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Chromatic 21-Chord Tweaking Overview
Many people who've played autoharps for a while begin to think that there must be a better key layout for the kinds of material they like to do. Even folks who thought their 21-chorders were the key to autoharp happiness.
Yes, most autoharp experts will recommend starting on a 21-chorder if you can afford it, but that's not the end of the story. OS 21-chorders were deliberately designed to make modification easy for folks who know what they're doing.
Common mods include:
- You can move the chord bars and buttons around to better suit your style of play (this may or may not include the other changes listed below).
- You can replace chords you don't need with chords you do need for the kinds of music you prefer to play. For example:
- Folks who play in genres like Folk, Bluegrass, and Country often remove chords like Ab and Bb7 so they can add chords like E major and B minor.
- Folks who play classical, hymnal, or Tin-Pan-Alley music may add chords that such pieces require, such as diminished sevenths*, augmented chords, and suspended fourths..
- If you only need to play in one or two keys, you can retune strings you don't need to notes you do need, gaining a fuller sound.
- You can even change basic functions of the chord bars (unfortunately most of those mods are outside the scope o this web site).
Don't Try This At Home (Yet). This page is simply an overview of some of the most common ways people reconfigure their 21-chord autoharps to better suit their needs. You shouldn't attempt any of these tweaks until you have studied the 21-chord section of our Autoharp Repair Overview page, at least. But if you have a 21-chorder and you've been thinking, "It would sure be nice if Am was closer to C," or some such, this page can hopefully point you toward useful suggestions.
Which Modifications Will Be Best for You? As you learn and/or struggle with your 21-chorder, you will discover for yourself what chords you seem to be missing, and which chord bars you need to be closer to which other chord bars. The following sections describe some of the most common kinds of modification.
 Simplest Approach
It's possible to add those chord bars, and sacrifice chords you'll never use like Ab, Bb7, and F7, while still leaving most of the chords in the same relative position. In fact, if you have a 21-chord Chromaharp, that may be your best approach.
For one example of this approach, check out our article "Simplest Folk Chord Addition for 21-Chorders."
An additional feature of this sort of reconfiguration is that you can change it back later if you wish, or you can change it further to a setup many folks prefer: some version of the Bowers setup.
 Bowers-Inspired Approach (Not recommended for Chromoharps)
A setup many prefer for guitar-friendly genres like String-Band, Folk, Bluegrass, Country, and Pop. The picture shows one of the most common reconfigurations. One advantage of these setups is that, in addition to giving me E, Bm and F#m, they bring the relative minors closer to their major keys.
If you have a standard Oscar Schmidt 21-chorder, you may be able to buy parts that make the conversion easier and more elegant.
Resources for this approach:
By the way, approaches with the major chords in the middle row, etc. - are very popular among folks who go "diatonic," that is they convert their autoharps to play only in one or two keys. But that's another discussion.
Jo Ann Smith's "Unified Chord Bar Arrangement"
Jo Ann Smith is an accomplished autoharper and autoharp teacher, as well as the moderator of the Facebook "Autoharp" group. She has created a variation of the standard 21-chord configuration designed to make learning easier, and to make playing more consistent from one key to the next.
 Jo Ann presents several variations, but this is probably her most popular. Its advantages over standard OS21-key setup include:
- The seventh chords mostly keep the same position relative to the major chords as the Oscar Schmidt factory settings so it's not hard to adjust to.
- It makes the chord configuration consistent for every available key, so if you've learned to play a 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-chord song in one key, you can transpose to another key simply by moving your hand over.
- It moves the relative minors closer to their related tonic key. Am is closer to C, etc.
- It adds chords that are needed by Folk, Bluegrass, and Country players while only losing the ability to play in Eb or Cm, two keys seldom used in those genres.
Jo Ann describes her approach in this pdf.
That resources also illustrates other possible setups for different situations. And she explains the reasons for each effectively.
We also have a little more information about Jo Ann's approach in our article "Simplest Folk/Bluegrass Chord Addition for 21-Chorders.
Lindsay Haisley's "Chromatic Standard" Setup
 Another approach that many people find helpful was created by Lindsay Haisley, who plays a wide variety of music, including Baroque, Jazz, and mid-century popular music. To play those musical styles more accurately, Lindsay adds the three diminished seventh chords.
The drawing shows one variation of this approach. Lindsay also has versions that are more useful in genres like Folk, Bluegrass, and Country.
