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The Harmonica and Irish Traditional Musicby Don Meade

! 2012Donald J. Meade All rights reserved550 Grand Street, Apt. H6FNew York, NY 10002USA

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

WHAT KIND OF HARMONICA? 4

TECHNICAL TIPS 13

MAJOR, MINOR, MODAL 16

ORNAMENTATION 18

CUSTOMIZING AND MAINTAININGCHROMATIC HARMONICAS 21

Appendix A: IRISH HARMONICA DISCOGRAPHY 26

Apendix B: MODE AND POSITION CHART 32

Appendix C: HARMONICA HISTORY 33

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INTRODUCTION

The name “harmonica” has over the yearsbeen applied to a variety of musicalinstruments, the earliest of which wasprobably an array of musical glassescreated by Ben Franklin in 1761. The 19th-

century German-speakers who invented themouth-blown free-reed instrument nowknown as the harmonica originally called it aMundharmonika (“mouth harmonica”) todistinguish it from the Handharmonika oraccordion. English speakers have sincecalled it many things, including the mouthorgan, mouth harp, French harp, Frenchfiddle, harpoon, gob iron, tin sandwich andMississippi saxophone. “Mouth organ” is themost common name in Ireland, where“harmonica” is often used only to refer to

chromatic models.

There is a notable local mouth organtradition in south County Wexford, home tothe renowned Murphy family of Bannow, butthe instrument is quite popular throughoutIreland. It is, however, not usually regardedas highly by traditional music lovers as arethe closely related concertina and buttonaccordion. Many people still think of theharmonica as little more than a musical toy.

The tin whistle once suffered from a similarreputation. In recent decades, however,Mary Bergin and other virtuoso players havebrought the once-humble whistle to theforefront of the Irish musical tradition. Theharmonica is overdue for a similar re-evaluation. Recordings by the Murphys,Eddie Clarke and other top Irish playersprovide convincing proof that the mouthorgan is fully capable of conveying all thebeauty and subtlety of Irish traditional airsand dance tunes.

How to Learn Irish Music

The harmonica was designed to play andaccompany simple major-key Europeanmelodies. The instrument has proved to besurprisingly flexible, however, and ingeniousmusicians from China to the American southhave found novel ways to play very differentstyles of music on it. Musicians in Ireland,

influenced by the way in which song airsand dance tunes are played on instrumentswith a longer history in the country, havedeveloped their own distinctive techniquesand styles.

Instrumental technique is not really the keyto playing Irish traditional music. Anyonewho has ever heard a classical violiniststiffly bow through a fiddle tune willunderstand that technical competencecannot substitute for an understanding oftraditional style. That understanding canonly be acquired by listening to andemulating good traditional players. If youwant to play Irish music, you should listen toas much of it as possible. Listen especiallyto music on the uilleann pipes, fiddle and

flute, the most important vehicles for Irishtraditional music for centuries and theinstruments on which the foundations oftraditional style were built.

If you can hum, lilt or whistle an Irish tune,you can learn to play it on the harmonica.The rest is just a matter of practice. Tryingto play a tune you don’t really know, even ifyou can read sheet music or follow a writtenpattern of blow and draw notes, is really alot harder than just playing by ear.

You don’t need formal lessons to play Irishmusic on the harmonica. Trial and error willbe your best teacher. Once you have a tunein your head, just try to play it. The moreyou play, the more you will understandabout the structure and patterns of Irishtunes, and about the harmonica itself. Andthe more tunes you learn, the easier itbecomes to pick up new ones.

Before attempting to play jigs and reels, you

should start by playing slower song airs,marches and waltzes. These tunes providean opportunity to build up your lip muscles,work on breath control and tone, andgenerally figure out how the harmonicaworks. Not to mention that a completetraditional musician must be able to playslow airs as well as fast dance tunes.

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When you acquire enough proficiency tomove on to livelier tunes, keep in mind theimportance of a steady tempo. If you haveto slow down to play a difficult passage in atune, you're playing the rest of it too fast. It'sbetter to play slowly but at a consistent

tempo. If you can play fast, it doesn't meanthat you have to do so all the time. No onewould try to sing every song they know asquickly as possible, but too many musicianstake that approach to dance tunes. Stick toa tempo at that lets you put someexpression into the music.

Mouth Accordion?

Fast-paced and highly ornamented Irishdance music is a challenging repertoire onany instrument. Harmonica players will find

that some of the typical melodic patternsand embellishments used by fiddlers, fluteplayers and pipers are difficult to reproduceon their instrument. While no Irish tune istotally impossible to play on the harmonica,some just don't fit it very naturally.

Some tunes are awkward on otherinstruments too. Flute players and pipersoften alter fiddle tunes to make themplayable on their instruments, and it is arare button accordionist who is comfortable

playing in all the keys used by fiddlers. Youshouldn't give up without a struggle, but ifre-phrasing a passage or changing the keyallows you to play music that is otherwisefiendishly difficult, you don’t have to beashamed to do so.

Irish harmonica players can take someinspiration from players of other free-reedinstruments used in the Irish tradition. Theharmonica has a lot in common with thebutton accordion and “Anglo-German” style

of concertina, both of which have a longhistory of use by Irish musicians. All threeare “single-action” free-reed instruments.

On a double-action instrument like the pianoaccordion or “English” concertina, the samenote sounds on both the press and draw.On a single-action instrument, each button

or hole can sound reeds for two differentnotes. If you press or blow you get onenote, but if you draw out you get another.This in-and-out pattern imparts a naturallybouncy rhythm to the music and explainswhy single-action instruments are the free

reeds of choice for Irish dance tunes.

On both the button accordion andharmonica (but not on the concertina), thenotes of the scale are lined up in one row.Moreover, the tuning of chromaticharmonicas, which will be discussed below,is much like that of Irish-style two-rowbutton accordions. Because of thesesimilarities, harmonica players can oftenadapt button accordion techniques to theirinstrument.

That said, it must be pointed out that it tooka long time for the button accordion to beaccepted as a valid instrument for Irishtraditional music. Only when accordionistssucceeded in approximating the rhythm andornamentation used on more traditionalinstruments did the “box” come into themainstream of Irish music. Harmonicaplayers can profit by their example.

WHAT KIND OF HARMONICA?

There are several distinct types ofharmonicas. It is possible to play Irishtraditional music on all of them, and eachhas its own advantages and disadvantages.

Standard Diatonic Harmonicas The diatonic harmonica is by far the mostcommon variety. The most popular version,often referred to as a “Richter” harmonica(see appendix on harmonica history) is asmall instrument with 10 holes, each ofwhich contains a blow reed and a draw

reed. Most diatonics have a single reed foreach note but some have two, which maybe tuned slightly apart in order to produce awavering “tremolo” effect or an octave apartfor a “full concert” sound. All diatonicharmonicas have reeds only for the notes ina single major (do-re-mi ...) scale – they arelike pianos with no black keys.

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STANDARD 10-HOLE DIATONIC HARMONICA

Key of C

Blow reeds shown in upper case, draw notes in lower case; available “bent” notes in italics

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

D# F# A#-B

C d E g G b C d E f G a b C D E f G a C

c# f- f# g# - a# c# g#

The scale used on a diatonic harmonica canstart on any one of the twelve notes used inWestern music. Standard diatonicharmonicas are available for all twelve,some in both high- and low-pitchedversions. The harmonica is classified by thenote on which the scale starts. If do is C, theharmonica is in the key of C.

A typical ten-hole diatonic like the HohnerMarine Band has a range of three octaves,but the only complete octave starts with theblow note in hole 4. To play this scale, youfirst blow into and then draw from hole 4,then repeat this in holes 5 and 6. To finishthe scale, you must reverse breath directionin hole 7, first drawing and then blowing.The reversal of breath direction ensures thatthe next octave also starts on a blow note.

The high octave that starts with blow 7 lacksthe 7th note (ti ) in the scale. The pattern ofblow and draw notes also changes in thisoctave, where the draw notes are the lowerof the two notes in each hole. In the middleoctave, do and re are blow 4 and draw 4.But in the high octave, blow 7 is do whiledraw 8 is re.

The standard harmonica’s low octave startswith the blow reed in hole number 1 but thescale is missing fa and la, while so is both adraw note in hole 2 and a blow note in hole3. The reason for these gaps andduplications is that the low octave tuning

scheme was designed to make it possible toplay a simple two-chord accompaniment tomajor-key melodies.

Some of the missing notes can be played by“bending” other notes. We’ll return to thesubject of bending below, but even with thataid, the standard 10-hole diatonic’s tuningscheme sharply limits its usefulness for Irishtraditional music.

Extended Range Diatonics

Longer standard diatonics give more scopefor solo melody playing, as they extend therange of notes above the gapped scale inthe first three holes. If you stick to the rightside of the longer diatonics, all the notes inthe scale are available. The same drawbends are available as on the 10-holeinstrument, and there are a few more blowbends in the highest holes.

As with the 10-hole diatonic, the draw notesare in different positions relative to theadjacent blow notes in each octave. This isvery apparent in the extended high range,where in order to play a C major scale on aC instrument it is necessary to skip from 10-blow to 12-draw to 11-blow to play C, D andE in sequence. Hohner’s Marine Band M364and M365 are the most easily availableextended-range diatonic models. The 12-hole M364 is available in C, D and G, andthe 14-hole M365 only in C and G

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12-HOLE HOHNER M364

Key of C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

D# F# A#-B C-D D# - F#

C d E g G b C d E f G a b C d E f G A C b E d G

c# f - f# g# - a# c# g#

14-HOLE HOHNER M365

Key of C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

D# F# A#-B C-D D#-F# F#-B A#-D#

C d E g G b C d E f G a b C d E f G a C B E d G f C a E

c# f -f# g# -a# c# g#

“Cross Harp” and Country Tunings

The standard 10-hole diatonic harmonicacan be used to play Irish tunes, but it ismost favored by blues players, who makeup the largest segment of the harmonica-playing public. Blues stylists, however, donot usually play in the key in which theharmonica is tuned, preferring the “crossharp” or “second position” scale, whichstarts on a note pitched a fifth higher, i.e. so

instead of do. In the C scale, so is G, whichmeans the cross-harp scale on a Charmonica starts on G. So to play the bluesin G, you use a C harmonica.

A complete cross-harp scale starts with theblow reed in hole 6. The seventh note in thisscale is half a step lower (flatter) than in themajor scale, e.g., F instead of F# (F sharp)

when playing on a C harmonica. In additionto providing this “blue” note, cross harpshifts important notes in the scale to lowdraw reeds that can be easily “bent” tosound notes the harmonica wasn’t designedto play at all. In the low octave, a cross-harpscale starts with 2 draw (or 3 blow, which isthe same note) but you have to bend 3 drawdown a whole step to play the second noteof the scale.

