Harps

"the harp" can refer to many varieties of harp, since the term refers to just about any resonator with free strings stretched so they can be plucked and make the resonator couple the sound to air. (Even extra strings on a guitar are called 'harp strings' when they are not run over a fingerboard, but simply used as basses or additional open notes.)

The modern concert harp has a very wide and facile ability with music, and is able, in the hands of a good harp musician of playing in just about every style there is; classical, modern, pop, special-effects, Folk Music, and all of the historical music that was composed or could be arranged for harp. In essence, it is a piano actuated by the fingers, with few limitations (which are related to the essential diatonic nature of the instrument.) Specifically, as long as the seven strings in each octave can be tuned to the scale being used (and with the modern pedal harp, retuned while playing), the harp can do a pretty good job of making music from it.

Harps in Western History tend to be limited to the notes that the seven strings per octave can produce (although some mechanisms, some of which are quite ingenious and low-tech, can affect even this limitation) and are intended for playing diatonic music. They are quite effective in music of Ireland of the last 500 years, and early music from the middle-baroque as far back as anyone could imagine.

Harps in Eastern History have more limitations in those countries, like Japan, which have sociological limitations on instruments (for instance, in Japan, certain instruments are considered unsuitable for women, while others are considered unsuitable for men!)

Harps may be more appropriate for playing historical music than, say, pianos, because the player can fairly-easily retune the instrument and use just intonation or historical temperaments as easily as modern 12-tone equal temperament!

lyra...... is best pony

Try this link: http://www.harpmaker.net/projectc.htm

I have been researching the same thing. It gives good step by step pictures to begin sorting things out.

Usually less then 10

really thin

"Concert" harps have 47 strings and 7 pedals. The most common wood to be used in making a pedal harp is maple. The soundboard is usually made of spruce but cedar and douglas fir have been used as well. The mechanism of the harp is metal and very complex. A pedal harp has 2000 parts to it and 1500 of them move. The strings are a combination of nylon, gut and metal. Sometimes a synthetic string is used known as a carbon string or KF string.

A vibrating string ... oscillates at a certain frequency, like middle A might be @ 440 Hz. Each and every note has its own unique frequency or vibration rate - this is how we are able to recognize which note is being played or heard.

Ten dollars

The harp and guitar are both, sometimes used in the orchestra ( the harp more than the guitar ). The instrument known as the "harp-guitar" is a very rare hybrid instrument. Most of its repetoire is in solo pieces and chmber music. It is not a regular member of the symphony orchestra.

the vibrating of the strings

In blues harmonica "Cross-harp" refers to the practice of using a harmonica which is in a different key than the rest of the song. This is actually necessary (for reasons beyond my understanding) as a C harmonica will not sound right playing along with a band whos playing a song in the key of C. If the rest of the band is playing in C, get out your F harp.

Likewise if the band is playing in A, you need your D harp.

Wikipedia puts it thusly...

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The key played in this style is one fifth above the nominal tuning of the harmonica, e.g. a C harmonica is played in the key of G. Therefore, to be in tune with a normal guitar tuning of E, an A harmonica is often used. This is because by playing the C harmonica in G, or A harmonica in E, the dominant or seventh chord is produced in place of the tonic chord, and in the blues, all chords are typically played as dominant (seventh or ninth) chords. This is playing in second position, called "cross harp." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Which isn't terribly helpful, but I have found a chart which is... it is linked below.

Essentially every harmonica is a scale of the key its in. If you have the proper cross-harp for the key the blues song is in, nearly every note on that harp will fit anywhere you care to put it... you can get by with an off-key harp, but you will have a lot of foul notes to step over.

And the way I have remembered it is this. If youre a guitar player, put your finger on an A on the fretboard, now move that finger one string down to D... D is your cross-harp! Put your finger on a G, move your finger down one string & C is your cross-harp!

A harp can have any number of strings from zero to 47 depending on the type of harp and it's originality.

timbre is the sound made from a harp.!thankss.. lovee nessah && noelle...=)

Personally i think you should learn guitar as it is a much more versatile instrument than the harp. Plus it is more portable. hope that helps xxx

A harp is similar to a couple of instruments. Some musicians say it is similar to a guitar, but in history it bears similarity to the lyre. In the way it is played it is actually similar to the piano.

First of, it's not a harp, it's a lyre.

Second, Hermes made it for him. Kinda. Hermes stole Apollo's cattle, then took a tortoise, and made a lyre out of it. Apollo found Hermes, saw the lyre, heard how beautiful it sounded and traded his golden wand, the Caduceus for it.

Harps can be made of several different things. Some harps are wooden, while others are made of metals, sometimes including gold. Modern harp strings are usually made out of nylon.

To do a glissando on harp place one or two fingers on the bottom string and then guide your hand up the harp by pulling through the elbow, causing your finger(s) to hit each string and make it vibrate until you reach the top.

its boring

Harps make a variety of noises and various other sounds. The harp can make a buzzing noise while a string is in between a flat, natural, or sharp. The harp can make a sound called the 'pan's flute' which is not to be confused with the pan flute instrument, in which one slides there hand upward on the wire bass strings causing a whistling noise. You can drum on the side boards to imitate drums, weave a paper through the strings to imitate the snare drum. If you can dream the sound up, there is a way to imitate it on the harp. Also, there is the classic, which most people think of when they think of harp, is the tinkling ring of the strings.

I think it could be considered a lyre

Harps in continental Europe differed from Irish harps in that the forepillar was thinner and less curved, the neck was more slender and it curved upward to meet the end of the column. Referred to as Renaissance harps, they typically had 24 or more gut strings which were fixed to the soundboard with brays (wooden pegs). By the end of the 17th century, they typically had staved sound bodies and straight forepillars.