If one were to type in Irish harmonica into any search engine, you are very likely to come up with the same names every time. This is a welcome fact and you are most likely to learn a lot about Irish harmonica. We all gather inspiration from the playing styles of Rick Epping, Brendan Power, Mick Kinsella and many more superb players who are the premier exponents of the chromatic and 10 hole diatonic in Irish music. Please consider the following. In Ireland, Tremolo, octave and 10 hole diatonics are referred to as Mouthorgans. The tremolo harmonica is the most favoured of these. Chromatics, chord, Bass, and sometimes 10 holed harps are referred to as Harmonicas. All traditional Irish mouthorgan players consider the "richter" tuning as being totally useless because the entire scale is required over all octaves. Irish tremolo players use 1st. position (the key that the mouthorgan is in) at all times, although some have the ability to play in 12th (lydian) position, but they are not purposefully aware of this and of course playing in the relative minor to the key comes naturally. The 10 hole diatonic harp would be the second choice of the Irish trad. players. These are mostly used to great effect in slow airs. In the past few years these 10 hole diatonics are beggining to gain in popularity due to the work of that great innovator Brendan power, with the introduction of his "Paddy richter" tuning. Another example of the 10 hole diatonic in Irish music is the Steve shaw cd. Steve is a superb player of Irish traditional music on both the 10 hole harp and the tremolo. In Irish traditional music the two most important keys are D. and G. Of course all 12 keys are suitable and eventually the players come to recognize that a paticular tune sounds better and more interesting in a particular key. This is very evident in the playing of the great Noel Battle, Mullingar, Austin Berry, Athlone, Henry Creaney, Kilkenny and the Ward sisters, Leitrim, and many others who use the tremolo harmonica.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:07:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015