Harps in Celtic Music

Posted by Shaun-Patrick O. Young:

Happy New Year!!!

I've started a new look to my website [ http://www.kelticdead.com ] to better support the use of the diatonic harmonicas for playing Celtic music.

Traditionally, any musical gathering [ called a "ceili" (Kay-lee)] to play music in the traditions of the Celtic cultures {Irish-Scots-Welch-Breton-Americana} is called a "sessiun" (session). These informal settings are usually led by someone who keeps to a theme for the music, and as result, there can be many different themes [pastoral, contradance{jigs and reels}, aires, and many others]. Pubs {not a bar, but a community place for families to meet, eat, and share good times} are typical meeting places for these sessiuns.

A new "pub" has opened up in the Collin County area (in Allen, Texas) that is going to continue this time-honored tradition for what a pub is all about. The Trinity Hall Irish Pub in Dallas has been supporting Irish "contradance" music for a number of years, and they want to extend these sessiuns into their new pub location.

I'm going to support these types of gatherings more with my KelticDead Music website by showing that many of these "traditional" tunes can be played using the diatonica harmonicas. I've learned that I can do this using many wonderful resources already found within the internet. As time goes on, I'm going to add to the list of tunes that I've listed, and also provide "ABC" text of the arrangements that I've created specifically for using diatonic harmonicas, as well as either PDF or Gif images of the sheetmusic arrangements.

Traditional Celtic music is for everyone to enjoy, and the standard, "out-of-the-box," diatonic harmonicas [C, D, A, and G] are capable of playing almost all of the Celtic tunes ever written [with only the occasional adaptation]. I've made it my mission to show how this is possible. It's a lot of fun for me, and I hope it helps others get into the same fun using harmonicas.

If you want to know more about these traditional "Irish Music Sessions" send me an email. With ABC notation and the internet, it's easy to share music and tips in playing traditional music with harmonicas.

Best regards,

Shaun-Patrick O. Young, KelticDead Music.

http://www.kelticdead.com