April 2001: On Levers And Tuning - Unit 4 - How Should I Tune My Lever Harp?

Now that you understand how a lever harp may be tuned (see Archives, Units 1-3) you must now decide what tuning would be best for you. But the answer to that is not singular.

If the majority of the pieces you have in your repetoire are in keys of F (1 flat), G (1 sharp), or C (all naturals), then there is no reason to tune your harp with more than the B's flat.

- If you subsequently decide to play a piece with some Eb's in it you have two options: First, you could tune as flats the specific E's that you will need (e.g. E in the 3rd octave (EIII), and E in the 4th octave (EIV). When you do not need them, simply raise the levers and they will become naturals. Or, second, you could tune all your E's as flats and raise their levers when you play other pieces that do not need the E flats.

- Do not feel that because your harp is tuned in a certain key that it must always stay that way. You can vary your tuning dependent upon the group of pieces you are currently playing.

- Let us assume that you need to play a wide variety of music, e.g. for a gig. You will need to decide upon the maximum number of flats that are required in the overall repertoire and tune your harp to accomodate the piece or pieces that include those flats. When you do not need them, simply raise the levers of those strings you tuned flat and they will be natural.

See you next month.

Stephanie

-You can access Units 1-3 of this lesson in The Archives - Webmaster

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