Hey, I don’t have nerves (so my wife tells me - or is that “sensitivity?”) - it’s probably another manifestation of that inferiority complex that harmonica players have (a) because they’re harmonica players and (b) because some people don’t regard us as traditional… 
Cheers!
Steve
I’ll gladly play with a good harmonica player, and have done! I know some actual honest-to-goddness real live Irish who have or have had trad harmonica players in their families. Far be it from me to cast aspersions in your direction, then.
I still want to buy a bunch of kazoos and hand them out at a session some time. Dr. Gilbert’s would be a stitch.
Your kazoos wouldn’t have been out of place at the Wellington Hotel in Boscastle (recently restored after the deluge last August). We had cheap plastic recorders, bassoons, rain-tubes, didgeridoos, a sousaphone, an Eb bass, tom-toms, dobros, shaky eggs…I left that session. It has new owners now who I hope don’t have cloth ears!
I’d gladly play with a good bodhran player, and haven’t done. I’ll leave it to others to spot the multifarious idiocies in that brief sentence… 
Steve
What’s wrong with playing what you want and just not calling the non- traditional things traditional? It seems to me that the only thing one could do wrong is to say “I am playing traditional music” when one is not. So couldn’t a person just play whatever and not call it traditional?
If you applied a traditional style to Hey Jude, could you not say I am playing Hey Jude in a traditional style without asserting that Hey Jude was a traditional song (one passed down through generations)? So some people might not approve of playing that song that way, but they can’t criticize your terminology or understanding of the tradition. I can’t see how it would be wrong to like how someone played this song. Can’t it be non-traditional and still be liked?
If the harmonica is not a traditional ITM instrument, well so what? I myself thought those clips you put up sounded really excellent. It seems to me that it has a sound that works very well with traditional tunes. So, can you not just say “Okay, the harmonica has not been passed from generation to generation as an instrument to play tunes on in Ireland, but I play traditional tunes in a traditional style on this non-traditional instrument.”? If people criticize you, it cannot be because of your understanding of the tradition. They will either be stupid, or they just won’t personally care for the sound.
I get the feeling that the word “traditional” has implications greater than I, as a beginner, realize. There must be some snobbery involved or something.
Steve, I am not arguing with you. I am just interested in the discussion. And I don’t know a thing about it really.
Okay, what is the deal with kazoos? Now there is an “instrument” that should be given out as favors at the birthday parties of small children and then thrown away at the end.
It’s just that kazoos would be close to the ultimate irony at an ITM session. The accusation of snobbery is well-taken and understandable, but bear in mind that there are those among us who really and honestly care about the tradition as it stands, and aren’t willing to have a trad session turned into an experimental free-for-all. That’s not what we’re there for. Every now and then we get goofy (like kazoos), but it’s soon back to the business of the real deal. At a good trad session, everyone’s having fun, but don’t think for a moment that most of these folks aren’t at the same time dead serious about it. It means a lot to them, and it’s truly inconsiderate to push things too far.
Oh nano, I agree with you completely. I, beginner though I am, think I have a very strict idea of what would be “traditional”—not that I can play it or know all about it, but I would ask and make sure because I do not think it is just what makes you feel good. That is why I posted that definition.
I am trying, I think, to find a way for those who aren’t playing what I would call “traditional” music not to have to keep trying to call it that. Then maybe there wouldn’t be a problem. They could just call it something else and that would be fine.
It didn’t occur to me, though, that people playing what I would call non-traditional music would want to go to a ITM session. That would be a problem and I can see now why the definition is more of a problem than I thought. I was thinking of people playing on their own or with other like-minded people.
I blame the following query on those who would bring up classical music and tortillas (Paco Bell) and then cast aspersions at Kazoos (someplace in Michigan, isn’t it?):
So, I have heard something similar to the following, a female duet sung in some foreign language, and would appreciate some help in identifying it:
X:1
T:duet thing
R:waltzish
M:3/4
K:C
L:1/8
z[G5E5] | [FD] [GE] [AF] z3 | z[G5E5] | [FD] [GE] [AF]z3 |[GE] [AF] [GE] [AF] [GE] [AF] |
[BG] [cA] [BG] [cA] [BG] [AF] | [GE] [AF] [GE] [AF] [GE] [AF] | [GE] [FD] [E2C2] [G2E2] | [D5B,5]z :||
Murky Buckets,
djm
Edited to say that the files I posted here showing the sheet music and giving the MIDI for the tune only stay on the Concertina.net website for a short time. I did not know that so I have deleted them here. Also, I thought that djm was joking and the name of the song posted here was made up by me and is in no way the real title and composer of the tune. Sorry for the mess. 