Bending, which will be discussed in moredetail below, is one way to play missingnotes on a diatonic harmonica, but “country-tuned” diatonics provide another solution.These are standard ten-hole diatonics onwhich one or more reeds have been retunedso that you can play a complete two-octavemajor scale in the cross-harp position.

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SIMPLE COUNTRY TUNING – SHARPENED 5 DRAW

Altered C harmonica

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

D# F# A# - B

C d E g G b C d E f#* G a b C D E F G A C

c# f- f# a c# f g#

Irish tunes set in the “mixolydian mode”(more on modes below) use a blues-likescale with a flattened 7th interval, and forthese the cross-harp position on a regulardiatonic works well. You can also play atrue major scale in the cross-harp position ifyou start with the blow reed in hole 6, butyou need to play a blow bend in hole 9. Ona C harmonica, this is a G major scale withF# instead of F. But you can’t play a Gmajor scale in the octave that starts withdraw 2. You can bend draw 3 down tosound A, but there is no bend that will giveyou an F# in the 5 draw hole. This isbecause bends are only possible if thepitches of the two reeds in a hole are offsetby at least a whole tone, and the differencebetween E and F is only a half tone.

One way to play major melodies incrossharp position (and still be able to throwin a lot of bluesy bends) is to retune the 5draw reed, sharpening it up a half step to F#on a C instrument (see the asterisked noteabove). With a combination of bent notesand this one retuned reed, you can play atrue major scale in crossharp position in twodifferent octaves. If you start with the Gdraw reed in hole 2, you have to play a drawbend in hole 3 to sound A. If you start thescale with the G blow reed in hole 6, youhave to play a blow bend in hole 9 to soundF#. Rick Epping, the first American to winthe All-Ireland mouth organ championship,has made good use of this tuning, which is

currently available on the Seydel “bluesfavorite country” model.

Another variation on standard tuning wasinvented by New Zealand harmonica aceBrendan Power. In this tuning, which hecalls “Paddy Richter,” the 3 blow reed istuned up a whole step (e.g., from G to A ona C harmonica). Low octave draw bendsare still available but it’s easier to play Irishmelodies in the cross-harp position withouthaving to bend. The draw note in hole 5 isstill unbendable, however, so you still can’treally play major-key melodies in cross-harpposition in the middle octave unless youuse the advanced “overblow” techniquepioneered in recent years among bluesstylists by genius diatonic player HowardLevy. But that’s a technique beyond thescope of this pamphlet.

An even more sophisticated “country” tuningis used on the Lee Oskar Melody Maker andHohner “Country-tuned” Special 20 models.This scheme raises the 5 blow reed a halfstep, as in simple country tuning, and the 3blow a whole step, as in “Paddy Richter.”But it also raises the 9 draw reed a halfstep. With these three alterations (shownwith asterisks on the chart below), you canplay a complete major scale over two wholeoctaves, starting with draw 2, without havingto bend any notes.

Country-tuned harmonicas are usually

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“PADDY RICHTER” TUNING

C harmonica with sharpened 3 blow reed

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

D# F# B/A#

C d E g A* b C d E f G a b C D E F G a C

c# f#/f a# c# g#

FULL COUNTRY (“MELODY MAKER”) TUNING

C harmonica with three altered notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

D# B/A#

C d E g A* b C d E f#* G a B C d E F#* G A C

c# f#/f a# c# f g#

labeled in the cross-harp key (G for a Charmonica). But as the chart above shows,a “G” Melody Maker is really just a standardC instrument with three altered notes.

This tuning is popular with Nashville-stylecountry musicians who want to apply bluesybends to major key melodies. Irish singerand bouzouki ace Andy Irvine has alsomade great use of Melody Makerinstruments in this way. The best exampleof applying this tuning scheme to Irish

dance tunes without relying on bent notes isGalway native Paul Moran’s playing on FirstFlight, a 2002 duet recording with fiddlerFergal Scahill.

Country-tuned harmonicas might appeal toanyone who has played a lot of blues “harp”before attempting to tackle Irish traditionalmusic. You can stick with the blow-and-

draw note sequence familiar to cross-harpplayers and continue to bend notes, butyou’re not stuck with the flattened seventhof the blues scale.

Tremolo Diatonics

Tremolo harmonicas have two reeds foreach note, one on the top plate and one onthe bottom. In these instruments, unlikestandard “Richter” harmonicas, blow anddraw reeds are on the same reedplate, butnot in the same holes. Each reed is isolated

in its own chamber. The top and bottomplates have an identical tuning scheme, butthe reeds on each are tuned with a slightoffset in pitch to create the wavering tremoloeffect. This design was invented by Wilhelm Anton Thie in Vienna and is known as theWiener or Thie system.

Some Wiener tremolos, including Hohner’s

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“ORIENTAL” TREMOLO DIATONIC HARMONICA

Key of C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

G d C f E a G b C d E f G a b C D E F G a C b E

Comet models, have the two reedplatestuned an octave, rather than just slightly,apart. This is a different sort of tuning thanthat used on so-called Knittlinger-systemharmonicas like the Hohner Auto-Valve orMarine Band “full concert,” which have thetwo reedplates tuned an octave apart butstill use the Richter system of having a blowand draw reed in each hole on each plate.

Most European-made tremolo instruments,including Hohner’s Echo models, use thesame tuning scheme as standard Richterdiatonic harmonicas, with the first threeholes set up for chord playing. Thesemodels are also usually tuned using “just”intonation, in which the chords sound purebut the intervals between notes deviateslightly from the “equal” intonation used onmost modern instruments

The tuning scheme used for most tremoloinstruments made in the Far East (shownabove) is diffferent. It is similar to that ofextended-range Richter diatonic andtremolo instruments. But in place of thechordal accompaniment setup in the firstthree holes, there is a full four-hole lowoctave with no missing notes in the scale.The middle and high octaves have the sametuning pattern as Richter diatonics but areshifted one hole to the right, starting withblow 5 instead of blow 4.

There is a smaller pitch offset between thetwo reeds for each note on Orientaltremolos, which gives them a “drier” soundthan European models. They are also tuned

using equal temperament . As free-reedwizard Rick Epping has noted, thesedifferences make Oriental tremolos moresuitable than European models for melodyplaying.

Oriental tremolos are also quiteinexpensive, So it's not surprising that thiskind of harmonica is the one mostcommonly played by traditional musicians inIreland, including the celebrated Murphyfamily of County Wexford and many-time All-Ireland champions Michael Conroy, NoelBattle and Austin Berry. At a fleadh cheoil

mouth organ competition, most musicianswill be playing Oriental tremolos. Otherdiatonic instruments are allowed butchromatic players have been exiled to the“miscellaneous instruments” competition.

It used to be hard to find Oriental tremolomodels in the U.S. in keys other than C butHohner now imports the Echo Celeste in all12 keys. Some Suzuki and Tombo tremolosare also made in all keys, but they are notsold in the U.S.

One interesting effect possible on tremoloharmonicas is to play on only one of the tworeeds in each hole. The player can thenswitch to playing both, as when a buttonaccordionist changes the coupler setting toget a fuller sound. You can do this bycovering either the lower or upper reedholes with your lip and playing only from thetop or bottom. Antrim tremolo ace KieranMcHugh did this on his 1980’s cassetterecording.

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because it includes all the colors of themusical rainbow. First marketed by Hohnerin 1910, the chromatic is really two solo-tuned diatonic harmonicas in oneinstrument.

The reed plate on top has blow and drawreeds for one key, while the plate on thebottom has blow and draw reeds for adifferent key pitched half a tone higher (e.g.,C on top, C sharp below). This combinationincludes all the notes of every key. In this

respect the chromatic harmonica is verysimilar to an Irish-style two-row buttonaccordion. To switch between the sets ofreeds, the player presses in a spring-mounted slide on the right side of theharmonica. The slide allows air to pass over

only one set of reeds at a time. Pressing itin while playing a single note will raise thepitch by a half tone (that's the same as theinterval between mi and fa or between ti anddo in the diatonic scale).

CHROMATIC HARMONICA

Key of C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

C d E f G a b C C d E f G a b C C d E f G a b C

C# d# F f# G# a# c C# C# d# F f# G# a# c C# C# d# F f# G# a# c C#

Chromatic harmonicas come in differentsizes and can have from 8 to 16 holes. Toplay a particular note, the player must knowwhich hole to play, whether to blow or draw,

and whether it's necessary to press theslide. There is a price to be paid for havingreeds for every note. Some chords availablein the usual diatonic tuning scheme cannotbe played on a chromatic. The chromatic’sreed slots are also covered with plastic“wind-saving valves.” These flaps preventair loss through blow reed slots whenplaying draw reeds (and vice versa), butthey also make it impossible to really bendnotes or get that lonesome, bluesy wail thatfor many people defines the sound of the

harmonica. In general, it is not possible toget as strong and gutsy a tone on anychromatic as it is on a small diatonic.

Theoretically, a single chromatic instrumentcan be used to play in any key. Classicaland jazz harmonicists do, in fact, play thisway, so the most expensive professional-quality instruments are only made in the key

of C. In practice, however, some keysrequire extensive use of the slide and arevery awkward on the C harmonica,especially when one is playing fast-paced,

highly ornamented Irish dance music. Eventhe most accomplished classical playersconcede that “flat keys” like F and B flat areeasier on the C harmonica than the “sharpkeys” like D and G common in Irish music.

Another problem with the purely chromaticapproach is that the chords available on theC chromatic really only work for melodiesset in C major or in some of the modalscales that use the same array of notes(more on chords and modes below). So if

you’re playing in G on a C chromatic, forexample, you won’t be able to play a Gchord and playing C blow chords will clashwith the melody.

One excellent chromatic harmonica for Irishmusic is the 10-hole, wooden-body HohnerChromonica 260, available in the keys of Gand C. The G instrument has the same

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range as “first position” on the fiddle, fromlow G to a high C. It is a perfect instrumentfor playing tunes in G major and relatedmodal scales, and can be played in cross-harp position for tunes based on a D scale.The Chromonica 260 in C can be used in

cross-harp position to play tunes in G orrelated modal scales, but playing in D on aC chromatic is awkward.

Hohner also makes other chromatic models,including the 12-hole SuperChromonica270 and the more expensive, plastic-bodiedCX-12. Both of these are available in allkeys, including D, which is particularlyuseful for Irish music.

