After getting great info from all you helpfull folks on the
the Traditional board I went in search of some harps.
Hohner has a new set of 7 harps their piedmont blues series
in a beuatiful nylon,wood and velvet lined case I picked this up at our local guitar center store for 19.95 usd I think its a great deal for pro and beginner alike the harps are plastic body and cover very tough made with good sound and tone I am very pleased. 
A question for anyone who could answer
1 Is the harmonica used in ITRAD
2 what types of harmonica and or keys are used
3 and is this the place ask this question or should I take a hike
Thanxs
WhistlinBob
Just hang around untill Steve Shaw weighs in 
Slan,
D.
You might be interested in this thread:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=7014&
Sorry, the links to the sound clips no longer work.
Carol
Octave, tremolo, 10- and 12-hole diatonics (blues harps) and chromatics are all eminently suitable for playing Irish music. A quick glance at this discography IRISH and SCOTTISH HARMONICA DISCOGRAPHY will show that thereās a healthy and increasing number of ITM harmonica recordings available (though some include ārelated celticā genres too).
The harmonica fits in nicely in sessions as long as the player tries to blend with the other instruments and cuts down somewhat on the wailing and wah-wah-ing (you can do these things if you get a solo spot!). A lot of ornamentation is possible, and note-bending for expression can be very effective. If the session is a big one or is in a noisy pub you can have trouble being heard even with good tone and projection and the loudest harps available (Hohner XB40s probably). You may need a touch of amplification in these settings and the others may not like that idea.
Some people do all sorts of things to their harmonicas to make them more suitable, but if you play 10-hole blues harps one particular thing thatās quite important is to do a one-note retune to put back a note missing in the lowest octave. You can tune up either the 2-draw or the 3-blow by a tone. Most people choose the 3-blow. Youāll get by quite well without doing this with D harps but you will be significantly hampered with G harps as many G tunes need that missing note. As most Irish tunes are modal, with just a G and a D harp youāll be able to play the tunes in G Ionian, A Dorian, E Aeolian, D Mixolydian, D Ionian, E Dorian, B Aeolian, A Mixolydian and G Lydian. On your A harp youāll be able to play in A Ionian and E Mixolydian too. That covers an awful lot of Irish tunes! Tell your guitarists this and they probably wonāt know what youāre talking about. Heheh.
You may be one of those rare people whoās comfortable playing a C chromatic in any key, otherwise you need, in order of importance, harps in D (preferably low D), G and A. I always take along harps in C and low F too.
In some circles the harmonica carries about as much kudos as the piano accordion, the 5-string banjo and the bodhran and just slightly more than the shaky egg. But to hell with the begrudgers I say! 
Iāve put a lot more information and links to even more on my website.
Steve
The harmonica will be taught for the first time this year at WCSS. SO weāll probably be overrun with them next week Seriously, there have always been a number of nice hamonica players around,good shtuff.
WhistlinBob,
As a newly afflicted harmonica player (for which I blame Steve), I find solace in the fact that harmonica is represented at the Fleadh. In fact, it seems to attract a full field across the age groups. Noel Battle is 2004 All-Ireland Senior Champion for Mouth Organ.
Here in the countryside the harmonica is mostly a solitary instrument (except for the blues tradition) I wonder if it is the same in Ireland. I would love to see an investigation into its role in Irish society.
Check out Steveās website and the links to some of the other modern players, they are really doing some serious stuff on these things. I would also highly recommend Steveās CD; itās full of clean playing with plenty of lift. Itās great.
But hey, this is all coming from a guy with a ātweakedā Hohner in his front pocket.
Byron
Cheers Byron. I donāt think Noel wants to enter again (I believe heās won it about ten times now!). His friend Dave Hynes of Mullingar has been trying to persuade me to enter this year at Kilkenny, but when I looked into it I discovered that I lived in just about the worst possible place to enter from. Just to enter the regional /provincial stages would mean travelling many a hundred miles (thereās no CCE branch within about 150 miles of me). Iād love a week in Ireland but I fear Iād just be watching. Iāve found it quite hard to get to grips with the CCE structure as an āoutsider,ā and the website isnāt much help. Noel wonāt play anything other than Tombo tremolos, which have all the notes in the bottom octave unlike the Hohner Echos which are tuned like blues harps at the bottom end (heaven knows why).
Steve
Steve, maybe you could just start your own CCE branch where you are and organise your own provincial competitions
According to them, āAll you need are 6 or so interested people to form a committee (you need a chairman, secretary, treasurer and PRO plus somebody to organise your sessions and possibly music classes at some time in the future).ā
Youāll be part of a āvery useful networkā and receive copies of the Comhaltas magazine Treoir.
Thankyou all for your insight.the harmonica/mouth organ
has always been a favorite of mine.I play mostly solo western and southern style some blues.Itrad will be a new frontier for me thanks again.
Thanks Bob. I wish someone could give me insight into whistle-playing. I know exactly what to do and Iāve tried, my how Iāve tried, but my brain wonāt let my fingers do it. Or maybe theyāre just not connected to the brain at all. 
Steve
Steve, the way you play the harp you donāt need to be thinking about playing the whistle. Iāve often wondered if youāve thought of Melodeon as a ābackupā instrument thoughā¦ 
Iāve had a Hohner D/G Erica for years (tried a B/C at first but couldnāt get into all that row-crossing at all. Moral: start young). I was influenced by the fact that Dave Mallinson plays his Irish music on a D/G. There are two things that bug me about this machine (well, one of the two things is about me, not the instrument). First, itās tuned at the bottom end with a couple of silly accidental buttons that take the place of far more sensible notes that you actually need to play a lot of tunes. Second, Iām positively elephantine in my handling of the bellows, and I breathe in and out at precisely the points I would do if I were playing the tune on a harmonica, even on fast runs of notes, and I canāt stop myself from doing it. AArgh! 
I do have a bodhran though. Heheh! 
Steve