITM, you should try to emulate the concertina as the "breathing" or bellows work can be very similar, depending on the key. Make your notes end cleanly or you will sound like a hillbilly trying to have a brogue....think concertina, not train whistle...
Good Luck,
Brian
# Posted on August 9th 2004 by briankc
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
Plucker,
Was the Regulation Band not supposed to be the "real harmonica" in celtic mists gone by.
Would the Auto Valve not be its successor?
It has air saving valves & the marvelous tone.
OK its not cheap £49.95 R.r.p.
Available from " most good " harmonica ( that's if the keep more than " half a dozen " diff. models ) shops
Best r.,
J.B.
# Posted on August 9th 2004 by boorinwood
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
This looks like excellent information. Would it be too cheeky, as a complete shamateur on the moothie, to add for the benefit of total beginners out there, that you can get a good number of tunes off a simple Blues Harp or Marine Band in D, without having to bend?
This is a cheap and simple way for a beginner to get going. Forget the tongue blocking as Bob has said, pucker up those lips and try for a single note. It really is a very nice sound in a small session.
And as I found, you can practise in a noisy environment by putting in earplugs (in your ears that is) - the sound will echo perfectly in your skull cavity or wherever,so you will hear it, but no-one else will be bothered!
# Posted on August 9th 2004 by Bren
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
Bren - You can get some tunes off a standard Marine Band diatonic, and D is a good key - so are G, A and C. Some tunes fall nicely on a standard diatonic, like 'Kesh Jig' on a G harp, or 'Boys of Malin' on an A.
But beyond that, you are really limited by the note layout of the Richter system, which is based on having full blow and draw chords on the bottom 4 holes.
I started out learning with Brendan Power's kit - booklet, CD and two modified Suzuki harps (in D and G). He retunes the hole 3 blow note from the 5th to the 6th note of the scale (sol to la). This really opens up the instrument to playing jigs & reels, rather than Chicago blues or campfire songs.
It is easy to retune one reed yourself, and there is plenty of information on the www on the proper way to retune harmonica reeds.
Bob
# Posted on August 10th 2004 by Laughtonb
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
there are also Lee Oskar Melody Maker diatonic harps which are solo tuned and give two full octaves starting from 2 draw to 9 blow and avaliable in D,G,A,C (and more).
# Posted on August 10th 2004 by azo
Re: What's the best readily-available harmonica?
Thanks everyone - lots of really helpful advice. It's interesting that no-one mentioned tremelos, as these are marketed as "Celtic" - I think maybe they are a bit inflexible, but I'm glad I've got the Suzuki as an option - it's very sonorous and louder than any other harp I've tried - but I think money is better spent on a chromatic as the tremelo is only good for tunes that stick to the major scale. I've got a Koch slide harp in G, and I've retuned a couple of reeds on the "slide in" reed plate to make a full major scale of G available - that makes it quite handy, but I find it a fairly quiet instrument - I wouldn't recommend it. I've also got loads of blues harps littered all over the place. I need to get (as advised by flyfisher) a Hohner 270 chromatic in G major, but I've spent all my pocket money this month, and daren't buy one just yet...but I'm tempted... (my wife will kill me!)
# Posted on August 11th 2004 by RichardB