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OT: How do you have your autoharp bars arranged?


Chicken Monkey

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I took my autoharp apart today and put it back together with the bars rearranged. I couldn't figure out how they were "supposed" to be arranged, so I put together something that is roughly a circle of 5ths in one row, with relative minors in the second row. But then I had a bunch of 7th chords left over that I just put at the end. Not sure how that's going to work. It's a 15 chord. Anyone else re-programmed their 'harp?

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I remember when I was a kid, about 10, and I decided that the "New Departure" brakes on my bicycle needed to be fixed. They weren't broke....but I decided to fix 'em anyway. By the time I was done taking them all apart, I had about 75 different pieces of metal laying all over the place and no idea how to put them back together.

 

Dear old Dad got home from work and came to my rescue. He didn't know how to put it back together either, but he was smart enough to take my sister's bike brakes apart (those were New Departure brakes too) and figured it out.

 

I don't know what this has to do with autoharps. Just thought you'd like to hear about it. Just like I thought those brakes needed fixed, I guess.

 

Uh.........do you know anyone else who has a 15 chord autoharp they'd let you borrow for a couple of hours maybe?

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Yeah, that V7th is a hard one to find. I can't even play that one on my guitar.

 

Another time, when I was a kid, I was trying to explain music to a friend of mine by teaching him the notes on a piano keyboard. I showed him where an "A" was, then I explained that the white keys following the A were B, C, D, E, F and G.....then it starts all over again at A. He told me his uncle had a much bigger piano that went way up a lot higher than G.....all the way up to about K or L, he thought. A most unusual piano, I must say.

 

I figured if he had access to a piano that went all the way up to K or L, there wasn't much I was going to be able to teach him. That ended THAT music lesson.

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First thing, for the next time you do this:cop: After you take the cover off the keys, run tape over the tops and take them all off together. You did not say whether yours is a 21 chord or 15 chord, or 12 chord.

In a 21 chord arrangement: First row: Eb Bb F C G D A Second row: F7 C7 G7 D7 A7 E7 B7 Third row: Ab Bb7 Cm Gm Dm Am Em

15 chord arrangement: D Gm A7 Dm E7 Am D7 Second row: eB f7 Bb C7 F G7 C G

There are all sorts of variations in setting up autoharps and a great book about them is The Autoharp Owner's Manual published by Mel Bay. It's a great book for technical info. Hope this helps

Bob

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First thing, for the next time you do this:cop: After you take the cover off the keys, run tape over the tops and take them all off together.

 

 

As noted, I did mention the number of chords, but I should have said that the previous owner had already completely jacked up the chord bars. It appears as though (s)he had a songlist about 5 tunes deep, and arranged the bars in a way that made those songs very easy to play, with all the other chords bunched off on the end. I'll take a look at your suggested arrangement and see if it works better than mine.

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