Re: [Harp-L] Highlander Scottish Celtic Double Sided Tremolo Harmonica

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

No drone on the Highlander harp. and It has both blow and draw notes.
It's actually two harps back-to-back.

This is a standard type of tremolo harp with a few modifications per
the specifications of the great Scottish traditional harmonica player
Donald Black.

First a bit about tremolo harps.

Tremolo harps have both blow and draw notes. 

For each note there are two reeds. One reed sounds at the regular
pitch. The other is tuned just slightly higher. When played together,
the difference in pitch creates a quavering sound commonly called
tremolo (in acoustics talk it's called "beating").

The Highlander, like most tremolo harps, is constructed with an upper
and lower row of holes. The top row of holes contains blow and draw
notes mounted side by side on a single reedplate with a little vertical
wall between each reed. The bottom row also has blow and draw notes
(again side by side and with dividers) that are tuned just a little bit
sharp to give the tremolo effect when top and bottom rows are played
together.

There is also a horizontal divider between the top row of holes for the
top reedplate and the bottom row of holes for the bottom reedplate.

The result is that this type of harp has twice as many reeds as a
regular diatonic, and four times as many holes - each reed is in its
own hole.

This type of construction is knowns as "Wiener" (i.e. Viennese")
construction, as this was associated with Vienna, Austria, early in the
history of the harmonica (1820s-30s approximately).

The Highlander, and the Hohner Echo on which it is based, is really two
harmonicas back to back. One side might be tuned to D, flip it over and
you have an A-harp on the back side (the Echo also comes in G/C and
F/Bb).

The Highlander has nicer paint than the Echo and stainless steel
covers, but what really distinguishes it is the tuning. On the Key of A
side of the harp the 7th note in the scale is tuned flat to match the
bagpipe scale. 

A major scale: A B C# D E F G#

Highlander A scale: A B C# D E F G

Note that the Highlander has G instead of G# on the A side. This also
gives you a G major chord in the draw notes (G-B-D), which you wouldn't
get on a harp tuned to the standard A scale (instead you'd get an E
major chord). The blow chord is A. Tunes in a that alternate between A
and G chords are fairly common in Scottish music.

The D side of the harp is just a regular D. This has a scale that is in
fact the same set of notes as on the A side, but arranged differently:
The blow chord is D and the draw chord gives you A7 and E minor, but
not G.

As a large proportion of traditional Scottish tunes is in either D or
in A with a flattened 7th, this harp can be very useful for Scottish
tunes.

Here is a link to Donald Black playing the D-side of the harp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUQP9h3gF6g

There used to be a BBC Scotland clip of him playing the A-side, but I
can't find it anymore.

Winslow

--- Jim Hanks <jhanks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I don't have any tremolo harps, but this one caught my eye:
> http://coast2coastmusic.com/cgi-bin/cart/HH59_80-AD.html
> 
> Has anybody tried this? My first question is: how does this work?
> There 
> are 40 holes, but they're all blow, right? Are all the bottom holes a
> 
> low D to get the bagpipe drone? Or is it just a bagpipe scale somehow
> 
> and there isn't a drone?
> 
> Jim
> 
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