The Brazilian-made, 12-hole Hering 5148,

7148 (a slightly better version) and low-C“Baritono” 6148 models are excellent forIrish music. The Herings have manyadvantages over the Super Chromonica.They’re cheaper, for one thing, and thetightly sealed plastic body allows very littleair leakage. The reeds are more flexible,blowing and drawing more easily as well.

Disassembling and repair is easier with theHering instruments as all parts are heldtogether with screws rather than the tacks

used on Chromonicas. The holes on themouthpiece are round rather than square,and the lack of corners seems to trap lessgunk. The mouthpiece projects out fartherfrom the body, which some players prefer tothe flatter-faced Hohner design. The reedshave a brighter, more metallic timbre thanthe mellower Hohner sound. On the downside, Hering reeds go out of tune quickly,especially on the low-pitched D instrument.

Seydel makes chromatics in three ranges of

quality. Their DeLuxe 12-hole model isavailable in “Irish tuning” (B/C and F#/G)and they can also make a C#/D model onrequest. These tunings are extremely usefulwhen you start trying to use the slide forornamentation, for reasons that will bedescribed below. Seydel instruments soldin the U.S. seem to be assembled here fromimported parts. Unfortunately, my own

experience with Seydel instruments boughtin this country is that they are likely to beout of tune when delivered, even before youplay them.

Many other chromatic models are available

from Huang, Suzuki, Miwha, Tombo andLark. Be aware that the Hering “blueschromatic” and “Vintage 40,” as well asHohner “Koch” and “slide harp” models arechromatics with the same pattern of missingnotes in the first three holes as a standarddiatonic instrument.

Other Tuning Schemes

There are many other harmonica tuningsystems besides those shown in the chartsabove. The Lee Oskar line includes diatonic

harmonicas in “major 7th” (all the F’s on a Cdiatonic tuned up to F#), harmonic minor (allthe E’s and A’s on a C diatonic tuned downto D# and G#) and natural minor (all the E’sand B’s on a C diatonic tuned down to D#and A#). Seydel will fill orders for virtuallyany tuning scheme a customer can devise.

Hohner’s Steve Baker model is a 12-holediatonic instrument that, instead of adding ahigher range of notes to the normal 10-holelayout, applies the gapped-scale tuning

normally used in holes 1 through 3 toanother, lower set of three holes. Thissacrifices the highest notes to provide moreof the low-end draw bends preferred byblues and country stylists.

“Valved” diatonics are made by fitting wind-saving valves (little plastic strips) on drawreeds 1 through 6 and blow reeds 7 through10. This prevents air leakage as well as theusual sort of blues bending. It does,however, allow for a choked sort of bend to

be played in all holes. Examples includethe Suzuki Promaster Valved.

A new type of harmonica invented by RickEpping, the Hohner “Extreme Bending” XB-40, adds extra reed chambers to thestandard ten-hole diatonic instrument sothat all notes, not just the usual ones, canbe bent a full tone lower.

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Where to Get a Harmonica Hohner standard diatonic instruments arewidely available in retail music stores.Other types of Hohner instruments, andvirtually all non-Hohner harmonicas, aremost easily ordered these days from online

vendors.

Harp Depot, an online business based inOhio, is a good source for for chromaticsfrom Hering and other makers. Seydel’swebsite (www.seydel1847.de) is extensive,and allows easy ordering of custom-tunedinstruments.

TECHNICAL TIPS

Playing Single Notes

The first problem beginning harmonicaplayers face is how to play one note at atime. Some players use their tongue toblock out the notes they don't want to play.This technique is particularly favored bythose who like to tap their tongue againstthe left side of a standard diatonic to soundchords while playing the melody from theright side of the instrument (more on thisbelow). Tongue blocking can also be usedto play the same note in two differentoctaves, one on the left side of your tongue

and the other on the right.

The other way to play single notes is topucker your lips, opening them just enoughto blow into or draw out of one hole at atime. You can still play chords by openingyour lips a bit more, but it's harder to get the“oom-pah” chordal accompaniment prizedby tongue-blockers. It is easier, however, toplay fast and accurate single-note melodiesthis way. It is possible, of course, tocombine the two techniques.

Chords

On all types of harmonicas, blowing anythree adjacent notes produces a majorchord. On a C instrument, it’s a C chord –the notes C, E and G in some order. On astandard C diatonic, D minor chords (notesD, F and A) are available by drawing fromholes 4, 5 and 6 or from holes 8, 9 and 10.

A partial B minor chord (B and D) can besounded by drawing from holes 3 and 4 orfrom 7 and 8, and a partial F major (F and A) in holes 5 and 6 or 9 and 10. Thesesame chords are also available, in slightlydifferent positions, on Oriental tremolo, solo-

tuned and chromatic instruments (see thecharts above).

On the standard C diatonic, but on no othertype of C harmonica, a G major chord(G,B,D) is produced by drawing on holes 1,2 and 3 or 2, 3 and 4, and a G7 chord(G,B,D,F) by drawing on holes 2, 3, 4 and5.. The gaps in the low octave scale in the“Richter” tuning scheme were designed tomake these “dominant” and “dominant 7 th “chords available, thus providing basic two-

chord backing for major-key melodies.

A tongue-blocking player can achieve agreat effect by “vamping” on the tonic anddominant 7th chords while playing themelody. This can be done by tapping thetongue against the harmonica, alternatelyblocking and unblocking holes on the leftside of the instrument while playing themelody from the right side of your mouth.This style of simple accompaniment recallsthat used on the melodeon (single-row

diatonic button accordion), which has asimilarly limited selection of bass chords onthe left side of the instrument. To hear amaster of the tongue-blocking chordtechnique, listen to the late Phil Murphy'ssolos on the CD The Trip to Cullenstown.It's hard to believe you're hearing only oneplayer!

If you’re not playing in the major key inwhich the harmonica is set, the availablechords are less useful. Dorian modal tunes

(more on this below) are an exception. A DDorian tune, for example, is bestaccompanied by D minor and C chords,which are the only two three-note chordsavailable on a chromatic. But for othermodal scales, only “wrong” chords areavailable.

Despite the limitations, playing chords is a

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key element of style for many harmonicaplayers. But if you use the harmonica’slimited chords to accompany tunes that theydon’t really suit, you will produce somethinglike the “harmony” an uilleann piper getsfrom sounding the instrument’s D drones to

accompany a melody set in G or A. Whetherthis sounds horrible to you or justcharacteristic of the instrument is matter oftaste. Chromatic ace Eddie Clarkefrequently added C chordal accents to Gtunes. This didn’t sound all that odd, but theavailability of more appropriate chords isone of the main reasons to use chromaticsin different keys rather than trying to playeverything on a single instrument.

Bending Notes

One way to play the missing notes on adiatonic harmonica is to “bend” other notesto get the missing pitch.. Bending is also akey element of blues style. If you’ve neverdone this, try the easy bend on the drawnote in hole 3 on a standard 10-holeharmonica. Find the hole, purse your lipsand draw air through it so that a single notesounds. Suck hard, draw your tongue backand drop your jaw slightly to lower the pitch.You can control the degree of the bend bysubtle adjustments of tongue and jaw.

Bending can only be done in a hole in whichthe musical interval separating the blow anddraw reed is greater than a half step. If thehigher reed in a hole is a draw reed, youcan play a draw bend, and vice versa. Thismeans you can play draw bends in holes 1,2, 3, 4 and 6, and (with a bit more difficulty)blow bends in holes 8, 9 and 10 of astandard diatonic. The available bends areshown in italic in the tuning charts above.What you’re really doing when bending is

not lowering the sound of the reed you thinkyou’re playing but forcing the other, lower-pitched reed in the same hole to sound atone above its normal pitch.

By bending notes, the harmonica player canimitate the way fiddlers, pipers and fluteplayers flatten or slide up into notes. Theharmonica, in fact, is the only free-reed

instrument on which this element of Irishtraditional style can be used. It's possible tooverdo the effect. Note bending is ahallmark of blues “cross-harp” style and notin synch with the usual sound of Irish musicas played on other free-reed instruments.

To bend or not to bend is really a questionof taste and style, but the type of instrumentalso figures in. Players such as MarkGraham and Andy Irvine, who use single-reed diatonics and have been heavilyinfluenced by American blues and countrystyles, make extensive use of bends in theirplaying, producing a interesting trans- Atlantic fusion style of Irish music.

But you can’t really bend notes on a tremolo

harmonica of the type used by the Murphybrothers or Noel Battle because the blowand draw reeds are separated into differentchambers and can’t interact. Similarly, the“wind-saving valves” in a chromaticharmonica block the airflow from passingover the blow reed when you’re soundingthe draw reed in the same chamber (andvice versa). So while you can choke achromatic reed a bit, you can’t really bendthe tone fully as you can on a diatonic.

Not all bends are easy to play in all keys,and considerable practice is required tocontrol them. Some highly accomplisheddiatonic players use “overblow” and“overdraw” techniques pioneered byharmonica virtuoso Howard Levy to soundtones that cannot played with traditionalbends. Irish harmonica ace Mick Kinsellamakes use of these advanced techniques,but they are outside the scope of thispamphlet and (in this writer's opinion) notwell adapted to Irish music played in

traditional style.

The Lips and Tongue

Whether you’re a tongue blocker or a lippuckerer, your lips can be painfully chafedby rubbing on the harmonica. As youbecome more proficient and relaxed, thisproblem will ease. If necessary, however,you can use a little vaseline or other non-

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toxic lubricant on your lips. Don't use toomuch or you'll blow the lubricant onto thereeds and deaden the sound.

When you start playing the harmonica, youwill discover lip muscles you didn’t know

you had. You have to build up your“embouchure” (to use the high-falutin’musical term) in the same way that otherwind instrument players do. Relaxation iskey, however. If you grip the instrument tootightly with your lips, the muscles will getfatigued in a hurry and you will not be ableto continue playing.

Even if you don't use tongue blocking, you'llstill need to use your tongue to play theharmonica. To separate two successive

notes of the same pitch, for example, youmay find it useful to tongue the second note.You do this by starting the note with a “T”sound, as if saying “tah.” This will releasethe air from your mouth in a short puff.

Many tunes have melodic passages thatrequire the player to alternate between aone lower note and a succession of highernotes. These patterns are easily played onthe fiddle or flute, but present difficulties onthe harmonica because the player must

move back and forth between widelyseparated holes without sounding any of thenotes in between. It is often possible to alterthe melody to avoid this difficulty, but youcan also tongue your way around theproblem. If you use your tongue toemphasize each of the higher notes, it willbe easier to play them cleanly withoutsounding any of the “in-between” notes.

