RE: [Harp-L] Choice of 'Harps' for Scottish & Irish tunes

[Steve <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

> ‘Better men than me have answered this already, but if you do a trawl
> through the ‘bible’: O’Neill’s 1001 tunes you will see that the majority of
> tunes in the book are in the key of D – closely followed by G – or in their
> associated minors. The rest – particularly those tunes of Scottish origin
> are in A.

> Aongus Mac Cana
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! ;-)
I wouldn't be without my low F as you never know when Julia Delaney's Reel will pop up and it's handy for a couple of waltzes I know (there a very nice one called Belle Mere by Phil Cunningham). I use my C harp about once or twice a night too. There's a lovely modern waltz called Waltz for Polle that's in C, and Carolan's Welcome is great on a Paddy C harp. But if I was in desperate straits and had only ten seconds to grab three harps before leaving for the pub, as long as they were in low D, G and A I'd have a happy night out. Without amplification in a noisy pub I'd want them to be XB40s. Or maybe Tombo Band tremolos!