Harmonica and Traditional Irish Music

The harmonica is the world’s best-selling musical instrument. It is inexpensive, easy to carry around and it is suitable for many different kinds of music, from blues to rock to folk and even classical music.

Back in Cork in the 40’s and 50’s, whenever people got together for a social event it was inevitable that there would be singing and music. Often somebody would pull a harmonica out of his pocket and sometimes that person was me.

There was lots of music in our house since I grew up in a family of fiddle players. There was my grandfather who would have played with a Slíbh Luchra style being from Kishkeam which is in the North-west corner of County Cork. He would hold the fiddle very low on his chest and played with a great lilt and was very strict about rhythm. He often told me how he learned from his father. My father played too and my older brother played very well. The tradition is being carried on by my son Kieran who can be heard now and then in the sessions in Dingle. That makes five generations.

To participate in a session you need to have at least two diatonic harmonicas, a ‘G’ and a low ‘D’. I tried using a chromatic harmonica and found it difficult since there are too many draw notes for the above mentioned keys and I got out of breath. There is one problem to be overcome with the ‘G’ if you have the standard 10 hole model and that is-there is no low ’E’. You can however modify it. For instructions on how to make the modification go to the website of Steve Shaw and click on “Tuning-A Big Issue”. Steve does a great job of explaining all you things you need to know harmonicas for session playing so I will leave that to him.

I go out to play in the sessions in Dingle a couple of times a week. When I first started, four years ago, I destroyed a harmonica every two to three weeks. That was when I consulted Steve Shaw who pointed out that a harmonica has to be blown softly. He recommended using an amplifier. From then on I had no further trouble with the destruction of the instruments. However, amplifiers are not always welcome at the sessions. They had to put up with me until I discovered a new type of harmonica developed by Hohner USA called the XB-40. Pat Missin has a good review on the product.


XB-40 was made especially for musicians that wanted to bend the notes. It is, however, also much louder than other harmonicas. For the past six months or so I have been able to manage without the amplifier and without destroying the instruments. XB-40 is available in several keys including the essential ones for Irish music namely, 'G' and 'lowD'. The cost is about $80 in the US and about £48 by mail order from England. I frequently use Harmonicas Direct in the UK ; they have good service and reasonable prices.

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