An alternative to tonguing is to use the backof your throat, as if saying “kah.” This is a

technique favored by some flute players.You can also play a rapid-fire, trumpet-styletriplet with tongue or throat, as if saying“tah-tah-tah” or “tah-tah-kah.” .

Other Body Parts

The nose is another useful body part forharmonica players. Half the notes on theharmonica are draw notes, which require

the player to breathe in, so some of the airyou need to stay conscious will be acquired just by playing draw notes. You cansupplement this air supply, however, bybreathing in through your nose as well asyour mouth when you play a draw note.

Many minor and modal tunes (see sectionon modes below) emphasize the drawnotes. On these tunes, you may find yourlungs getting uncomfortably full. You cancope with this by using your nose like the airvalve on an accordion, expelling excess airthrough your nose whenever blow notes docome along.

On any wind instrument, whether the flute,trumpet or harmonica, the player must learn

to produce an economical and steadysupply of air. The key to this is not yourlungs but your belly. Sit up straight or standto play and use the muscles in yourabdomen to regulate the flow of air. This willprevent you from getting out of breath aseasily and you will be able to play sustainednotes more smoothly.

For the most efficient playing and strongesttone, you want the least amount of airleakage. On occasion, you must breathe in

through your nose while playing draw notes,but when playing blow notes, try to breatheout through your nose only as necessary toget rid of excess air in your lungs. If you findyourself out of breath after playing a fewminutes, you’re doing something wrong!

No two harmonica players sound alike, evenif they play the same instrument in the samestyle. A large aspect of the harmonica’ssound is determined by the resonanceprovided by the player’s mouth, throat and

even lungs. Good players constantly(though usually unconsciously) change theshape of their mouth and the force of theirbreath in order to coax notes into (or out of)tune and to create the kind of tone they wishto hear. With practice, you will come up withyour own distinctive harmonica sound.

When moving from note to note on the

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harmonica you can move your head backand forth or you can move the harmonica. Itwill ease the tension on your neck musclesand make for smoother playing if you learnto move the harmonica. You'll also look lesslike a deranged muppet if you play this way.

Many harmonica players in Ireland play“tremolo” instruments, which have a built-inwavering sound because of the two, slightlydifferently tuned reeds for each note. Onsingle-reeded instruments, a vibrato effectcan be achieved by cupping the harmonicain both hands and opening and closing thetop or bottom hand. A little of this goes along way, but it is a good effect on slow airs.

A more sophisticated vibrato can be

produced by controlled pulsing of the throatmuscles or diaphragm. This typical windinstrument technique has been exploited by jazz, blues and classical harmonica players.Brendan Power, Mick Kinsella and RickEpping’s Triple Harp Bypass recordingfeatures virtuoso use of this effect.

MAJOR, MINOR, MODAL

Harmonica players, like other traditionalmusicians, learn mostly by ear and don'tpay much attention to theory. It is useful,

however, to know a bit about the differentscales used in Irish music.

The Major Scale in First Position

The standard diatonic tuning scheme wasdesigned to make it easy to play melodyand chords for a single major key, whichcan be thought of as the “home key” of theharmonica. Even on a chromatic harmonica,it is easier to play in the home key than inany other. Playing in this key is often called“first position.”

The major scale is simply the familiar do-re-

mi... diatonic scale. A major-key melody,whether it's “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or“The Irish Washerwoman,” will usually finish(“resolve”) on do, the “tonic note” of the key.If you are playing a C harmonica, the homekey is C and do is C.

On a standard 10-hole diatonic harmonica,a complete major scale starts with do on theblow reed in hole 4 and ends with do on theblow reed in hole 7. The sequence of blowand draw notes necessary to produce thisscale is easy to master. As discussed

above, you can also start the major scalewith do on the blow in hole 1, but there willbe missing notes in scale in that range. Thethird octave, which starts with 7 blow, isnearly complete, lacking only the 7 th note ofthe scale.

On an Oriental tremolo, complete majorscales start with the blow notes in holes 2, 5and 8; on a solo-tuned or chromaticinstrument, with the blow notes in holes 1, 5and 8. On Melody Maker instruments,

complete scales start with draw 2 and blow6. In these tuning systems, there are nomissing notes in the diatonic scale.

In the major scale most notes, including do and re, are separated by an interval called awhole tone. The difference between mi andfa, however, as well as that between ti anddo, is only half as great and is known as ahalf tone. This is why there is not a blackkey between every two white keys on apiano. And this whole-whole-half-whole-

whole-whole-half pattern of intervals definesthe major scale.

Modes

Using the same array of notes as the majorscale but starting on a note other than doproduces a “modal” scale in which the half-tone intervals fall in different places. Tunesthat use the notes of a major scale but thatstart and resolve on some other note thanthe tonic note of that scale are referred to asmodal tunes. Such tunes abound in Irish

music as they are easily played on the harp,tin whistle, un-keyed flute or the chanter ofthe uilleann pipes chanter.The “Ionian” mode is another name for themajor scale. If you use the same notes butstart the scale with re instead, you willproduce what is known as the re scale or“Dorian” mode (some blues players call this“third position” or “slant harp”). A Dorian

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melody will resolve on re instead of do andthe third and seventh notes will be half atone flatter (lower) than the correspondingnotes in the major scale.

Dorian melodies are extremely common in

Irish music. Most Irish tunes referred to asbeing in a “minor” key actually use Dorianscales that resolve on A, E, D or B. A-Dorian tunes such as “The Star of Munster”use the same notes as major key tunes inthe key of G and so can most easily beplayed on a G harmonica. E-Dorian tunessuch as “Cooley's Reel” are easiest on a Dharmonica. D-Dorian tunes (e.g., “MasterCrowley’s”) are easiest on a C instrumentand B-Dorian tunes (e.g., “The Banks ofLough Gamhna”) on an A instrument. One

great thing about playing Dorian melodieson the harmonica is that the two basicchords available on all harmonicas (C and Dminor on a C instrument) are the ones thoseyou need to accompany tunes in that mode.

The natural minor scale, also called the“Aeolian mode,” “la mode” or “fourthposition,” can be played using the samearray of notes as the major scale butstarting on la. In this scale (which is notnearly as common in Irish music as the

Dorian mode), the third, sixth and seventhnotes are half a tone flatter (lower) than inthe major scale. A true E-minor tune (e.g.,“The Rights of Man”) uses the same notesas G major and so can most easily beplayed on a G harmonica. A-minor tunes(e.g., “Paddy Ryan’s Dream”) are easiest ona C harmonica and B-minor tunes on a Dharmonica.

Another mode commonly used in Irishmusic is the “Mixolydian,” which uses the

same notes as the major scale but starts onso. This mode is the basis for the bluescross-harp (“second position”) scale. It isalso the scale used on the highlandbagpipes (aka “warpipes”). On a standard10-hole diatonic, the only full Mixolydianscale stars with the blow note in hole 6, butyou can also start it with the blow note inhole 3 if you bend the draw note in hole 3 to

sound the next note in the scale. On achromatic harmonica, the Mixolydian scalestarts with the blow note in hole 3 or 7.

The seventh note of the Mixolydian scale isflat compared to the major scale, so a

Mixolydian tune rooted on D (e.g., “RakishPaddy”) can be most played easily on a Gharmonica, which has a C natural instead ofa C#. Mixolydian tunes based on A (e.g.,“The Ivy Leaf”) are easiest on a Dharmonica and those rooted on G (e.g. “TheGirl That Broke My Heart”) on a Charmonica.

Draw notes are more prominent in Dorian, Aeolian and Mixolydian melodies than inIonian (major) melodies. This can cause

problems because of the need to expel theexcess air that accumulates in your lungsbetween blow notes. Like anything else, themore you practice playing in these modes,the easier it will become. The key is to beeconomical with your breath and to use yournose to expel air whenever possible.

There are other modes, including thePhrygian (mi ), Lydian (fa) and Locrian (ti ),but they are extremely uncommon in Irishmusic. A great many Irish melodies cannot,

however, be strictly classified by scale ormode. Some use one mode in the first partand another in the second. Others usegapped scales in which the third and/orseventh notes are never played at all. Stillothers inconsistently flatten the third orseventh notes of the scale, slipping backand forth among Ionian, Mixolydian andDorian modes. Such tunes are most easilyplayed on a chromatic instrument.

Positional Playing

Major melodies in first position are theeasiest on the harmonica. Strictly modaltunes that use the same notes as the firstposition major scale are also quite easilyplayed. It’s trickier to play major melodiesoutside of first position, or modal melodiesthat start on other than the usual notes, Todo so requires notes not easily playable ona diatonic harmonica.

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An examples of positional playing would beto play in D major on a G harmonica. This issimilar to the Mixolydian/cross harp positiondescribed above. The difference is theseventh note of the scale, which in aMixolydian tune is half a step lower than it is

in the major scale. The D Mixolydian scale,for example, includes a C natural instead ofthe C# of D major.

To play in D major on a standard G diatonic,you can bend the draw D in hole 2 down toC# and, with more difficulty, bend down theblow D in hole 9. Unfortunately, you can'tbend the blow D in hole 6, and that justhappens to be where the most useful C#would be located. That’s why the Lee OskarMelody Maker and other country-tuned

models are tuned the way they are with theC reed (5 draw) sharpened up to sound C#.With these instruments, it's easy to play atrue major scale in second position.

Other positions are possible on diatonicharmonicas, but the need to bend morenotes presents more difficulties. You can tryto play a true D minor (Aeolian mode) tuneon a C harmonica, for example, but there isno reed for the B flat in the D minor scale,and no way to produce one in the second

octave by bending. With Howard Levy-style“overblows” and “overdraws,” it is possible(though very difficult) to play chromaticallyon a diatonic harmonica. That is not,however, a style compatible with the soundof other free-reed instruments used in theIrish tradition.

Without resorting to note-bending oroverblows, diatonic harmonica players canemulate melodeon players, who often craftsettings that omit notes they can’t play.

Connemara melodeon great JohnnyConnolly is a master of this technique,which he demonstrates by playing subtlydifferent settings of “Miss McLeod’s Reel” inD, G and A major – all on a box that hasonly the notes for the D major scale.

On a chromatic harmonicas, all positionsare theoretically possible, as any note

missing on one reed plate is available onthe other. In practice, some positions areridiculously difficult, but the slide does makeit relatively easy to play a G scale on a Charmonica, an scale A on a D harmonica ora D scale on a G harmonica. This chromatic

cross-harp approach can be heard at itsbest on recordings by Eddie Clarke.

A chart illustrating the common modes andpositions most easily played on harmonicasof different keys is included as an appendix.

