Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Thought-provoking as always, Edvin... The Slide-Diatonic version looks quite usable for fiddle tunes. Having the root and upper/lower fifth of the blow notes of the scale in adjacent holes is a plus - although for the draw notes they are still two holes away up and down, in most cases. When you say ...

Things get a bit weird at hole 8. Why don't you continue with the Spiral pattern?

The Slide-Diatonic is a far more interesting harmonica than it first appears, whether in Solo or Spiral tuning.

With a name like Pat Byrne, you must surely have an affinity for diddly diddly music in your genes! But my best advice for Irish music is: forget the analysing, just listen hard and play a lot! A great way to learn the tunes with good rhythm and technique is to pick a player you really admire, on wh...

Actually... After doing more practice this morning, I'm not sure. At a slow speed the slide jab/jaw-flick combination is ok, but when the tempo goes up it's just not fast enough. After doing more detailed study of rolls in Irish music I've found that they are really better described as rhythmic even...

Further to my speculation above that rolls might work well on a standard slide harmonica if you combine a slider jab for the note above with a jaw flick to the left for the note below, there's one place in Solo Tuning where this makes good musical sense: holes 4 and 8. Here you have the sixth, seven...

Good points Triona, and thanks for your encouragement. I am still intending to release those harps you mention, hopefully at least a couple by Christmas.

I had a listen Edvin, but I don't think those are rolls. If you want to hear them played beautifully, listen to Mary Bergin. She is using rolls and other decorations constantly: https://youtu.be/w725fJV3VXg Listen at tempo, then choose the 0.5x speed option in the YouTube drop-down options. You will...

Thanks Triona. Yes I'd welcome more information about the Chordomonica II. I'm a bit puzzled about how it can give you up/down rolls around one note of a single breath, however. Since the number of reeds is not increased, is it really possible? For example, take a roll on the main note D in the key ...

I've been playing Irish tunes for a long time, and often been frustrated at the inability of the harmonica (with or without slider) to play one of the most common ornaments used by most instruments in the music: the Roll, or Turn. There are two versions, the Long Roll and the Short Roll. They both o...

The Double Chromatic does indeed offer some amazing possibilities, and this is one of them. To be half-valved for bending it would need to be very airtight, which is more challenging given the two sliders. But, assuming that's a given, it's interesting speculate on the many new options it opens up. ...