June 2001: On Levers And Tuning - Unit 6 - Tuning In Multiple Keys

Last month we considered various ways of deciding how your harp might be tuned. We said that the key in which your harp in tuned need not be a constant. You might keep it in 1 flat, or 2 flats, or three flats depending on the nature of the materials in your current repetoire. But there is another interesting way to approach keys and levering.

Sometimes, a piece of music starts in one key and modulates to another key in the center section, then perhaps returns to the original key at the end. Short of changing a zillion levers while playing, which may or may not be possible within the piece, another idea is to play one part in a lower register, and the contrasting part in the upper register. In this way the lower range of your harp would be tuned to the initial key (e.g., C major), and the upper range is tuned to the alternate key ( e.g., G major). Essentially, all the F#'s that you would need for the key of G major would be set before playing, but only in the upper register of the harp. The lower register would have only naturals.

Admittedly, some pieces of music fit this design better than others. Of course there are times that playing a contrasting section either 8va or 8vb just does not sound good. But do consider this alternative when learning a piece, there are times it works really well.

See you next month.

Stephanie

-You can access Units 1-5 of this lesson in The Archives - Webmaster

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