ORNAMENTATION

Ornamentation is one of the keys to makingyour harmonica playing sound truly Irish.The amount of ornamentation you put it is amatter of taste and different players have

different styles of embellishment. As a rule,you should avoid over-decorating tunes tothe point where the original melody isobscured. You should definitely leave outornamentation that you can't play withoutdisrupting the rhythm of the tune.

Because of the similarities between thebutton accordion and the harmonica, thekind of embellishments that can be playedon the harmonica are the same ones thatare available on the “button box.” If you

listen to what good Irish buttonaccordionists do to ornament their music, itwill give you some hints on how to dress upIrish tunes on the harmonica.

Grace NotesThe simplest ornament on the harmonica isthe grace note. This is a very quick note thatleads into a note of normal duration, whichis the note being “graced.”. The most usefulgrace note is the higher one sounded usingthe same breath direction in the hole just to

the right of the note being graced, thoughyou can also “grace” with a lower note.

The note being graced is not delayed by thegrace note. Instead, the grace notesubtracts marginally from the length of thenote previous to the one being graced.Grace notes can be tongued but are alsovery useful for separating two identical

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notes without using your tongue. This is atechnique often used by buttonaccordionists and mimics the way pipers,fiddlers or flute players flick down a finger toseparate notes of the same pitch.

Triplet OrnamentsThe most important ornamental figure onthe harmonica is a quick two-hole tripletplayed without changing breath direction. Atriplet is three notes played in the sameamount of time as two notes of normalduration. Triplet ornaments are much easierif you purse your lips rather than tongue-block to play single notes. Blow or draw anynote and quickly (without changing breathdirection) shift one hole to the right andback to the original note. The middle note of

the triplet is usually (but not always) twosteps higher than the note beingornamented, e.g., do-mi-do.

The first note of the triplet can be tongued togive it extra emphasis or to separate thetriplet from the preceding note when, as isoften the case, that note is of the same pitchas the first note of the triplet. To hear howthis two-hole triplet should sound and whereit should be used in a tune, the best modelwould be recordings by the Murphy family or

Noel Battle.

Fiddlers, pipers and flute players often playa four-note ornament called a “short roll”that takes the place of two eighth notes in areel or hornpipe. In the short roll, the notebeing ornamented is preceded by a highergrace note and followed by a note half astep lower before the player returns to themain note. If G is the note beingornamented, the short roll includes thesequence A-G-F#-G. The short roll cannot

really be played quickly enough on theharmonica or the button accordion to makeit work. Box players usually substitute atriplet for a short roll, and harmonica playerscan follow their example.

Staccato and Tongued TripletsOn blow notes you can play a one-holetriplet by changing breath direction for the

middle note. Blow any note, then quicklyplay the draw note in the same hole andreturn to the original blow note. Each note inthis kind of triplet has a clipped-off“staccato” sound that is particularly effectivewhen playing hornpipes. It also

approximates the sound of a bowed tripleton the fiddle.

You can also play a staccato tripletornament on a draw note, but it may taketwo holes. You usually want the middle noteof the triplet to be higher than the note beingornamented, so when starting on a drawnote, you usually need to move to the nexthole to the right to play the middle notebefore returning to the original hole anddrawing again.

An entirely different sort of staccato tripletcan be played with the tongue alone on asingle note. Play any note (blow notes areeasier for this) and use your tongue as ifsaying “tah-tah-tah.” Alternatively, you cando what trumpet players do and use theback of your throat to finish the triplet, as ifsaying “tah-tah-kah.” Tremolo masterKieran McHugh of Antrim used thistechnique on his cassette recording.

Slide Ornaments Another kind of one-hole triplet can beplayed only on a chromatic harmonica. Thistriplet is composed of the note beingornamented followed by a note a half a steplower and the original note (e.g., do-ti-do).This kind of ornament is known as amordent to classical musicians, but I refer toit as a “slide triplet” because you play it byusing the slide mechanism on the chromaticharmonica.

The slide triplet can be played quickly andsmoothly only if all three notes are in thesame hole and same breath direction. Thisis possible only if you start the triplet on thehigher-pitched of the two reed plates. Onstandard chromatic harmonicas, the noteson the higher-pitched reed plate are on thebottom of the instrument and are onlyavailable if you push the slide in.

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So to use slide triplets on a standardchromatic harmonica, you hold the slide inwith your thumb or finger when playing.When you come to a note you want toornament, you briefly release the slide andpress it in again. An alternative is to

disassemble the slide mechanism andreassemble it with the slide upside down, sothat notes on the higher-pitched reed platesound with the slide out. That way, you playthe triplet by quickly pressing the andreleasing the slide in, which is easier on thehand (more on this below in the section onreversing the slide).

To hear what the slide triplet should soundlike, listen to the recordings of Eddie Clarke,who pioneered this technique and relied

almost exclusively on it for ornamentation. As with other ornaments, you can tonguethe first note of the triplet to give it extraemphasis or to separate it from a precedingnote of the same pitch.

It is tempting to try to use the slide triplet onthe lower-pitched reed plate, i.e., the onenormally played when the slide is out. If youdo so, however, the middle note of thetriplet will be half a step higher instead ofhalf a step lower than the note being

ornamented. This just doesn't sound right,as it doesn't resemble ornaments used byIrish musicians on other instruments. If youwant to embellish a note on the lower-pitched plate, you really should stick to thetwo-hole triplet described above.

The big disadvantage of the slide triplet isthat you cannot use it when playingstandard instruments in concert pitch. That'sbecause you're playing from the higher reedplate, e.g. G# on a G instrument. There are

ways around this problem, however, whichwill be discussed in the section on customtunings below.

Anyone accustomed to playing thechromatic harmonica in the “normal” fashionmay have problems adjusting to a systembased on playing from the higher-pitchedreed plate. If you've become accustomed to

using the slide to get a note half a stephigher, it is disorienting to get a note half astep lower. If you're already a chromaticplayer, you will have to lose old habits andrelearn certain tunes to use this scheme.

Upward and Downward TripletsThe triplet ornaments described above startand end on the same note. It is alsopossible to play upward or downwardtriplets that start on one note and end onanother. Such triplets are very common inIrish tunes and can often put in or left out forsake of variation.

Some upward triplets are easily played onthe harmonica because two of the notes arein adjacent holes and use the same breath

direction. To play an E-F#-G (la-ti-do) tripleton a G chromatic, for example, you drawfrom holes 7 and 8 then blow into hole 8.

Other triplets, however, require the player tochange breath direction twice by blowingand drawing in one hole and then blowinginto the next hole to the right. For example,to play a B-C-D (mi-fa-so) triplet on a Gchromatic, you blow and draw in hole 6 andthen blow into hole 7 (on a diatonic it's holes5 and 6). This sort of triplet, like the staccato

triplet sounds very clipped. Sometimes thissound is what is desired, as when a fiddlerpurposely bows each note of a tripletinstead of slurring them together.

If you want to play such a triplet moresmoothly, you can use the slide to play themiddle note of the triplet. Doing this allowsyou to play all three notes as blow notes. Asimilar technique is used by two-row buttonaccordionists, who use the lower-pitchedouter row of buttons like a chromatic

harmonica player uses the lower-pitchedreed plate.

To play a smooth mi-fa-so triplet, hold theslide in, blow into hole 6. Move to hole 7while simultaneously releasing the slide tosound the second note, then press the slideagain while continuing to blow into hole 7 tocomplete the triplet. Practice is required to

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perform this sequence quickly andaccurately.

On a standard harmonica, when playingfrom the higher-pitched reed plate with theslide in, every note is half a step higher than

it would be on the lower reed plate. Whenplaying an upward slide triplet in holes 6and 7, however, the middle note (the oneplayed with the slide) is actually a wholetone higher than it would have been on thelower-pitched reed plate. The melodicdifference is hardly detectable when thetriplet is played quickly, however.

True Rolls As noted above, it is not possible to play a“short roll” quickly enough on the

harmonica, and we must substitute a triplet.It is possible, however, for a harmonicaplayer to produce a passable five-note “longroll,” an ornament that replaces a wholebeat in a jig, reel or hornpipe. The long rollstarts with the note being ornamented andthen continues with a higher note, the mainnote, a lower note and the main note again,e.g., G-A-G-F#-G.

To play a long roll fast enough to fit into a jigor reel, all the notes must use the same

breath direction. To do this on a diatonicharmonica, play any note and then, withoutchanging breath direction, move to the nexthole to the right, back to the original hole,then to the next hole to the left and back tothe original hole. If you start with the blownote in hole four, the roll would use thenotes do-mi-do-so-do (C-E-C-G-C on a Cdiatonic). This sort of ornament is adaptedfrom the rolls played by old-time melodeonplayers.

A chromatic player can produce a snappierversion of the long roll by using the slide.You must play from the higher-pitchedbottom reed plate on the chromatic in orderto use the effect. The chromatic long rollcan be thought of as a Murphy-style two-hole triplet followed by an Eddie Clarke-style slide triplet. To play it, blow or drawany note on the bottom (higher) reed plate

and then, without changing breath direction,play the note in the next hole to the right.Return to play the original note and thenuse the slide to sound the note half a steplower finishing on the original note. If youstart with the blow note in hole 5 on a

standard C chromatic, this is do-mi-do-ti-do (C-E-C-B-C) but with every note raised halfa step since you're on the C# reed plate (itcan be played in C if you play from thehigher C plate on a standard B harmonica).

The rhythm of either version of the long rollis tricky to master. The first note (the onebeing “rolled”) should be sounded thelongest, while the fourth, lower note shouldbe played very quickly. The slide version ofthe true roll is easier to play in good rhythm

than the diatonic version because that quickfourth note can be played with a flick of theslide instead of moving to another hole. Theslide roll also sounds better because thefourth note is a half-tone lower than the notebeing rolled, which sounds more like therolls played by fiddlers, pipers and fluters.

Chromatic players can use an alternativethat is easier to play. Just hold the note thatyou want to ornament to the last possiblesplit second and then use the slide to

squeeze in a quick triplet. This is not really aroll, but it's played in the same amount oftime and can be used in place of a true rolluntil you master the real thing.

CUSTOMIZING AND MAINTAININGCHROMATIC HARMONICAS

Reversing the SlideEddie Clarke played standard Hohnerchromatics while holding the slide in with histhumb, releasing it to play triplet ornaments

or notes on the upper reed plate. The sameeffects can be achieved with less stress onyour hand by reversing the slide, i.e., byassembling the slide mechanism upsidedown so that the higher-pitched reeds areplayed when the slide is out.