It is the well known Duet for Soprano and Alto by Unknown.
Cynth, do you have any idea how many things go by this title? I just did a Google on Duet for Soprano and Alto, and was swamped. Hopefully someone else can come up with a more definitive answer (but I appreciate the attempt).
BTW, these files on concertina.net only stay up for 20 minutes or so …
djm
Hi Nanoherdron / Cynth
Who cares if the tune is traditional or not and the instrument used is irrelevant, if people like playing it and I enjoy listening to it then that is all right by me. My poor UP teacher despairs of me when I use groovy kind of love as my test tune when tryng to learn a new technique.
Steve
Next to wooden flute and voice, the harmonica is my number 3 instrument to play bodhran with. (says he ducking) so you will find no argument from me on the use of harmonica in traditional music.
David
I think this applies more to people who are outside it to begin with than to people who have it. A newly converted religious or people who have just given up smoking, they are usually more fantical about things ti make sure they feel they belong.
No, in fact those are among my all-time favorite de Dannan tracks. It’s great music and great fun, and who cares whether it’s traditional or not? That was my original point. But I was also arguing that if you do want to get caught up in the “is this traditional” debate, the definition that “playing any tune in a traditional manner makes it traditional” doesn’t seem to hold water in this case.
djm, I really have to apologize. I thought that you were just joking, since you introduced your request with jokes. I just made up the title, etc., for a joke. I didn’t realize it was a real tune–I thought you just made it up for the occasion. I would never make something like that up otherwise. I will edit that post.
Well, I’m starting to think I don’t know what I’m talking about. I think I have observed some snobbery in the forums, and I think people who are not secure in what they are doing do tend to resort to snobbery—as in “I am better than you because I play truly traditional music.”
But I think I over-looked another attitude which might be mistaken for snobbery which I might call “protectiveness” of a tradition. I think that is a good thing and it might appear to be snobbish at times depending on how the speaker phrases things. New things always enter traditions and start getting passed on through the generations but I think that having to jump through some hoops might keep the new things that are finally accepted more in line with the tradition and then the tradition won’t be diluted and lost. I don’t know, just a thought.
BigDavy, your poor teacher indeed. Davy, I think we really do agree. My only argument was with people calling something “traditional” when it isn’t. I am not saying that other music is not just as good or that people that play other music aren’t just as good. You are not calling Groovy Kind of Love an ITM tune. I would not call it an ITM tune. I don’t think there is any difference between us.
Steve, I trust you did not get the impression that I thought the harmonica was unsuitable for playing ITM. I know I have said on a number of occasions that I thought it sounded very suitable.
Bingo and just so. It is traditionalist snobbery to make people think there is a mystery to what is traditional. What Peter said is right on in this debate and I refer to Kathryn Tickell again. She said she feels no need to prove she is traditional because she knows she is. Conversely, people who feel the need to confine, define, or put others down as not traditional, are usually struggling with their own place in the tradition.
“Groovy Kind of Love” on the UPs! I’ll have to try that.
I’ll ask you to reassert that when someone brings a euphonium to a trad session.
well, the views expressed have made a jolly good read…i’m sure that as in most things there is an element of snobbery…as my initial comment seems to have triggered a few spicy bits let me say that the initial question had no intention of apperaing snobbish…but…as far as my current learning is concerned i am really only interested in Irish traditional…I have found the comments useful. Today i received my copy of 'the pocket history of Irish traditional music byGearoid O hAllmhurain…have not been able to put it down today…a quick read through and now a careful study…i found it helpful and interesting…i’m sure you have all read it, but if not get a copy…enlightens one considerably…but more important for me…it has given me an emotional insight into what i am seeking to learn…and blow me down if i didn’t play better tonight !!!..AS FOR SPEED…cop this…written around 1183…by one GIRALDUS…of the Irish and their music playing…‘I find among these people commendable diligence only on musical instruments on which they are incomparably more skilled than any other nation i have seen. Their style is quick and lively. It is remarkable that, with such rapid fingerwork the musical rythm is maintained and that by unfailingly disciplined art, the integrity of the tune is fully preserved throughout the ornate rythms and the profuely intricate polyphony’ Just thought I’d throw that in…snobbish or what !!! bless you.
Les, I sure was not thinking you were snobbish. I thought you were a serious learner, and I (a beginner) learned a lot from the answers to your question. I definitely am sorry I ever brought that term up! Thanks also for giving the author of the book you had mentioned----I need something like that and didn’t know what would be a good one.
If they can play a reel at 125BPM and do crans and rolls then have at it boyo!