[Harp-L] Paddy Richter& Irish Music

["Aongus MacCana" <amaccana@xxxxxxxxxx>]

 Richard Hunter wrote:
"Dude, what's sissy about using a G chromatic to play Irish music?  As I
recall, there's an extended piece by Brendan Power in the Harp-L
archives that discusses using a G chromatic with slide turned upside
down (to make the accidentals easier to get) to play Irish music."
I have to admit that my tongue was firmly in my cheek (instead of covering
the first three holes) when I described the chromatic as a cissie way of
getting all the notes. However the ethos of this list is firmly on the lines
of "real men can get a minimum of five keys out of a ten hole harp by dint
of bending & overblowing"
Both Hering and Seydel make chromatics with so called Irish Tuning namely
G/F# to facilitate conventional Irish Trad ornamentation ala the late Eddie
Clarke. I have one of these specials from Hering but don't use it much
because I am conditioned to go up a semitone rather than down when I hit the
button. I use a G chromatic and am gradually finding my way into the second
position which means I can get D tunes as well.
I am beginning to wonder whether it might not be a better idea to try a D
chromatic and get the G tunes in the "minus second position" Judging by
"O'Neill's 1001" and our local trad sessions D tunes seem to outnumber the
Gs by a considerable margin in the standard Irish repertoire.
As for Richard's remarks about not knocking the easy way, I could not agree
more. In my 71st year time is not on my side. I need quick results!
Beannachtaí
Aongus Mac Cana