To do this on a Hohner Chromonica orSuperChromonica, remove the screws

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holding the slide assembly to theharmonica. Be careful not to lose the smallplastic cylinders in the screw holes. Lift offthe outermost piece (the mouthpiece) tolexpose a three-layer sandwich of thinnermetal strips. Take off the outer layer of the

sandwich to get at the innermost strip, theslide itself. The slide has a small hole on theright side through which the end of a springprotrudes. Detach the slide from the spring,turn it over and reattach it upside down.Then reassemble the whole mechanism andreattach the screws. With the slide upsidedown, you can produce an Eddie Clarke-style slide ornament by quickly pressing andreleasing the slide.

You can also reverse the slide on Hering

and Seydel chromatics but not on someother models. It is difficult, for example, todisassemble the slide mechanism on theHohner Chrometta. Suzuki chromatics don’thave the spring hole in the center of theslide, which prevents it from being reversed.Reversing the slide doesn’t work at all onHohner’s CX-12 model because it’s “crosstuned,” i.e., the reeds for the “home” key aresplit between the top and bottom plates.

Custom Tunings

The main disadvantage of playing from thebottom reed plate of standard chromaticinstruments is that you can't play in concertpitch. That's why Eddie Clarke, who playedC/C# harmonicas from the bottom (C#) reedplate, was always half a step sharp on hisrecordings. That is handy for sessionswhere everybody is playing half a stepsharp a la De Dannan, but it's annoyingwhen you want to play with other musiciansin standard tuning.

Clarke could have played in concert pitch ifhe had a standard chromatic harmonica inthe key of B, which has a bottom reed platein the key of C. Such an instrument, whichis tuned much like a B/C button accordion,is favored by Irish harmonica virtuoso MickKinsella. Like Clarke, Kinsella uses “secondposition” to play tunes in G on a Cinstrument.

To use Clarke’s ornamentation system in“first position” (e.g. in G on a G harmonica),you need instruments tuned C#/D or F#/G.These aren't standard tunings, but you canbuy or assemble such instruments fromsome makers and dealers. Seydel’s

website will take custom orders for anytuning, and Harp Depot in Ohio sells Heringchromatics and replacement “combos”(combs with two reeds already mounted) inC#/D, B/C and F#/G. Hohner chromatics inthese tunings can only be assembled bymatching reed plates from different sets. Tochange a standard G/G# chromatic into anF#/G model, you need to get an F# reedplate from a standard F set. Then youremove the G# plate and replace it with theF# plate.

To assemble a C#/D Hohner Super-Chromonica 270, you replace the D# platewith a C# plate from a Hohner “tenor” C setof plates. A C# plate from a Hering 6148“Baritono” C set can be used in the sameway to replace the D# plate on Hering 5148or 7148 D instrument. You can’t use a C#plate from a regular C set because Dinstruments are the lowest-pitchedchromatics and C the highest. The lowoctave on a D instrument is below the

lowest note on a standard C instrument, soa standard C# plate doesn’t match up.Unfortunately, you cannot assemble a ten-hole C#/D or F#/G Hohner Chromonica 260this way because Hohner doesn’t make ten-hole D, tenor C or F reed plates.

Hering plates are easily changed becausethey're attached to the comb with screwsinstead of tacks. Occasionally, however,you might find that a plate from one combcannot be attached attached to a different

comb – the fit is not exact. Plates on Hohner270 Chromonica models are moreconsistent, but to change plates you mustcarefully pry up the tacks holding themdown. The new reed plate must then betacked down as tightly as possible to avoidair leaks.

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“IRISH-TUNED” CHROMATIC HARMONICAS

F#/G

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

G a B c D e f# G G a B c D e f# G G a B c D e f# G

F#g# A# b C# d# f F# F# g# A# b C# d# f F# F# g# A# b C# d# f F#

C#/D

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

D e F# g A b c# D D e F# g A b c# D D e F# g A b c# D

C# d# F f# G# a# c C# C# d# F f# G# a# c C# C# d# F f# G# a# c C#

B/C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

C d E f G a b C C d E f G a b C C d E f G a b C

B c# D# e G# a# a# B B c# D# e G# a# a# B B c# D# e G# a# a# B

Hohner does not sell customizedharmonicas directly. You have to buy astandard instrument from a retailer andsend it to Hohner to change the plates. Asplates are normally sold as a set, you will becharged for plates you don’t need, e.g. an Fplate when you really only want an F#.

The Hohner repair department used to be

very customer-friendly and would adjust andre-tune instruments for reasonable rates.The policy changed in 2009, however, sothat it now costs about as much to have achromatic re-tuned as it would to buy anentirely new instrument. If you still chooseto have Hohner do the modifications, youhave to mail the instrument to them at the

following address:

Hohner, Inc.Harmonica Repair Department1000 Technology Park DriveGlen Allen, VA 23059

Some players create their own customtunings. Seattle harmonica ace Joel

Bernstein once made a 10-hole C#/Dharmonica by retuning all the reeds on a CChromonica 260 up half a tone, though hefound that the reeds on the radically retunedinstrument would not hold their pitch. JeanDuVal, a Quebec flute and harmonicaplayer, created a 10-hole Chromonica with atop reed in G and a bottom plate in D. The

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D plate was originally a C# plate that he re-tuned up half a tone (he reports that his re-tuned plate held its pitch). While this tuningdoes not allow the use of Eddie Clarke-styleslide triplets, it does make for interestingshortcuts, as you can go from G or A down

to D merely by pressing in the slide.

Brendan Power uses a variety of non-standard tunings and often favors a “slidediatonic,” a chromatic instrument on whichthe bottom reed plate is tuned a whole toneinstead of a half tone higher than the topplate. On such an instrument, you can playon the top reed plate and flick the slide inand out to get triplets that go up a wholetone and back. Power also feels that thissetup makes some difficult passages more

easily playable.

Maintenance

Diatonic harmonicas are fairly robust butchromatics, with their complicated slideassembly and “wind-saving” valves, need alot of regular attention to play well.

If you've got a harmonica with a woodencomb, you should never soak it or put itunder the tap to clean it. Old-time bluesplayers used to do this with wooden diatonic

harmonicas because it makes for a biggersound. But a wet wooden comb will expand,cause air leaks and abrade your lips. On achromatic, it can make it impossible for theslide assembly to fit properly. You do needto take off and clean the pieces of achromatic slide assembly occasionally, asthey get gummed up with bits of your lip anddried saliva. Take the slide mechanismapart, carefully clean the pieces, andreassemble it. Be careful not to lose the littleplastic cylindrical screw anchors.

Before reassembling the slide mechanism,you can help keep it working smoothly byrubbing a little vegetable oil on the slide(don't use toxic machine oil!). A little oil on awooden comb can also help keep the woodmoist and create a bigger tone.Ironically, by cleaning the slide you mayremove bits of gunk that actually help seal

the gap between the body of the instrumentand the slide assembly, and this mightactually cause more air loss and a weakersound. Removing and re-attaching the slidemechanism may also cause the hole tobecome so chewed up that the screws no

longer hold properly. You can use bits ofpaper to help anchor the screw in the hole.

Except for the very highest notes, each reedon a chromatic harmonica is covered by atwo-part plastic flap called a wind-savingvalve or simply wind-saver. The twooverlapping plastic strips that make up eachvalve often become stuck together and riseabove the reed slot, which causes anannoying flapping noise and a weakersound. The valves will eventually get moist

and loosen up after a few minutes of playingbut you can separate the parts yourself withcareful use of a small screwdriver, knife ortoothpick to hasten this process.

The opposite problem is also possible – avalve can get really sticky and will adhere tothe plate, causing a delay before the reedsounds. In such a case, you will need tocarefully lift up and clean the valve itself.

Reeds do go out of tune. The blow reeds

you use the most tend to go flat after awhile. You can re-tune a reed by scratchingit gently on one end or the other. Scratchthe reed near the tip to raise the pitch.Scratch it nearer the base to lower the pitch.If you want to tune blow reeds, which are onthe underside of the reed plate, it’s best totake the plate off the comb to get at them. Aharmonica repair kit from Lee Oskarincludes various files and chisels for tuningreeds as well as other useful implements.

If a reed doesn't sound at all, it's probablybecause a hair or a piece of dried skin isstuck to it or touching it. Carefully brush thereed with a soft toothbrush. You can also liftthe reed with a small screwdriver, pin ortoothpick and remove any extraneousmatter interfering with a clean sound. A reed that buzzes may be out of alignment,so that the vibrating reed touches the side

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of the slot in which it is mounted. You cancorrect this by gently nudging the reedsideways, something made easier with asmall wrench that is included in the LeeOskar tool kit.

A reed may also stop sounding altogether ifmetal fatigue causes it to droop so thatthere is not enough of a gap between theend of the reed and the surface of the reedplate. You can pry the reed up to restore itto life. Be gentle as it won't sound if liftedtoo high either! Eventually a reed maysimply get too worn out to retune. At that

point, you really need a new reed plate, butdon't throw away the old one. Save it toscavenge spare wind-saving valves.

If the slide is working properly but you heartwo dissonant notes when playing from a

single hole, you probably have a crack inthe comb. The crack allows air blown inone hole to vibrate reeds on both reedplates. If the crack is not too severe, youcan fill it in with wood glue, but if this doesn'twork, you need a new comb.

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APPENDIX A: IRISH / SCOTTISH / QUEBECOIS HARMONICA DISCOGRAPHY

Full-length harmonica recordings

TOMMY BASKERThe Tin Sandwich, Silver Apple CD

(www.cranfordpub.com)The late Cape Breton Islander played Scotsand Irish tunes on simple diatonicharmonicas. He used virtually noornamentation and rarely played singlenotes. He had rock solid rhythm though,and his chordal style emulated the CapeBreton fiddle technique of continuallydroning on open strings. Basker's 1960sduets with fiddler Johnny Wilmot appear onSilver Apple's Wilmot CD.

NOEL BATTLEMusic From the Reeds CDThe many-time All-Ireland champion fromWestmeath released this recording ofclassic tremolo-style playing, withaccompaniment from pianist Brian McGrath,in 2008. Battle’s style is similar to that of theMurphys, but he prefers slightly quickertempos and plays exclusively in major keys(at least on this CD). His repertoire is alsodrawn more from tunes in the mainstream ofcontemporary Irish traditional music.

JOEL BERNSTEIN

The Rashers (with Randal Bays), cassettePigtown Fling , Foxglove CDJoel, who lives in Seattle, performed withfiddler Randal Bays as “The Rashers.” Hischromatic playing in the Eddie Clarke styleis extraordinary and he also plays greatdiatonic harmonica. The Rashers tape canbe ordered from Joel at 3635 Burke N.,Seattle, WA 98103. The more recentPigtown Fling (and his old-timey duet with

fiddler Ruthie Dornfeld, Ways of the World )can be ordered from Foxglove via theirwebsite www.foxgloverecords.com.

