 Simplest Folk Chord Addition for 21-Chorders |
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| Simplest Folk Chord Addition for 21-ChordersIf you're already quite used to playing on the standard OS 21-chord configuration, this suggestion allows you to keep the same chord bar relationships while losing useless chords and gaining chords you need. On the other hand, if you're relatively new to 21-chorders, you might want to jump right to the Bryan Bowers/Americana set up. The conversion is more complicated, but the resulting 'harp is easier to play in the long run. This is the easiest conversion of all, especially if you have a 21-chord Oscar Schmidt. (If you have a 21-chord Chromaharp, don't despair; the conversion is still possible, as we discuss further down.)
Note: In my example to the right, I am sacrificing the Eb to add the folk-friendly chords. The Americana actually sacrifices the Cm. This is all your choice, really, as all of these are just suggestions. In fact, I don't think I would do this again without converting to Bryan Bowers/America settings. But if you are really used to conventional 21-chorders, and don't want to relearn your favorite songs, the instructions below will give you the easiest conversion. As the drawing to the right shows, you can carefully remove the chord bar cover then remove the Eb, F7, and Ab chord bars (leave the Bb7 where it is for now). Then scootch the chord bars for all three rows up so that the rows start with Bb, C7, and Bb7 respectively. Put the new E chord bar at the right end of the top row. Put the F7 chord bar at the right end of the middle row. No, the F7 chord bar won't be any more useful there than it was at the other end of the row, but this way, the root chord buttons (Bb, F, C, G, D, and A) will have the same relative position to the seventh chords C7, G7, D7, A7, E7, and B7 that they did before. Put the Bm chord bar at the right end of the bottom row. Doublecheck your work so far. When you're certain that you haven't got anything too far out of whack, remove the Bb7 chord bar, and move the bottom row over. This will entail "jumping over" bars for the other chords, but if you're careful, you won't have any problems. Finally, your updated Oscar Schmidt 21-chorder should have the key layout shown below.
Note: The distance between strings on autoharps wavers a little, since they have to rebuild their jigs ever so often, so you will want to check your new chord bars to make certain the gaps in the felt are really exactly where they need to be. One alert reader also told me that he noticed that the factory cord bars muted some strings that should have been muted. Mostly the cuts in the felts were just slightly "off," causing a string that should have been ringing to be muffled. But on his autoharp, the bass notes for Dm and Em weren't cut out at all. I've encountered this on one of my 15-chorders, too. So, before you fasten everything back together, you might want to check out all of the chords to make certain they are playing the notes they should be. Now you can play guitar-friendly songs like "City of New Orleans" in guitar-friendly keys like D to your heart's content. But maybe that F7 bugs you. It's a chord you can't really use in most of the songs you play, and it's taking up room that could be used for something more useful, like F#7. Well you have three chord bars you're not using now. What about ordering some felt and recutting the F7 chord bar to an F#7? We show you where the gaps in the felt go in a chart below. Mark where the old felt came to on both ends before you pull it off, because it needs to be the same overall length it was before. Now you can play songs in A and E that you couldn't play before. You can stop right there if you want. But speaking of A and E, some of your favorite songs in those keys require C#m, which you still don't have. But you still have three unused chord bars. Reconfigure one of those for C#m using the gaps from the chart below, pull out the Cm, skootch the minor chords over one more time, and put the C#m on the right end of the bottom row.
