I'm not very good at music theory so I have a question. Brendan Power in his instruction "Play Irish Music on the Blues Harp" said the two most common keys of harmonica for Irish music are D and G. He also goes on to explain that for most songs the harp is played in first position. For the tin whistle the two most common keys are D and "C". I can see logically why you would use a D harp which coincides with a D whistle. But the G harp in first position doesn't coincide with the standard C whistle. It's not logical to me. Can someone explain?
Thanks, Jon Harl
Whilst I'm a whistle owner rather than a whistle player, I'm puzzled as to why you think C whistles are to the fore in Irish music. If you play in the traditional keys, as you would have to if you played in an Irish pub session for example, you'd stick with your D whistle for most tunes. There are two commonly-used alternative fingerings for getting the C natural in the G tunes on a D whistle, which is what you would do in a session. Maybe you're thinking of the availability of the cheaper Clarke whistles (keys of C and D only). You might use your C for just a few tunes and to accompany the odd song, but 'tis your D that would far and away be the most use to you. With harmonicas it's definitely best to have a G and a low D, one reason being the awkwardness of getting the Cnat on the D harp and the C# on the G harp. We're not all expert overblowers or past masters at getting bends accurately on pitch on the fly in fast tunes. The G harp at least is best tuned to Paddy Richter. On both D and G harps you can play tunes in related modes (or positions if you like) such as Mixolydian, Dorian and Aeolian, relating to 2nd, 3rd and 4th position respectively, as well as first position of course.
For the last word we need to entice James Conway out of lurk mode, as he is not only one of the best Irish harmonica players on the planet but also no mean whistle-player!
Steve
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica HEAR my CD clips: http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm
_________________________________________________________________
Be the first to hear what's new at MSN - sign up to our free newsletters! http://www.msn.co.uk/newsletters
_______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l