I have been using hymns lately to explore playing melodies I know but have not worked out on the harp. Hymns work well for this because I learned a lot of them growing up in church . They seem to be mostly in major with few accidentals so they are easily played on a diatonic instrument. I recently picked up a hymnal just to check what I was doing and I was surprised to see that most of the songs were written in what is commonly referred to on this site as "horn keys", Db though C on the circle of fifths. I have been curious about how the horn, vs string keys got started and now I see church music is in horn keys. As a trombonist I am aware that the trombone was once one of the most sacred of the instruments, but I had not noticed before the ecclesiastical endorsement of horns in the hymnal. :-) I have my harps arranged in two columns in my case, sharps on one side and flats on the other. Is one side sacred and the other secular?
Funny you should mention this. I had to play a selection of Carols at Christmas on Blues Harp and every single one was in the key of F. I grabbed a Bb harp and I was good to go:)
They are good practice for intonation and the tempo is often quite easy. Not many dotted note values.
I notice a lot of modern hymns however reside in the sharp side of the circle of 5th's.
Thanks for including that recording. It has never occurred to me to try and play a hymn or a carol in 2nd position. I normally use first, but I see that as long as you don't need the leading tone above the tonic, you can play a major tune without overblows in second position.
