Paddy Richter tuning is a great way to play Celtic music. So is the Melody Maker tuning. If anyone in the States is interested in getting the Paddy Richter harp, check out the Easttop Paddy harmonica. Rocking Ron's is a great source. The harps are well made and half the price of Oskars, Suzuki, and Horner.
Buddy I don't have an Easttop myself, but everyone I know raves about the ones they have so that will be my next harp ;)! I can't get from Rockin Ron's but I believe that I may have a source up here in Canada and its good to know that Easttop has a Paddy harmonica ;) thanks for that :)
This was the video I needed, thanks Nick. Your dead on. I've no real interest in learning blues but as you say most on line courses push this & I'm enrolled in one now. I can bend the odd note but not consistently or well enough. I'm much more interested in Irish & country music. Your site is a godsend
I don't care about blues! Yah!!!! Bending I am not bothered about. Plus retuning my harps to Major Cross I can play any irish tune. So glad I found your channel Nick.
I play mainly Scottish and Irish on a tremolo. The tremolo will not bend properly anyway, so I manage perfectly well without it. I may have to learn bends for some bluegrass but that is all.
Yessss. It's blues-centric. I like the happier and faster beat csltic and scottish songs ive watched from the hallmark channel as a kid. I was really struggling with bending with a diatonic, hence i shifted to tremolo harmonica while playing classical songs by ear. Initially i wanted to play jazz. But maybe jazz would be my goal. For now i'll just play things by ear until i get around this.
Oh my that is good news Nick ;) - I love it that you say that. I have been working on bending and can do a certain amount, but haven't mastered it completely and I'm really not that interested in blues. I finished a pretty intense course on that and while it can be fun, I discovered it is definitely not my thing. I am, as you know, wanting to play Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Folk music. I might however be interested in eventually playing some classical pieces and I will need to bend for that. You stated this in exactly the correct way though :). Thanks for this Nick :)
Happy to be corrected if I am wrong BUT bending is not just for blues. Every diatonic harmonica regardless of key, has 2 missing major notes in the 1st octave, the 4th (F on the C harp) and 6th (A on a C harp) which are only accessible through bending. Songs like Danny Boy, Old Lang Syne and Loch Lomond need at least one of these notes. Paddy Richter tuning will give you the 6th on hole 3blow but you still need to bend down 2 semitone on hole 2draw to get the 4th. While you could play the song an octave higher (the one starting at hole 4blow) in my experience it will sound shrill. That 1st octave is an essential part of the treble scale e.g. on the C harp, hole 1blow is 'middle' C on the piano. So, difficult to avoid! However, I can attest that bending is difficult. I've been practicing to master bends for 3 years with only limited success. It's very frustrating! Incidently, for NZ readers, you can buy Easttop instruments on line directly from Easttop or from Aliexpress (both in China). They will be a lot cheaper with minimal to no freight cost compared to buying from USA and will take less than 3 weeks to arrive in NZ.
The point I was trying to make is you can develop a large repertoire without bending and many tunes can be played without bends on alternative tunings. I wasn't suggeting you can play everything without bends. Paddy Richter does have limitations of course but there is so much you can do with it. I just wanted people, especially beginners, to consider that if they are frustrated with trying to bend notes they can still have a lot of fun playing harmonica without doing that. But if you need to play certain music that requires bends then you have to master them.
@@HarmonicaForTheSoul Quite, but the point I'm making is you have to be selective about chosing tunes to learn that don't require a bend. In my current, admittedly tiny, repertoire of non-blues songs (around 30) half require a bent note. Even I didn't realise it was that high until i just counted them up!
The three songs you mention can all be played on a paddy richter tuned harmonica. Two can also be played on a standard richter tuning with no bends. If you don’t like high pitched reeds maybe you can use low tunings like low C or D. Very few of the Celtic tunes I play and like to share need a 2 draw bend and paddy richter covers the 3 hole bend. You can also use other tunings to play even more of these tunes without bending. I’m talking about more music than anyone could learn in their lifetime. If there is certain music you like that requires bends then there is no avoiding that. I mentioned blues because that is the dominant style that people are learning/teaching and of course there is other music that may require bends. Playing harmonica without bending is not an approach for everyone but I wanted to put the message out there for people who may be struggling with this technique that maybe they can get a lot of satisfaction from playing the harmonica without some of the frustration.
@@HarmonicaForTheSoul Hey Nick, I appreciate you've taken the time to respond. I really appreciate and enjoy your videos and obvious mastery of the harp!
Lots of pop songs are also easy to play without any bending needed. I been playing lots of songs by Adele which sound great. I actually do not like the sound of bent notes as they stand out so much and clash against the clean notes. Sounds horrible to my ears. Even the top players bending notes sounds horrible to me.
Paddy Richter tuning is a great way to play Celtic music. So is the Melody Maker tuning. If anyone in the States is interested in getting the Paddy Richter harp, check out the Easttop Paddy harmonica. Rocking Ron's is a great source. The harps are well made and half the price of Oskars, Suzuki, and Horner.
I've bought stuff from Rocking Ron so he probably ships all over the world. Yes, he's great to deal with.
