Re: [Harp-L] minor keys

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Steve Shaw" wrote:
***********************
Unfortunately, harps are more than twice that price here.  Admittedly my 
music belongs to just one genre.  Lots of people have asked me about the
Lee 
Oskar minor key harps for Irish music, and the response is that you
simply 
don't need them in almost all cases as the tunes are modal rather than 
minor...
All I was saying was check out that you haven't already got the 
right tool  before spending yer dosh.  Every other harp player may need
a 
minor harp in his or her kit, but not me!
***********************

Okay, I'm convinced.

But perhaps you would LIKE to have a minor harp in your kit...

That aside, one minor (pun intended) point: every diatonic harmonica is
by definition a modal instrument, since it only contains the notes of a
single diatonic scale (overblowing and bending aside), and therefore
anything played on it, in any key, is played using a mode of that
scale.  So it's really a question of what mode you're playing on what
instrument.  You mention using a C harp played in A minor for Carolan's
Welcome; this is an Aeolian mode (unless you're bending or overblowing
notes on the harp for this piece, which I don't know and can't say,
since I don't know the piece).  That same mode is what you get in 2nd
position on a Lee Oskar Natural Minor in A, and in 3rd position on a Lee
Oskar Natural Minor in D (keeping in mind that LO Natural Minors are
named for the key in 2nd position, not in 1st position as is the case
for almost every other harp in the world). 

So there are a few different ways to do the job.  With Irish music, it
might come down to which position on which harp will let the player
execute various kinds of trills, grace notes, and other ornaments most
easily.  I can't say which of the various choices that might be.  But if
it's working already, I agree that there's no point in looking
elsewhere.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hutnerharp.com