Re: [Harp-L] Traditional Irish Music on the harmonica

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Newer tunings like major Cross and Melody maker have the advantage of extending the unbroken major scale farther into the low register of the diatonic, so melody notes are not missing.

The old-time players simply went for the middle and top registers, and used the bottom register for chording.

I started out as a teenager thinking that tongue vamping (chording) was naff and for gnarly old guys with thick glasses and too much nose hair who didn't shave enough and wore shapeless clothes. I saw it that way partly because I desperately wanted to be cool (being 15 or so) and partly because the old guys I met played sloppy and without focus.

Later, when I heard what great sounds you could make with your tongue on the harp, both in blues and in old-time playing, I changed my ideas and started to value those chords in the bottom end. 

You can make the harp sound bigger and more resonant when you chord with focus (i.e., precise definition which notes are included in the chord, tight rhythmic placement, and correct harmony for the chord changes of the song). And you can add some hellacious rhythm and even use tongue textures to ornament melodies, just like fiddlers do with their fingers and bows.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Wed, 1/21/09, Clayton Gary Lehmann <hqr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Clayton Gary Lehmann <hqr@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Traditional Irish Music on the harmonica
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 9:33 AM

I am having lots of luck playing this kind of thing on diatonic harmonica
tuned to Major Cross, a tuning promoted by listmember Tony Eyers.
Melody Maker also works--my first explorations were on a G MM, when I
discovered Blarney Pilgrim on the bottom.
Gary

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