Buddy I don't have an Easttop myself, but everyone I know raves about the ones they have so that will be my next harp ;)! I can't get from Rockin Ron's but I believe that I may have a source up here in Canada and its good to know that Easttop has a Paddy harmonica ;) thanks for that :)
This was the video I needed, thanks Nick.
Your dead on. I've no real interest in learning blues but as you say most on line courses push this & I'm enrolled in one now.
I can bend the odd note but not consistently or well enough.
I'm much more interested in Irish & country music.
Your site is a godsend
I don't care about blues! Yah!!!! Bending I am not bothered about. Plus retuning my harps to Major Cross I can play any irish tune. So glad I found your channel Nick.
I play mainly Scottish and Irish on a tremolo. The tremolo will not bend properly anyway, so I manage perfectly well without it. I may have to learn bends for some bluegrass but that is all.
Excellent advice. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Although there seems to be a desire to bend notes when first learning the harp, it really is an advanced technique so do give it time and practice.
Great video!!
Yessss. It's blues-centric. I like the happier and faster beat csltic and scottish songs ive watched from the hallmark channel as a kid.
I was really struggling with bending with a diatonic, hence i shifted to tremolo harmonica while playing classical songs by ear. Initially i wanted to play jazz. But maybe jazz would be my goal. For now i'll just play things by ear until i get around this.
You will likely have to bend notes to play jazz on a standard 10 hole diatonic but you wouldn't have to if you moved to chromatic.
Oh my that is good news Nick ;) - I love it that you say that. I have been working on bending and can do a certain amount, but haven't mastered it completely and I'm really not that interested in blues. I finished a pretty intense course on that and while it can be fun, I discovered it is definitely not my thing. I am, as you know, wanting to play Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Folk music. I might however be interested in eventually playing some classical pieces and I will need to bend for that. You stated this in exactly the correct way though :). Thanks for this Nick :)
thank you so much!
Happy to be corrected if I am wrong BUT bending is not just for blues. Every diatonic harmonica regardless of key, has 2 missing major notes in the 1st octave, the 4th (F on the C harp) and 6th (A on a C harp) which are only accessible through bending. Songs like Danny Boy, Old Lang Syne and Loch Lomond need at least one of these notes. Paddy Richter tuning will give you the 6th on hole 3blow but you still need to bend down 2 semitone on hole 2draw to get the 4th. While you could play the song an octave higher (the one starting at hole 4blow) in my experience it will sound shrill. That 1st octave is an essential part of the treble scale e.g. on the C harp, hole 1blow is 'middle' C on the piano. So, difficult to avoid!
However, I can attest that bending is difficult. I've been practicing to master bends for 3 years with only limited success. It's very frustrating!
Incidently, for NZ readers, you can buy Easttop instruments on line directly from Easttop or from Aliexpress (both in China). They will be a lot cheaper with minimal to no freight cost compared to buying from USA and will take less than 3 weeks to arrive in NZ.
The point I was trying to make is you can develop a large repertoire without bending and many tunes can be played without bends on alternative tunings. I wasn't suggeting you can play everything without bends. Paddy Richter does have limitations of course but there is so much you can do with it. I just wanted people, especially beginners, to consider that if they are frustrated with trying to bend notes they can still have a lot of fun playing harmonica without doing that. But if you need to play certain music that requires bends then you have to master them.
@@HarmonicaForTheSoul Quite, but the point I'm making is you have to be selective about chosing tunes to learn that don't require a bend. In my current, admittedly tiny, repertoire of non-blues songs (around 30) half require a bent note. Even I didn't realise it was that high until i just counted them up!
The three songs you mention can all be played on a paddy richter tuned harmonica. Two can also be played on a standard richter tuning with no bends. If you don’t like high pitched reeds maybe you can use low tunings like low C or D.
Very few of the Celtic tunes I play and like to share need a 2 draw bend and paddy richter covers the 3 hole bend. You can also use other tunings to play even more of these tunes without bending. I’m talking about more music than anyone could learn in their lifetime.
If there is certain music you like that requires bends then there is no avoiding that. I mentioned blues because that is the dominant style that people are learning/teaching and of course there is other music that may require bends. Playing harmonica without bending is not an approach for everyone but I wanted to put the message out there for people who may be struggling with this technique that maybe they can get a lot of satisfaction from playing the harmonica without some of the frustration.
@@HarmonicaForTheSoul Hey Nick, I appreciate you've taken the time to respond. I really appreciate and enjoy your videos and obvious mastery of the harp!
👍Another fantastic video cant stand bending slows everything down and am tongue blocker not much interest in blues either
Any advice for people without teeth and bending ? As there is a different air chamber created with no teeth .
Thanks !
I don't know anyhting about that but I assume if there is a difference you will compensate with an adjustment to your tongue position.
Lots of pop songs are also easy to play without any bending needed. I been playing lots of songs by Adele which sound great. I actually do not like the sound of bent notes as they stand out so much and clash against the clean notes. Sounds horrible to my ears. Even the top players bending notes sounds horrible to me.