Re: [Harp-L] Donald Black, Highlander extraordinaire



Winslow wrote:

Donald has wanted for a long time to have a tremolo harp that would
allow him to play a mixolydian scale (major but with the 7th note in
the scale lowered) in first position, to match the highland bagpipe
scale. It would be like taking a diatonic harp and lowering Draw 3 and
Draw 7 by one semitone.

You could get the same scale by playing a D-harp in second position. So
why bother to retune an A harp?

I wondered exactly the same thing myself when I saw the clip. Donald is, though, professedly a first-position player. But what he ends up with is a Mixolydian first-position harp that would have fairly restricted use for much else. I play those Echo tremolos myself but only for about 15% of the time or less in our sessions. So at the price they are I don't really want ones that are too "specialised." I do "Paddy Richter" mine though. The other thing I wondered, almost certainly with vain hope, was whether Hohner have come out of the 19th century with their Echo Highlander and got rid of all those pesky nails. I'm fully expecting a diplomatic answer from Fernando. ;-)


http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica
HEAR my CD clips: http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm

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