If you click on the picture to the right, you'll get a spreadsheet that you can download and print. If you keep your printer from shrinking the printout, each of the little squares should be 1/4" high. Check against one of the chord bars you removed, to make certain the printout is "in scale." If you're just refelting, and not using "store-bought" E, Bm, and F#m chord bars, use the instruction sheet for the Chromaharp 21 (below). What about Chromaharp 21s? If you have a Chromaharp 21, you can't order pre-felted chord bars for your conversion. Neither can you slide the chord name buttons around on the chord bars like you can on an OS21. But if you are good with sacrificing Polka-friendly chords for the sake of adding Folk-friendly chords, that can be done. The string spacing on the Chromaharp is just a bit narrower than the string spacing on the Oscar Schmidt. So my spreadsheets may be a little "off." You'll need to actually hold the bar over the string to be entirely sure where to cut. But lots of folks have ordered the felt for these and reconfigured the Ab, Eb, Bb7, F7 and Cm chord bars for E, Bm, F#m, F#7 and C#m. Yes, you lose the ability to play in Bb, but you gain the ability to play more songs in A. If you want to see an "instruction sheet" for doing all five chord bars at once, click here. Note: Please keep in mind that these are only suggestions, and if you decide later you shouldn't have made these adjustments, we're not responsible for changing it back. Nor are we responsible if you toast your Chromaharp because you lose all the springs or something. Note: - The following sections will be fleshed out with photos and details as I get time to do the reconfiguration(s) I am contemplating. In the meantime, please refer to the links above, especially Wendy Grossman's account for more tips and details. Ordering Stuff You NeedAt the very least, I would need new felt. Several vendors offer this off and on, including Elderly Music, Daigleharp.com, and Autoharpstore.com. (Sorry, nobody seems to keep it in stock all the time.).By the way, 15-chorders tend to use 1/4"x1/4" felts. 21-chorders use narrower felts, such as 3/16" X 7/32". Make certain you order the right felt for your 'harp. I would hold off on replacing strings until I heard the thing cleaned up and tuned up. For most of the 1900s, autoharps were strung with what was basically piano wire. And most of it has held up great. Most of the newer harps seem to still have good strings as well. Whether I needed springs or anything else wouldn't necessarily be obvious until I got into things. Disassembling the AutoharpAccording to Wendy Grossman, Murphy's Law of Folk Music #102 is "Never take apart a concertina or an autoharp on a shag rug." There are a mess of little springs that will disappear in a hurry if you aren't careful. Now, if your autoharp is very old, they may need replaced anyway. So you can use that excuse when you have to order more. Wendy recommends applying a tiny dab of superglue to the base of each spring, so they don't wander away while you're working.If you make a point of not losing the springs, disassembly is pretty easy. Remove the screws that hold down the cover at each end and very carefully remove the chord bars one at a time. Note: If you are disassembling a 21-chorder, write the name of the chord on the side of the chord bar in magic marker. The chord bar buttons are not permanently attached, and it's too easy to separate the buttons and the chord bars, no mattor how careful you try to be. Removing the FeltsIf you have a very old autoharp, they may be coming off by themselves. You may be able to cut them off using a very sharp knife. Either way, you might find it helpful to use GooGone or mineral spirits or the like to get the rest of the glue/goo off the bars.If you have any bars that will get the felt back exactly where it was, save yourself some hassle by marking the gaps before you remove the felt. Then, to replace the felt on those bars, you can simply cut the felt segments and stick them on. Replacing the FeltsFolks do this a few different ways. If you print the spreadsheet above full-sized, it may conform physically to the actual sizes you'll need for your autoharp (tell the printer driver not to shrink the page). If the short side of the little blocks on the page lines up exactly with your string width, you may be able to cut the felt strips with a pair of sissors and just stick them on. If not, you might consider sticking the whole felt strip on and then using a razor blade, Xacto knife, or widget to cut the gaps. Most folks don't cut the gaps out completely - they cut a diagonal divot where the gap should be leaving a row of little V shapes in the felt.Wendy made her spreadsheet so it lined up exactly with her strings. (If that link doesn't work try this one. She also made a line every quarter of an inch on the underside of each bar (making sure those lines straddled the strings when the bar was set back in place). Then she used the spreadsheet to figure out exactly how long to make each segment of felt. RassemblingTest each felt bar individually to make certain it is aligning the way it needs to, then replace them in the sequence you desire. I like putting them so that the circle of fifths is on one row as much as possible. BbFCGDAE for instance. That way it's easier for me to keep track of the basic chords without having to look at the thing all the time. But, like everything in this article, your mileage may vary.ConclusionOf course this is only one way to make your 21-chord autoharp more useful for Folk, Bluegrass, Country, or Celtic music. We'll probably be documenting more as we get more reader questions, but this seemed like a good one for people to start with.In the meantime, please contact us with any questions at all - reader questions are the main thing that drivers our research, so we're always happy to hear from you. Best of luck!
And please stay in touch! - Paul Race
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