Playing Fiddle Tunes on
Harmonica
Cary Moskovitz
I took up the harmonica seriously about 10 years ago—when
shoulder problems prevented me from playing my main instruments, guitar and
banjo. In addition to playing early 20th century blues, rags and
hokum, I had been immersed in the U.S. “old-time” string band scene. So, while
I was incapacitated, I decided to focus on learning to play fiddle tunes on
harp—capturing as much of the sound and feel of the fiddle as possible. As it
turned out, this was a rather unusual goal.
We find harmonicas on some of the
earliest recordings of what we would now categorize as old-time, but they were
certainly not very common. While a relative handful of harmonica players have
become accomplished old-time players, few strived to capture the feel of the
fiddle. Then, as now, harmonica players were not really trying to play what the
fiddler’s were playing. Instead, expert old-time harmonica players developed a
style which was meant to be self-contained, where melodies were combined with the
self-accompaniment of chords. The structure of Richter tuning—still the
standard tuning for the 10-hole, diatonic harmonicas which are used by almost
all blues, rock and country players—was designed to allow this combination of
chord and melody. But for playing fiddle tunes like a fiddle, this tuning isn’t
optimal.
A complex instrument
Those who have never seriously attempted to play the lowly
10-hole harmonica do not appreciate its complexity. The standard
(Richter)-tuned instrument plays three octaves using 20 reeds, two per hole; one
sounds when blowing and the other when “drawing” (sucking). Let’s consider a
harmonica in the key of C. Four C notes can be played—all by blowing rather
than drawing—on holes 1, 4, 7 and 10. The three octaves between those four
tonic notes are each laid out differently.
The lowest octave (holes 1-3) are
arranged to allow for playing the tonic (I) and dominant (V) chords: Blowing on
holes 1,2 and 3 of our C harmonica produces the root, third and fifth of the C
major chord: C, E and G respectively. Drawing on those three holes plays a G
chord (with a 5th on the bottom): D, G and B.
The second
octave starts with a C on 4-blow. Starting there we can play the complete C-major
scale by alternating blowing and drawing…except that to get the last scale note
(the 7th) we must draw rather than blow on hole 7. The 7-blow note
is the next tonic (C). The reason for this switch is to keep all of the notes
in the C major chord (C, E, G) as blow notes. Otherwise, the breathing pattern
of blows and draws would be completely reversed in the final octave. While that
would make for ridiculously complicated playing, the resulting compromise is
far from simple. Since the 7-draw reed is already occupied completing the
middle octave, the next note in the scale must be played up one hole—so
that the pattern used in the middle octave is now slanted: for holes 8-10 the
draw note is lower rather than higher than its accompanying blow note.
This arrangement
of notes—with the three different sets of relationships for each octave—is so intimidating
that many blues harmonica players never venture into the upper register (“Thar
be dragons!”).
The first
challenge of playing fiddle tunes on harmonica is now clear: unlike the fiddle,
where the relationships between notes are consistent across the instrument, the
harmonica player must learn different patterns for each of the three octaves.
And this isn’t merely equivalent to what, say, a clarinet player must contend
with across its range; because of the changes on blow and draw notes, harmonica
players have to breath differently in each octave too!
Missing Notes
In standard tuning, the fiddle’s lowest note is the open G-string.
This matches the lowest note on the G harp. When we try to play a tune in the
same register as the fiddle, we encounter the next challenge: The lowest octave
(holes 1-3) isn’t just different from the others—it is also missing two scale
notes: the fourth and sixth. Now, due to some rather complicated physics, a
combination of blow and draw reeds in some holes allows the pitch of some reeds
to be “bent” to a lower note by a change in embouchure. The 4th note
of the scale (an F on our C harp) can be generated fairly easily by bending the
2-draw note. Any good harmonica player can do this with ease. To generate the 6th
however, is more difficult—requiring a “deep” bend on 3-draw. This note is much
harder to play precisely at pitch and is extremely difficult to generate
cleanly within a quick passage of other notes.
