 Playing Autoharp Overview |
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| Playing Autoharp OverviewWhen the autoharp was invented, it was designed to be played in the lap or on a table, like many zithers and related instruments. For the first thirty years or so, that's how it was played in North America. Then "string band" musicians like Cecil Nutt and Maybelle Carter started holding them upright, cradling the little curve near their left elbows and reaching around with their left hand to push the buttons.
Some discontinued autoharps, like Oscar Schmidt's Educator" and Chromaharp's "Caroler" and "PortAharp"must be played in the lap or on a table. But most people today use the "upright" position - and some newbies will tell you you're doing it "wrong" if you don't. Don't mind their ignorance.
You can play with a flatpick if your goal is mostly to strum the thing, say to accompany someone singing, etc. You can even play the melody with a flat pick, once your right hand "learns" the position of the strings. In fact, that's the way Meg Peterson, the longtime education director of Oscar Schmidt, starts you out on melody playing in her earliest method books. (She also presented fingerpicking methods, but those came later in her lessons.) Some folks will say you're doing it "wrong" if you play your autoharp in your lap or if you play it with a flatpick. Their spiritual ancestors told Cecil Nutt and Maybelle Carter they were doing it "wrong" when they started holding their 'harps upright. So don't take it personally. Smile politely and make a mental note to hang out with better people in the future. That said, I still suck at using fingerpicks compared to a lot of other folks I know. So I'll post a few hints on this page, then I'll follow up with links to people who really know what they're doing. Basic StrumsAnybody can play chords on an autoharp, but they were originally designed to play melodies and just use the other notes on the chord bars as accompaniment. That said, the first step toward that is to learn to make a basic strum. You can do that with a flatpick, but many folks recommend that you start out using fingerpicks, so you can get used to them early. A thumbpick lets you strum upward with your thumb, and fingerpicks on your first and second finger (at least) let you strum downward. Try a pinching motion, where you do both at the same time. Then try strumming upwards with your thumb on the down beat and strum downward with your fingers on the up beat. Once you get used to the feel of that, you can start getting more ambitious and trying to play specific notes with your fingers. Finding the NotesAlmost every autoharp has a strip under the strings showing the names of the notes. Some have notes on a staff as well. Back when folks played the things in their laps, finding the melody notes simply meant looking at that strip and picking the string above it. Of course, that doesn't work when you're playing in upright position. But, fortunately, if you're playing the right chords, you can usually hit the string you need to hit, and the strings next to it, and only the string you want to hear will sound. In other words, you can be a little "sloppy" while you're learning how to keep your right hand in the position you need for the songs you're playing. Starting with a ScaleYou could play a C scale simply by finding the middle C and picking D, E, F, etc. without pumping the chord bars. You could pick a melody the same way. That's how zither players do it, after all. But at the end you'd have a confusing cacophony of tones. Zimmermann's expectation would have been for you to pump the chord bars as you were picking the notes. That way the strings next to the one you mean to play will be deadened, so the melody will be clearer. If you try playing each note on the scale below while playing the chord shown, you'll see how this works. Remember to play the notes by bringing your fingers toward you, and not worrying about hitting the strings on either side. Yes, it's hard to get used to.
It may seem strange to pump the chord bars at every beat, but that is why Zimmerman designed the chord bars the way he did. In most three-chord songs in C, G7 is used more often than F, especially for passing tones. That's why the G7 chord bar is next to the C. Note: If you have a very old autoharp that has numbers on the chord bars instead of chord names, you can find materials that include the chord bar numbers on this page. Playing a MelodyTo play a melody while wearing fingerpicks, you would follow the chord chart of the song. Push the appropriate chord bar and pull your fingers across the upper strings until you hear the melody note you need to hear. The next time you play that note, that's where your fingers need to hit. Here's a simple three-chord song to give you an idea of how the melody and the chords would go together. In this case, every note in the melody is contained in the chords, so as long as you have the right chord bar pushed down, it should be easy to find the melody note you need.  What do you do if there are other notes that aren't in the chord? Here's an example. Even though the song "Buffalo Gals" can be accompanied with only two chords, the melody includes "passing tones" that aren't in the chord. In this case, the "A" note shows up in measures where you'd ordinarily just be playing the C chord. That makes it a passing tone. But it can be found in the F chord. You can pop out to the F chord for one half-beat just to hit that note, and then get back to the C chord for the rest of the measure*. That's why the chord bars are kept so close together.  If you got really good with your fingers, you might eventually be able to play that A with all of the chord bars up, and then go right to the C. Lots of experienced autoharp players can do just that - especially folks with "diatonic" autoharps. But in the meantime, popping out to the F and back again quickly will help you avoid hitting "wrong" strings like G# and Bb that are right next to the A string.
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