Re: [Harp-L] Paddy Richter Tuning

["Eugene Ryan" <ryan.eugene@xxxxxxxxx>]

Aongus Mac Cana wrote:
>>At Willie Clancy last year I saw Rick Epping "Paddy Richterise" a harmonica
>>for one of the students in a matter of minutes with the minimum of equipment

Aongus, if you are tuning, I would gold-plate Ken H's advice about
conditions for tuning, good light, patience etc!  It's bang on.

On the subject of bending on a G solo tuned diatonic harp - this won't
give you tunes in the key of D - the note of C# would be available as
an overblow, and that isn't conducive to playing reels at fast tempos.
 You will have the benefit of playing with expression if you learn to
bend, so it is well worth doing, but IMO for Irish music, the Paddy
Richter layout is a good bet.  You can bend the hole 3 draw on a
diatonic down a tone to give you the major 6th in 1st position, but
it's difficult to hit it repeatedly in tune as would be needed for
Irish music.  If you're in Dublin some day, give me a bit of notice,
and we can meet up and I'll bring some tools and retune a few harps to
Paddy Richter to give you some practise.

A G chrom is a good choice for Irish music, but as Richard and Steve
say, having the slide going down to the F#' scale will be more useful
for decorations - otherwise you have to do Murphy style flicks or
double/triple tonguing to get the decorations - which is great, but
then your chromatic harp is effectively a solo-tuned diatonic if
you're not also playing in D.  I recorded a couple of tunes ong a G/F#
harp a while ago - I should have them back in the next month if you
want a demo.  Do you play your tunes in D on the standard G chrom?

>>whether the Seydel 12 hole Solist - solo tuned - might not be a more cost

Are you breaking harps - is that why you're looking for a cost
effective replacement?

All the best,
Eugene