CX12 – key C#/D – Customised

Creating an optimal chromatic harmonica for Irish Traditional Music (ITM) ornamentation involves not just tuning considerations but also understanding and incorporating historical and stylistic nuances from prominent players in the field. Influences from musicians like Sean Walsh, who taught the late Eddie Clarke, have significantly shaped the Irish style of chromatic harmonica playing. This style, which Cathal Johnson of Harmonicas Ireland also plays, involves unique techniques for ornamentation. Let’s delve into a detail, integrating these elements effectively.

Optimal Chromatic Harmonica for ITM Ornamentation

 

For ITM, ornamentation such as cuts, taps, rolls, and crans are crucial. The best chromatic harmonica player in ITM, Sean Walsh, taught Eddie Clarke to play in a style now known as Irish style chromatic harmonica playing. This style utilises this special tuning for ornamentation and decorations by flicking on the button in and out, enabling rolls that emulate fiddle rolls, which are not possible on a normal tuned CX12 chromatic harmonicas.

The tuning involves tuning the sharp notes down a whole tone to play a semitone down rather than up, providing a unique layout that is ideal for ITM.

Here’s how it can be done:

Customized Reed Plates: Combine reed plates from different harmonicas to achieve the desired tuning, ensuring that when the slide is engaged, the notes lower by a semitone. For example, use a Hohner 270 in D and a C tenor. Take the bottom C# reed plate and replace the bottom reed plate on the D (i.e., the D#) with the C#. This makes a lovely chromatic for playing ITM. Carefully retuning reeds to ensure they produce the correct pitch when the slide is both engaged and disengaged is another way to make a chromatic. These are also available from Harmonicas Ireland.

Many ITM musicians, including pipers, concertina players, and fiddle players, play in Eb, C, D, and G. Therefore, having chromatic harmonicas in these keys that go down a semitone rather than up is ideal for playing ITM.

In summary, creating an optimal chromatic harmonica for ITM ornamentation using Irish style tuning systems is best. This setup enhances the playability of traditional Irish ornamentations, providing both the traditional diatonic layout in solo tuning and the versatility of chromatic notes with the slide that go down a semitone rather than up. Regular maintenance and precise tuning adjustments will be key to ensuring the instrument remains responsive and in tune.

Incorporating this tuning and the techniques pioneered by Sean Walsh and Eddie Clarke,  will further enable the execution of ITM-specific ornamentation and rolls, bringing the rich nuances of Irish music to the chromatic harmonica. Other great exponents include the Murphy brothers, with their unique techniques of flicking the jaw for cuts. Mick Kinsella is another great exponent of the Eddie Clarke/Sean Walsh Irish style of playing. Rick Epping, though mostly a diatonic player, is another great musician. Listening to other players within the field of Irish music is very important. The best exponents live and play in Ireland today and, indeed, in the past, such as Eddie Clarke and Mary Brogan (RIP). These players have been brought up within the tradition and are steeped in it, their playing is accurate and spot on without any deviation from the roots. It is so important not to over look that they not only play in a very traditional, personal, and deeply rooted style but their knowledge of the tradition is also far greater than those from outside of this unique upbringing and environment in Ireland. Studying from these people will bring one’s playing closer to authentic Irish music.