Lindsay describes his approach in detail in this PDF. At the moment, he's still active in various autoharp forums online, so you might be able to contact him directly if you have questions.
"Out of the Box" Setups
A number of autoharp players have determined other ways to use the chord bars. Instead of each chord bar playing one chord, each chord bar deadens only a few notes, and you use two or three chord bars together to get the chord you want. The advantage is that you can create many more chords this way than any of the standard setups allow. Of course, the disadvantage is that it essentially requires learning a new instrument.
Unfortunately, these approaches are all out of scope for this page, but we wanted you to know they're possible so you don't suffer terminal cognitive dissonance if you come across one.
Diatonic Setups
If you tend to play in only one or two keys, it's possible to give up chords you'll never use and retune the strings you'll never use to double notes you do. For example, if you only ever play in C, you could tune C# down to C, Eb down to D, F# down to F, G# down to G, and Bb down to A. Then you'd recut your felts so that those strings would sound - for example notching the C chord bar so that the strings that used to be C# and G# now sound. That means when you play a C chord nearly twice as many strings will sound, giving you a much richer sound.
Most people go to "semi-diatonic," depending on what keys they tend to play in. A G/D diatonic contains all the chords and strings necessary to play in G and D, but retunes like Bb and G# to double strings like A and G.
At the same time, you'll no longer be able to play an E major chord, so you might find a reuse for the chord bar. Many folks who go diatonic start with 15-chorders because they don't want to deal with extra chords you could add, like Em7 or Emaj4.
If you're interested in learning more about diatonic or semidiatonic setups, our "Diatonic Autoharps" article will give you more information.
Conclusion
We are providing this content mostly because many people who've played autoharps for a while begin to think that there must be a better chord bar layout for the kinds of material they like to do. Or that they're missing chords they need.
Unlike Diatonic conversions, most 21-chord reconfigurations do not require retuning any of the strings. Most don't require recutting any of the chord bars you want to keep. But you do need to label your chord bars before you start moving them around, or the conversion will get even more chaotic than it needs to be.
That said, I don't want to leave you "hanging" on some point, so I will gladly answer questions sent to me through our contact page. After all, reader questions are the main way I get ideas for new articles.
Best of luck!
Currently Available Tweaking Resources
On our pages (or sister sites):
- Making Your Autoharp Folk- and Bluegrass-Friendly - An overview of the most common updates that allow you to play most Folk, Bluegrass, and Country music.
- Making Your OS 21-Chord Autoharp Folk- and Bluegrass-Friendly - detailed tips and instructions for adapting most 21-chord Oscar Schmidts to Folk- and Bluegrass-friendly Bowers configurations.
- Making Your OS73C Folk- and Bluegrass-Friendly - A look at the process for equipping an OS73C or OS73CE to play chords that Folk, Bluegrass, and Country players need.
- Video: Cutting New Chord Bars for an OS73C - Shows how to cut the chord bars required for the previous article. (You can't buy precut chord bars for the OS73C or OS73E.)
- Simplest Folk Chord Addition for 21-Chorders - Keeping the same basic chord button relationships, but adding Folk- an Bluegrass-friendly chords.
- Diatonic Autoharps - about accomplishing a much richer sound by doubling strings you use to play in your favorite keys.
- George Foss' G/D Autoharp Reconfiguration - Music professor and autoharp player George Foss' 1990s-era recommendations for setting up a semi-diatonic autoharp that plays well in G and D.
- "Appalachian" and "Bluegrass" Reconfiguration - The Chromaharp "Bluegrass" and the original 15-chord OS "Appalachian" included chords like A and E that Folk, Bluegrass, and Country players were asking for, but it kept them in a difficult position, and left out Em. I resequenced the chord bars and converted my E7 to Em (after all, there was still an E major if you wanted to play in A).
On Third-Party Sites:
*Diminished chords are made up of only minor third intervals, such as C, Eb, Gb. Usually "diminished chords" on autoharps include a fourth note, making them a "diminished seventh." So C, Eb, Gb, A. Only three diminished 7th chords are possible in modern "tempered" notation systems, but an autoharp must be chromatic - having sharps and flats - to play them. Click the back arrow on your browser to return to the text.
 Whatever else you get out of our pages, I hope you come away with some great ideas for "sharing the joy."
And please stay in touch!
- Paul Race
All material, illustrations, and content of this web site is copyrighted (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009,
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 by Paul D. Race. All rights reserved.
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