February
2000: On Levers And Tuning - Unit 2 - Levers And Sharps
When all the levers are down (disengaged) on your harp, the strings are said to be "OPEN". For now let us assume that all your strings are tuned as naturals, hence:
C D E F G A B
... no sharps, no flats! If you use an electronic tuner, tune your strings so the correct note name lights up and the needle is on center. Be sure the # sign is NOT lit up along with the name. This type of tuning is described as C MAJOR because the C major scale consists of seven natural notes starting on C and ascending or descending in order from there.
The lever at the top of each string on your harp enables you to alter the pitch (sound) of that string by one half step. Hence, were you to raise one of the F levers, that string would now sound as F#. If you were to raise all the F levers then all the F's would be sharp and you would then be in the key of G MAJOR which consists of:
G A B C D E F#
Were you to raise all your F and C lever to produce F and C sharps, you would be in the key of D MAJOR which consists of:
D E F# G A B C#
What we have discovered is that:
Next month we will address the problem of producing flats on a lever harp.
See you next month.
Stephanie
-You can access Unit 1 of this lesson in The Archives - Webmaster
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