Harmonica for traditional melody playing
Wed, 03/16/2016 - 22:11
Hi Winslow,
What are your thoughts around the best harmonica for traditional melody playing? What I mean by this specifically is Irish and Scottish music and other styles you typically hear on pipes or fiddle.
Chromatics come to mind first but i am also seeing Paddy Richter tuning on a diatonic mentioned frequently.
it seems like Paddy Richter would leverage a foundation on the diatonic. do you see pros or cons to either approach?
Thanks for for any feedback.
Andrew
Fiddle tunes are typically in the keys of the fiddle's open strings - G, D, A, and E, sometimes in minor keys. Now and then you'll get an F or Bb tune but they're fairly rare.
I use Low D, G and A diatonics and tremolos, using a position that most closely fits the scale of the piece, though for E major tunes I usually use an A in second position. Dorian mode is common for minor tunes, which makes third position a great fit. Second position fits some tunes as well. First covers a lot of them.
I do use a low D chromatic, sometimes a C chromatic, and sometimes even a B chromatic (borrowing from irish accordionists, who often use a two-row diatonic with one row in B and one in C, which lets you play they keys mentioned here with few breath changes, wich can help with ornaments).
Paddy Richter can help if you're not comfortable hitting the Draw 3 two-semitone bend on the fly, and it gives you a blow minor home chord for 4th position minor. My personal reference is for the open fifth intervals that you find between fiddle strings: Blow 1/3, Draw 2/4, Draw 4/6. Paddy messes that up, so I just go for that Draw 3 bend - but that's just me.