For about
two years I attempted to play fiddle tunes using the standard Richter tuning, but
I found it impossible to play many tunes in a way that was musically
satisfying. I just couldn’t get that 6th note—which nearly all tunes
include—to sound good enough. Of course, I was not the first harmonica player
to play fiddle tunes. The common solution to this problem is to play everything
one octave higher. But I didn’t particularly like that sound, and Ididn’t feel
it blended well when played with other instruments. To my ears, tunes played on
harmonica in the keys of C or D sound especially harsh in the upper register.
And then I discovered Paddy Richter tuning.
In his
quest for a better tuning for playing Irish music, harmonica expert Brendan
Powers found an elegant solution to this missing-6th problem. In the
standard Richter tuning, the 3-blow and 2-draw reeds produce the exact same
note—the 5th of the scale. As explained above, the first octave is
designed to play chords, and the I and V chords share that particular note. For
Powers’s new tuning, which he named “Paddy Richter,” the 3-blow is raised a
whole step—giving the missing 6th of the scale. (For our C harp, the
2-draw and 3-blow would normally both give a G note; the change makes the
3-blow into an A note.) I re-tuned the 3-blow reed on one of my harmonicas (by
carefully grinding off a small amount of material from the tip of the reed) and
experimented with that tuning for a few months. I relearned a number of tunes
using the new tuning and the advantage was obvious. Now I could play most of my
tunes much more easily and with a better sound. I made the decision to go all-in
with Paddy Richter and retuned most of my other harps to that tuning. I’ve
never regretted it.
Double Stops and Drones
As it turns out, Paddy Richter tuning has another important
benefit—which was a wonderful surprise for me when I began using it: new chord
options. Fiddlers often don’t play just a single note at a time. Instead, they
often play a second note (double stop or drone) at the same time—a
self-accompaniment that both adds richness and suggests the chord underlying
the melody. Harmonica players can do some of this too, of course, but our
options are very limited: we can only play whatever note is just above or below
the note of the melody (unless a technique called tongue-blocking is
employed—which is possible for some simple melodies but not really viable for
complex phrasing).
In standard Richter tuning, we
can use double stops from the I chord on blow notes. For draw notes, we can use
notes from the V chord in the low and high octaves and IV chord with holes 5-6. Paddy tuning gives us two great additions.
Blow 3-4 gives us a nice, rich IV chord in a lower register. That lets us play
I, IV and V chords close together in pitch using just holes 3-5. We also get
the minor VI on 2-3 blow, which is used in many old-time tunes. (FYI: Standard
and Paddy Richter tunings also offer a minor II double-stop option on draw 4-5,
but these are quite rare in old-time tunes.)
Which position?
I have around 100 tunes in my repertoire. Of those, about
80% work best (or sometimes only) in first position (AKA “straight harp”). Others,
mainly those in what old-time players call “modal” tunes and blues-flavored
tunes, need the flattened 3rd and/or 7th notes so these
are best played in second (AKA “cross harp”) position. A very few are best
played in 3rd position. (I do not own minor-key harps, but I imagine
that some tunes would work well on those too.)
While the
choice of position is governed primarily by which scale notes the melody
includes, there are other factors too. Sometimes I’ll find that I can play a
tune satisfactorily in either straight or cross position, but that I want to
bend some particular notes to catch the flavor of the tune or the style of a
particular fiddler. In those cases, I’ll choose the position which permits the
better feel.