DONALD BLACK West Winds, Greentrax CD and (withMalcolm Jones) Close to Home(MacMeanmna) A Scotsman who plays mostly double-

reeded tremolo diatonics. His chord playingand rhythmic emphasis closely mimics thesound of Scottish piano accordion players.

LOUIS BLANCHETTEBlanchette (1905-1969) recorded manysides of Quebec reels (one reel per track) inthe 1930s on the “musique à bouche” withaccompaniment from piano and his ownstamping feet. His playing was reissued ona couple of LPs. There are some familiarIrish/Scots melodies, some with an odd beatadded or subtracted. Strong dance rhythm,clean playing on tremolo instrument.

TOM BYRNE

Tom Byrne A Donegal resident who grew up in Crewe,England, Byrne released a 2009 CDproduced (and played on) by fiddle starFrankie Gavin. It features fast-paced,brilliant playing on chromatics. Byrne has apowerful tone and superb technique andshines on challenging Sean McGuire-stylehornpipe showpieces. His technique wasevidently learned playing non-Irish music,however, so he used little or no traditionalornamentation and did not venture to play in

jig rhythm.

EDDIE CLARKECrossroads (with Joe Ryan), Green LinnetSailing into Walpole's Marsh, Green LinnetUnheard, CCÉThe late Eddie Clarke's music is requiredlistening for any would-be Irish chromaticharmonica player. A Dublin residentoriginally from Virginia, County Cavan,Clarke pioneered the system of playing achromatic from the higher-pitched reed

plate, using the slide for ornaments. Hefavored the cross-harp position andrecorded most often in G# major and relatedmodal scales on a standard Hohner CSuperChromonica. In his duets with Clarefiddler Joe Ryan, he matched Ryan soclosely that it's hard to distinguish the soundof the two instruments. The compilationSailing into Walpole's Marsh included two

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solos and two duets with east Galwayfiddler Maeve Donnelly. Clarke’s GreenLinnet LP tracks are available as digitaldownloads from various music websites.Unheard, a new multi-CD set of recordingsof Clarke’s harmonica playing and singing

produced by Cavan fiddler Antóin MacGabhann (Tony Smith), was released in late2009.

JAMES CONWAYMouth Boxwww.jimmyconway.comConway is a Chicago musician who playsmany instruments in several styles, but onthis self-produced disc concentrates on Irishharmonica. He plays mostly diatonicinstruments, with a few tracks on a D

chromatic, all with good rhythm and solidIrish style. The disc also includes Conway'sexcellent tin whistle playing, guitar backingfrom Martin Hayes' partner Dennis Cahilland a cameo appearance from harmonicagenius Howard Levy. The Chicago JimmyConway is not the Australian one, a well-known blues player down under.

TONY EYERS

Black Mountain Harmonica Australian diatonic player who uses his own

tuning system, a variation on country tuningthat he calls “Major Cross.”http://www.harmonicatunes.com/index.htm

DAVID HERZHAFTHarmonica Celtique (Henry Lemoine - 41rue Bayen 75017 Paris) A book and CD from a French diatonicplayer with a background in blues andcountry. He plays Irish, Scottish, Quebec,French and Cape Breton tunes. The CD hasthirty pieces played in normal and slow

versions to aid the learner.

IRON LUNG

Triple Harp Bypass An all-star trio that includes Brendan Power,Mick Kinsella and Rick Epping, with helpfrom guitarist Martin Dunlea. It’s an eclecticrecording that is not purely Irish traditionalmusic, as there are a good deal of bluesy

stylings and original compositions. But thisis an amazing alliance of diatonic andchromatic virtuosi and the disc includesgreat demonstrations of most of the waysyou can play Irish and American old-timemusic on mouth organs. Available from

www.brendanpower.com

BRYCE JOHNSTONEMoothie (Smith/Mearns)Mostly waltzes, airs and marches from thisScotsman. The cover photo shows himholding one of the those rotating spindlesthat hold several tremolo mouth organs ofvarious keys.

DONAL KAVANAGH

A Dubliner and His Harmonica

Kavanagh plays tremolo instruments in old-time Irish style. He also uses somechromatics, but more as solo-tuneddiatonics as he doesn’t much use the slide.His repertoire is heavy on airs, hornpipesand waltzes, all played with sparing use ofornamentation but always in good rhythm.You can order Donal's CD for $16 (US) fromhim at 61 Elizabeth Street, Aylmer, QuebecJ9H 1E8

MICK KINSELLA

Harmonica, independent CDMick, a Dubliner with Wexford roots, is asuperb all-around harmonica player whohas mastered traditional blues style,Howard Levy overblows, jazz improvisationand the Eddie Clarke approach to Irishmusic on the chromatic harmonica. Mickoften uses a B chromatic to play in any key,a truly chromatic approach that mirrors thatof B/C button accordionists. His solorecording includes traditional Irish tunes aswell as original melodies, jazz, blues and

Balkan music. Mick also appears as a guestartist on recordings by Altan, NiamhParsons and others. See also Iron Lung

BRUNO KOWALCZYK

A French player who plays mostly Tombotremolo on tunes from Quebec and Ireland.

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KIERAN McHUGH

The Wind in the Reeds, independentcassette An Antrim native who plays a tremolodiatonic instrument, McHugh managed theneat trick of playing on one reed plate and

covering the other with his lip, thenswitching to double-reed tremolo sound fora fuller effect, much like a buttonaccordionist switching couplers. He usedtrumpet-style tongued triplets forornamentation.

ARTHUR MIDDLETON

Mouth Organ Maestro

Harmonica Favourites (cassettes) An Aberdeen native who plays diatonics forwaltzes, airs, marches, schottisches and

other tunes. Another harmonica player, BertBurwood, joins on Harmonica Favourites along with piano, bass and drums.

PAUL MORAN A Flying Start (with Fergal Scahill)independent CD, 2002 All-Ireland mouth organ and fiddle champsfrom Corofin, County Galway, Paul Moranand Fergal Scahill collaborated on this greatduet album that is the best example ofplaying Irish music on a “country tuned”

harmonica. Moran plays on Lee Oskar“Melody Maker” instruments, which allowhim to play major key tunes in “secondposition” on a diatonic instrument. Theinstrument’s restricted range sometimesforces Moran to change octaves to find thenecessary melody notes in some passages,and he does not make use of the note-bending capabilities of the instrument.

THE MURPHYSThe Trip to Cullenstown, Claddagh CD

The late Phil Murphy and his sons John andPhilip (“Pip”) from Bannow, Wexford formeda celebrated Irish mouth organ trio in the1980’s. The Murphys play mostly Orientaltremolo diatonics and favor relaxed tempos.They make great use of chordalaccompaniment and play well-thought-outarrangements with cleanly executed two-hole ornaments and rock-solid rhythm. The

Murphys can also be heard on some tracksof the fiddler Kevin Burke's recording UpClose (Green Linnet) and on a locallydistributed 1980s cassette, Traditional

Music from South Wexford.

BRENDAN POWERNew Irish Harmonica, Punch/Green LinnetBorn in Kenya, raised in New Zealand andnow living in England, Power plays bothdiatonic and chromatic harmonicas in blues,Irish, jazz, Balkan and other styles. He alsore-tunes instruments to his own patterns,including chromatics on which the two reedplates are set a whole tone rather than ahalf tone apart. His New Irish Harmonicaincluded some very traditional-style tracksbut others were free interpretations of Irish

music incorporating elements from American country and blues styles. Power ismuch in demand as a session player andcan be heard on River of Sound , Arcady's Many Happy Returns, Altan's Blackwater

and many other discs. He has other solodiscs, and has recorded with Mick Kinsellaand Rick Epping as “Iron Lung” (see listingabove). He has a CD-ROM tutorial availablefrom Madfortrad.com, and self-publishedtutors on playing Irish music on diatonic andchromatic harmonicas. His recordings and

books are available throughwww.brendanpower.com

ANDY O’SULLIVAN

Amergin, Green Note CD A Kerry-based group that features Andy’sHohner CX-12 chromatic harmonicas in agroup with accordion, fiddle, banjo andother instruments. His playing of SliabhLuachra tunes and barn dances is cleanand in good rhythm – the best feature of thisCD.

JEAN SABOT (with Laurent Dacquay)Harmonica-Violon (Coop Breizh) A harmonica/fiddle CD from Brittanyfeaturing much Irish music that isrecommended highly by Steve Shaw.

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STEVE SHAW

Blowing Through the Reeds An independent recording of Irish, Scotsand English dance tunes and airs ondiatonic harmonicas (Lee Oskar G, HohnerSpecial 20 low D), played at moderate

tempos with sparing use of ornamentation.Shaw tunes down his 2 draw reeds ratherthan the 3 blow reeds commonly altered in“country tuning,” but to the same effect.With Martin Cole on guitar, fiddle, mandolinand vocals. Available directly from Shaw [email protected]. See his website at:http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica

TONY “SULLY” SULLIVAN

Traditional Mouth Organ

CD and tutor from the Manchester musicianbetter known as a tenor banjo player. See:www.halshawmusic.co.uk/mouth.html

JAMES THURGOOD

Handy Little Rig: Celtic and Old-TimeHarmonica from the Maritimes (CD Baby) A Nova Scotia native whose father camefrom Cape Breton and mother from P.E.I.,Thurgood was raised in Windsor, Ontariobut now resides in Alberta. He plays Irish,Scots and old-time North American tunes in

strict dance tempo using a simple, ten-holeHohner Pro-Harp in G. The “Celtic” tracksare clean and in good rhythm, if a bit slowerthan is now popular, and without much useof ornaments. His “old-time” tracks include alot huffing and puffing and odd-soundingornamental flourishes. The CD includesextensive liner notes on harmonica stylesand players in the Maritimes.

MATT WALKATE Harmonica and Flute

A home-made English recording featuringdiatonic and chromatic harmonica as well asflute and songs, with guitar, mandola andbodhran accompaniment. Available fromMatt at [email protected]

GLENN WEISER Author of several harmonica tutors,including Irish and American Fiddle Tunes

for Harmonica. Seewww.celticguitarmusic.com/celHarrm.htm

DON WESSELS

On Orkney

Maine native Don Wessels is an ace

guitarist who became obsessed withchromatic harmonica playing, and hasbecome one of the better Irish chromaticplayers in the U.S. This privately issued CDwas recorded in the Orkney Islands withlocal musicians and includes Scottish aswell as Irish material. Visit his website atwww.donwessels.com

Recordings with some harmonica tracks

JAMES ANDREWS, DONALD DAVIDSON,

WILLIAM KEMP and THE SILVER CITYHARMONICA BAND

Sook and Blaw

A CD reissue of 78 rpm discs from theScottisj mouth organ players listed above aswell as other free reed players.

