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Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina, harmoneon and bandoneon are related. The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor.
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica include diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth to direct air into or out of one holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. The most common is the diatonic Richter-tuned with ten air passages and twenty reeds, often called the blues harp. A harmonica reed is a flat, elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound.
A reed is a thin strip of material that vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. Most woodwind instrument reeds are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material. Tuned reeds are made of metal or synthetics. Musical instruments are classified according to the type and number of reeds.
Overblowing is the manipulation of supplied air through a wind instrument that causes the sounded pitch to jump to a higher one without a fingering change or the operation of a slide. Overblowing may involve a change in the air pressure, in the point at which the air is directed, or in the resonance characteristics of the chamber formed by the mouth and throat of the player.
A mouth organ is any free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed. Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, and blowing or sucking air to create a sound. Many of the chambers can be played together or each individually.
Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner (1833–1902). The roots of the Hohner firm are in Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg. Since its foundation, and though known for its harmonicas, Hohner has manufactured a wide range of instruments, such as kazoos, accordions, recorder flutes, melodicas, banjos, electric, acoustic, resonator and classical guitars, basses, mandolins and ukuleles
The Richter-tuned harmonica, or 10-hole harmonica or blues harp, is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes in a three-octave range.
There are numerous techniques available for playing the harmonica, including bending, overbending, and tongue blocking.
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons. This differs from the piano accordion, which has piano-style keys. Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs categorize it as a free reed aerophone in their classification of instruments, published in 1914. The sound from the instrument is produced by the vibration of air in reeds. Button accordions of various types are particularly common in European countries and countries where European people settled. The button accordion is often confused with the concertina; the button accordion's buttons are on the front of the instrument, where as the concertina's are on the sides and pushed in parallel with the bellows.
A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad.
The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key of the harmonica is available, while depressing the button accesses the same scale a semitone higher in each hole. Thus, the instrument is capable of playing the 12 notes of the Western chromatic scale. The chromatic harmonica can thus be contrasted with a standard harmonica, which can play only the notes in a given musical key.
A tremolo harmonica is a type of diatonic harmonica, distinct by having two reeds per note. In a tremolo harmonica, the two reeds are tuned slightly off a reference pitch, one slightly sharp and the other slightly flat. This gives a unique wavering or warbling sound created by the two reeds being not exactly in tune with each other and difference in their subsequent waveforms acting against one another. The degree of beating can be varied depending on the desired effect. Instruments where the beating is faster due to the reeds being farther apart from the reference pitch are called "wet", whereas those where the beating is slower and less noticeable due to the reeds being more closely in tune are called "dry".
Christian August Seydel founded the C. A. Seydel Söhne harmonica factory in Klingenthal, Sachsen in 1847. The firm remains the oldest harmonica factory in the world and manufactures a wide range of harmonicas.
Richter tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument. It is named after Joseph Richter, a Bohemian instrument maker who adopted the tuning for his harmonicas in the early 19th century and is credited with inventing the blow/draw mechanism that allows the harmonica to play different notes when the air is drawn instead of blown.
Rick Epping is a California-born musician who has immersed himself in American old-time and Irish traditional music since the 1960s. He is a player of the harmonica, concertina, banjo and jaw harp.
Frédéric Yonnet is a French musician, producer and recording artist who is best known for his use of the harmonica as a lead in jazz, R&B, funk, gospel and hip-hop influenced music. His ability to play chromatic scales on a diatonic harmonica gives him access to twice as many notes as the instrument is designed to deliver.
Joe Filisko is an American blues harmonica player and maker of customized harmonicas based in Chicago, Illinois. In 2001 he was named "Harmonica Player of the Year" by the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica. In addition to performing, and building customized harmonicas, he also teaches at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The Hohner harmonica company describes him as the world's foremost authority on the diatonic harmonica. He designed the distinctive conical cover plates of the Hohner Marine Band Thunderbird harmonicas.
Blues Bender P.A.C. are a series of 10-hole harmonicas produced by Hohner. The "P.A.C." stands for Patented Acoustic Covers, a reference to the harmonica cover design patented by Jacob Hohner in 1897 and mostly used on the Hohner Marine Band. The Blues Bender set contains harmonica's in the keys of G, A, Bb, C, D, E and F. The harmonica features airtight construction for easier note bending, acoustic cover plates which increase the volume of the air between the reeds, and thicker reed plates for consistent tone.
Tim Edey is an English multi-instrumentalist and composer who grew up in Broadstairs, Kent and is now based in Perthshire, Scotland. In 2012 he was Musician of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and, with Brendan Power, Best Duo. He was awarded "Musician of the Year" in the 2020 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.
Peter "Madcat" Ruth is an American Grammy Award-winning virtuoso harmonica player, who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. He has been an invited guest performer at many harmonica festivals and workshops in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and has performed with symphony orchestras, as well as on radio and television advertisements and appearances all over the world. His harmonica playing can be heard on over 130 CD's and LP's, a well as instructional DVD's.
References
- ↑ "Cast Members Archive". Riverdance.com. 2015-11-08. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "X-Reed Harmonicas". X-reed.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ Video on YouTube
- ↑ Craig Harris. "Brendan Power | Biography & History". AllMusic . Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "Randy Edelman - Shanghai Noon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (CD)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ William Melton; Randy Weinstein (1 October 2012). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing The Harmonica, 2nd Edition. DK Publishing. pp. 348–. ISBN 978-1-61564-312-7.
- ↑ "Gear Review: The Powerbender diatonic harp : Hunter Harp Harmonica Maximus". Hunterharp.com. 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "The Future Of The Harmonica by Brendan Power / Free Reed Festival 2000". Rootsworld.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "Jig Jazz" (PDF). Brendan-power.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "Brendan Power Harmonica". Brendan-power.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "Modular-Reed Harmonica". Brendan-power.com. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
- ↑ "Modular-Reed Harmonica by Brendan Power". patmissin.com. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
- ↑ "Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica". SPAH. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ↑ "Radio 2 - Events - Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012". BBC. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