The other issue is register. The
fiddle’s second lowest string is D, which matches the pitch of the 1-blow on a
D harp. Fiddle tunes in the key of D often use notes on the first (G) string—which
are below the lowest note of the D harp. If these low notes are just quick
passing tones, one might omit those without much musical loss. But often those
notes are crucial to the tune. In those cases, depending on the melody, it is
sometimes possible to play in cross harp (using a G harp for the key of D). Since
the 1-hole of the G harp matches the lowest string on the fiddle, we can get
those lower notes. But because most D tunes are of a major-ish flavor, this
approach works only rarely. So…
My New “Fiddle Tuning”
The vast majority of old-time tunes are played in only four
keys: C, D, G and A. I have found that most tunes in the keys of G and A that I
have wanted to learn work wonderfully in Paddy Richter. But as I explained
above, some fiddle tunes—mostly in the key of D—have notes below what the
standard harmonica can play but need to be played in first position. The
obvious solution to this problem would be to use a “Low-D” harmonica—which is
tuned exactly the same as the standard D harp but one octave lower. Of course,
you’d need to acquire a custom-tuned Low-D harp or re-tune one yourself. I’ve
retuned a couple of these myself and found that they can be satisfactory for
many tunes.
But while
writing my book How to Play Old-Time Fiddle Tunes on Harmonica, I
discovered another—and, I think, better—possibility. In looking over my notes to
choose which tunes to include in my book, I realized that I never—and I mean never—used
Hole 10. (I am pretty sure that few other harp players use that hole either.)
So, I thought, why waste the hole? If I could shift the reeds in holes 1-9 all
up one hole, that would open Hole 1 for two lower notes.
Because I
didn’t have any reasonable way to produce such a harp, I sat on the idea. And
then, in the last year, I learned that only one maker is offering custom tuned
harmonicas. I ordered a couple of these and tried out my
new tuning—which I have named “fiddle tuning.” It uses the raised blow note of
Paddy Richter tuning—except that the lowest tonic is now the second hole blow
and the raised note is now the fourth hole blow. The 1-hole blow is now a low 5th
of the scale and the 1-draw is a low 6th. Here is the tuning in the
key of D:
HOLE
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
BLOW
|
A3
|
D4
|
F#4
|
B4
|
D5
|
F#5
|
A5
|
D6
|
F#6
|
A6
|
DRAW
|
B3
|
E4
|
A4
|
C#5
|
E5
|
G5
|
B5
|
C#6
|
E6
|
G6
|
Note that I am calling the first hole “0” rather than “1.”
This is because I find it easier to keep the existing notes attached to their
original hole numbers. I know, for example, that 1, 4, and 7 are tonics; that 2
draw, 5 blow and 9 blow are the fifths; and so on.
I think this is an ideal tuning for playing fiddle tunes on
harp. The low notes would be useful in the key of C as well as D. The lower
notes are not really needed for the keys of G and A, although they would
provide a nice option when playing accompaniment.
Will I replace my other (Paddy-Richter-tuned) harps with
this tuning? I’m not yet sure. There would definitely be an advantage to having
all of my harps in the same tuning, rather than having to deal with the
differences between keys. On the other hand, I’m pretty proficient in playing
quite a few tunes and the change would require some substantial relearning—not
to mention the additional expense.
Give it a try!
I hope this discussion of playing fiddle tunes will inspire
those who play other kinds of music on harmonica to give it a try. Being the
“fiddler” (or one of them) in a group offers a very different musical
experience from what most harp players do. Instead of sitting there quietly
waiting for your break—or perhaps playing some simple, space-filled “horn line”
behind the singer, the old-time harmonica can take the lead role. That role,
however, requires us to develop a skill many harp players don’t yet possess:
the ability to play continuously! Whereas tasteful blues players may
wail for a minute or so during their breaks, they can then sit back and
literally catch their breath. But fiddles never stop. Fiddle tunes are,
at their heart, dance music; a band will play each tune many times through, with
some variation, during a performance. If the fiddle stops, even for a few
notes, the whole thing tends to crash.
To be in good enough shape to play
continuously, I have to play regularly. I’ve also learned that it’s best to
drink liquor rather than belch-producing beer at gigs. In fact, the odds are
that at some point during a tune, I’ll have to pause just a bit, either to
swallow or catch a breath. So I now tell my bandmates, “When it’s time to stop,
I’ll give a definite signal. Otherwise, don’t stop playing!”
small:Cary Moskovitzl