JAMES ANDREWS and JIMMYHIDDLESTONE Bob Smith's Ideal Band , Topic LP Andrews and Hiddlestone recorded sometracks with this Glasgow band in the early

'30s, including Andrews' tour de forceversion of the “High Level Hornpipe,” onwhich he switches back and forth betweentwo diatonic harmonicas. The liner notesincluded a Scottish newspaper review of acompetition won by Andrews, with theheadline “Sookin' and Blawin'.”

JOE BURKE A Cape Bretoner who had some tracks onThe Gaelic Tradition in Cape Breton, vol 1,.

a now-deleted Topic recording..

PAUL DAVIS

Armagh Pipers Club, The Song of the

Chanter, Outlet LP A 1970s recording featuring members of the Armagh Pipers Club. The late Paul Davis,an Englishman who played flute andconcertina on the album, had one great

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track on harmonica, “Father Kelly's Reel,”which he played on a C chromatic, usingMurphy-style rolls.

GERRY DONOGHER (or Danaher) A Sligoman born in 1935 who learned his

music from his father John, a fiddle player.Recorded with the Coleman Country CeiliBand for RTE and can be heard on TheLiving Tradition, released in 2000 by theColeman Archive.

RICK EPPING

Rick is an all-around free-reed man whooften plays harmonica and concertinasimultaneously. The first American to win an All-Ireland mouth organ championship, Rickhas toured with Frankie Gavin and with the

harmonica trio Iron Lung (see listing above).He is also the inventor of the Hohner“Extreme Bending” harmonica, aninstrument that gives crossharp stylists theability to bend notes that can’t be altered inthat way on a traditional harmonica. The1976 LP by the group Pumpkinhead

includes a very impressive solo track byRick on a country-tuned diatonic harmonica.He has also recently recorded with Dervishsinger Cathy Jordan and Sligo guitarist andharmonica player Seamie O’Dowd.

LARRY FITZPATRICK

Off to California, Advent LPLarry was a native of Enniscorthy, CountyWexford who played three tracks (reels,flings and hornpipes) on this 1970s LP ofSan Francisco Irish musicians. He was aspectacularly good player on a 10-holestandard diatonic, using vamping chordsand two-hole triplet ornaments.

MARK GRAHAM

Natural Selections, independent CDwith Kevin Burke and Open House: Open

House; Second Story, Hoof and Mouth (allGreen Linnet)Graham, another Seattle resident, playedharmonica and clarinet in Open House, anow defunct band that also included thefiddler Kevin Burke. Graham playschromatics in the Eddie Clarke style and is

also a great diatonic player for Irish and“old-timey” American tunes.

LARRY GRIFFIN

Ballinasloe Fair, Traditional Crossroads CDLarry, who played fine tongue-blocking

chordal accompaniment to songs, can beheard on tracks with Dan Sullivan'sShamrock Band and with singer Dinny“Jimmy” Doyle on this reissue collection ofVictor 78 rpm recordings.

STEVE HICKMANCeltic Thunder, Green Linnet CDSteve plays on one track on CelticThunder's first record, a great reel duet(“The Woman of the House/Paddy Lynn'sDelight”) with flute player Linda Hickman.

ANDY IRVINE

Andy is most famous for his singing andbouzouki playing with Planxty and PatrickStreet. But all of his solo and band discsinclude very tasty harmonica playing. Hisharmonica is especially prominent on hisclassic 1970s duet disc with Paul Brady. Andy favors country-tuned diatonicinstruments and often uses a shoulder rackso that he can double on bouzouki.

LARRY KINSELLA The Irish Phonograph, EMI LPThis LP includes a 1938 track from Wexfordnative Larry Kinsella, the first soloharmonica player to record Irish music. It's asuperb rendering of the hornpipes “TheShowman's Fancy” and “Pretty MaggieMorrissey.”

XAVIER LAUNE

French player with group Distant Shores.

DON MEADEThe author of this pamphlet has beenrecorded on a few tracks on recordings byNew York-based button accordionist andfiddler Tom Dunne, singer Susan McKeownand the Washington Square Harp andShamrock Orchestra. A solo recording is inthe works.

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NOEL PEPPER

The Lark in the Clear Air , Topic/OssiancassettePepper, a Corkman living in England,played diatonics with a huff-and-puff styleon several cuts of this compilation of “music

on small instruments.” He soloed on slowairs and played dance tunes with flutistPaddy Moran.

FRED TOWNSEND

An Ottawa Valley player (father of fiddlerGraham Townsend) who, according to thenotes to James Thurgood’s CD, recorded.

REG WATKINS

A Newfoundland player who, according tothe notes to James Thurgood’s CD,recorded.

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APPENDIX B: MODE CHART

Starting Notes for Modal Scales

Mixo-

Harmonica Mixo-

lydian Dorian MajorKey Ionian Aeolian Dorian lydian 1st pos. 4th pos. 2nd pos.

C C A D G C A G

D D B E A D B A

G G E A D G E D

A A F# B E A F# E

Other names for modal scales:

Ionian do mode major scale, straight harp 1st positionDorian re mode slant harp 3rd postion Aeolian la mode natural minor scale 4th positionMixolydian so mode cross harp 2nd position

The chart above illustrates the mostcommon modal scales used in Irish music,and the keys of the harmonicas on whichthey can most easily be played.

The Ionian mode is the familiar major scale.Playing in the major scale in which theharmonica is pitched (e.g., C on a Charmonica) is often called “straight harp” byblues players. Other modes use the samearray of notes but start the scale in adifferent place. The Mixolydian mode, whichstarts with so (G on a C harmonica), is thewell-known “cross-harp” scale favored byblues and country sylists. The Dorian mode,used extensively in Irish traditional music,starts on re (D on a C harmonica) instead of

do. T he Aeolian (natural minor) mode startson la (A on a C harmonica).

Blues players over the years have referredto these modal positions by number.“Straight harp” is known as “first position”and “cross harp” as “second position.” Byextension, some blues players have calledthe Dorian mode “third position” and the

Aeolian mode “fourth position,” but thisusage is not universal.

The last three columns illustrate positionalscales, each of which requires one note that

is not available on a standard diatonicharmonica. G major on a C harmonica(“Major in 2nd position”) can be played byraising the seventh note of the scale half astep, i.e., F# rather than F. A country-tuneddiatonic is retuned to allow this. On achromatic instrument, the F# can be playedby using the slide.

“Mixolydian in 1st position” (e.g., a C scalewith B flat) and “Dorian in 4th position” (e.g.,an A natural minor scale with C sharp) are

not spectacularly difficult on a chromaticharmonica, as these scales include only onenote that must be played by using the slide.On standard diatonic instruments, however,these positions are only playable withHoward Levy-style “overblows” and“overdraws.”.

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APPENDIX C: HARMONICA HISTORY

Like the concertina and accordion, theharmonica is a “free-reed” instrument, i.e.,one that produces sound from the passage

of air over vibrating “reeds” that in moderninstruments are actually thin metal strips.The reed in a saxophone or similarinstrument is said to “beat” against thecushion of air that separates it from themouthpiece, while the double reeds in anoboe mouthpiece or inside the chanter ofthe uilleann pipes beat against the aircushioned between the two reeds. But freereeds don’t beat at all – they just vibrate inmid-air. That vibration produces a tone byit’s effect on the air stream directed over it,

a stream that may be supplied by a bellows,as in an accordion, or by lung power, aswith the harmonica.

Free-reed instruments, including theChinese sheng and Laotian khaen (oftencalled Asian mouth organs or harmonicas)have been played since antiquity in the FarEast. The reeds in these instruments are setinto bamboo tubes that rise out of a woodenor gourd wind chamber. The player blowsinto a mouthpiece, which directs air into the

tubes. Each tube has a hole in the side,which the player covers with a finger toallow the reed within to sound.

Examples of the sheng were brought toEurope in the 17th century and must havehad some influence on the creation ofWestern free-reed instruments. Butharmonica historian Pat Missin (seewww.patmissin.com) has pointed out thatmodern European free reed instrumentsreally date from 1780, when Christian

Gottlieb Kratzenstein, a Danish professor ofphysiology, won a prize from the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in Russia for a“speaking machine” based on a free reed ofa different type than that used in Asianmouth organs.

In sheng-type instruments, the reed is cutout of the reedplate itself and lies in the

same plane. Either blowing or drawing willvibrate the reed, but it requires a resonatingchamber to make much of a sound, and the

pitch is partially dependent on the size andshape of that chamber. Kratzenstein’s reedwas slightly offset from reedplate, whichmeant that it would sound only if blown ordrawn upon in a single direction. But itwould also sound without any additionalresonator. This feature was crucial to thelater construction of small mouth organswith reeds for many pitches. Russian organbuilder Franz Kirschnik adopted the newreed design to build the first reed organ(harmonium), an instrument that quickly

spread to the rest of Europe in the late1700s and predates all other Western free-reed instruments.

The first mouth-blown instrument to makeuse of the new-style free reeds was theæolina (aka æoline or æolian). This name,derived from Æolus, the Greek god of wind,has also been applied to other instruments,including a type of reed organ, but themouth-blown æolina, invented in the early1820s, was a simple, uncovered plate on

which reeds tuned to various pitches weremounted. The player sounded the reeds byblowing directly on them. The earliestæolinas had only blow reeds laid out inchords, but more sophisticated versionssoon appeared.

The German Æolian Tutor , published inEngland in 1830, included illustrations (seebelow) of many different versions, includinga two-octave chromatic model with thereedplate mounted on wood and on which a

C diatonic scale could be played on blowreeds and sharps and flats on draw reeds.The booklet also pictured an all-blow“chromatic pandean aeolian” on which theplayer pressed tabs on the sharp and flatreeds to make them sound.

As the title of the English booklet makesclear, the æolina was regarded as a

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Around the same time, clockmaker ChristianMessner started a harmonica business inTrossingen, Swabia, where his cousinChristian Weiss later set up his own firm.

Matthias Hohner was a relative latecomer to

the business when he founded his ownTrossingen firm in 1857, after having had achance to observe Weiss’ methods. But it

was Hohner who led the switch from handcraftsmanship to mass production,absorbed most of the smaller German firmsand became the world’s dominantmanufacturer. Hohner is still the undisputedworld leader, but harmonicas are now

produced in great numbers by other makersin China, Korea, Japan and Brazil.

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www.patmissin.com/ history/aeolina.html

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