Well, yeah. One of the reason I picked concertina is because you could play lower notes, like the famous low A at the start of Farewell to Ireland, low B in Wynne's #1 and #2 etc. But it's not a big deal.SteveShaw wrote: Now if you think about Irish tunes in general, most fit well on limited-range instruments such as D whistles and D wooden flutes. On these instruments you can play nearly all the tunes because they don't go below the tonic D. This means that on D harps you seldom have problems with the missing notes in the bottom octave because the tunes don't go down that far.
You are saying that a diatonic G doesn't have the E below 'standard octave' G by default? Well, that *is* unplayable! I need a Paddy for sure then, I mean, doesn't 99% of G tunes have D and E and F# in then below that G? Maybe I don't understand it rightSteveShaw wrote: On G tunes, on the other hand, you often want to go down to the D below the tonic G. On the harmonica that would be 3-blow. That on its own is no problem, but if you also need to play the E in that octave you'd be stumped - unless your harp was a Paddy, with its 3-blow tuned up to E and the 2-draw left as the D note. Get it?
That's funny, because you are pretty much reflecting the endless debate in concertina world of Anglo concertina (push/pull) versus English. Some people argue anglo is better for irish music becayse it forces you to push/pull instead of having everything 'smoothed' out. I think it's a bit irrelevant because if you don't know how irish music should sound, you're going to sound bad, on an anglo or an english. Also, on the anglo, you use the alternate buttons often to play triplets, where push/pull would slow it down and wouldn't sound as nice, for example.SteveShaw wrote:Good question. On a chromatic harp you have a number of duplicated notes (enharmonic notes). A skilled player can use this to their advantage by smoothing out passages which otherwise would have a lot of air direction changes (huffing and puffing, in other words!) On a melodeon you would use the duplicates to select the best note to play for the chord/bass you wanted to play. BUT...I happen to think that the huffing and puffing constant air-direction changes on 10-hole harps, far from being a liability, can be turned into an asset. Smoothing things out all the time can have its merits, but I like that pulsating rhythmic feel you can get with all that blow/draw...Also, on the concertina there are many duplicate notes that allow you to play some combinations easier... won't a missing duplicate note be a handicap?
There's actually many, many good D tunes with both C# and C in irish music. The Collier's Jig (not sure about the reel), Banish Misfortune, The Scartaglen reel, Pipe on the Hob jig etc etc.. But I guess this is something I can live with. That's one advantage for the whistle, you get that C *and* C# with cross fingering, equivalent to your note bending, but it works on all whistles (expect maybe the Sindt, where the C nat is sharp!).SteveShaw wrote:Tricky. There are a few such tunes (Jenny's Wedding springs to mind), and on a D harp you just can't get that Cnat even with a bend. A chrom would be the answer, or you could get a Hohner XB40 - a diatonic (at a price of course) that is set up to enable every note to be bent. I hate the buggers meself, but your mileage may vary, as they say!Finally, there a bunch of nices D tunes with both C# and CNat in the tune, I guess you can't really play those with a diatonic?
Thanks again, very insightful!
I think perhaps that fluency and timing should be the watchwords...
Out with the chromatic!
). I do it all the time. Just thought I'd mention it. Of course, the ornamentation wouldn't be the same as Brendan's, but I don't necessarily think that has to be a disadvantage... I'm a 10-hole freak and always will be! By the way, he's blowing and drawing almost as much as you would on a 10-hole. He's just very good at it!
