Practicing Autoharp at Home

Don't Have a Harp?

All first-year students enjoy playing the autoharp in class and a few lucky ones can practice at home.  For the rest of us, here are some tips for practicing autoharp skills at home without a harp!

Why Is An Autoharp Useful?

At Let's Play Music, we recognize that your child is sensitive, ready and excited for some fabulous musicianship training even though her young fingers don't have the dexterity she needs to practice those skills at the keyboard just yet. The autoharp gives us a beautiful way to grant her that learning experience while letting the fingers have just a little more time to mature and grow.

Playing the autoharp in class gives a student the chance to learn a multitude of skills simultaneously.  She will read and interpret the chord map, push the correct button with one hand, and strum with the other hand in good form.  She'll establish  a steady beat and then try to incorporate chord changes without losing it.  She'll sing the melody, practicing her ability to harmonize with her own accompaniment and match pitch to the instrument or CD.  Her ability to hear chords and cadences and identify them will improve. 

When it comes time to play piano, she'll be prepared to have her eyes reading and hands working.  She'll keep that beat and know how to start her motions with the timing to sound on the beat.  She'll be listening to her playing and self-correcting.  As she composes her own songs and accompaniments in year 2 and 3, she'll have the ear for chords to help her succeed.

In light of all the learning going on, would you be delighted to practice all of those skills and have it be almost as effective as using a real harp? 

Use Your Book

Your child will make great strides in these skills simply by pointing to the chords in her book as she hears them on the CD, or by pressing the chord triangels as if they are harp buttons and strumming the floor or table.  Don't make the mistake of under-using this simple, elegant tool that's already at your fingertips!  Still want more fun?  Read on!

Download an App

If you have an iPad or an iPhone at home, look for autoharp apps that you can download to practice playing your Let's Play Music songs!  "Musical Autoharp" by Thumb Wizards is $0.99. You can use any of the chord maps in the back of your child's Red and Blue semester practice books. If you don't have a tablet, keep reading for more autoharp crafts.

Where to Put Stickers:  A Very Short Theory Lesson

The app obviously does not have the colors of the chords, so  you may be left wondering what chords to play. If you look carefully, each button on the autoharp has a letter, as well as the word major or minor after it. 
 
Red, Blue, and Yellow chords will be identified as I, IV, and V chords in the Orange semester. In the key of C, the scale degrees are: C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, G=5, A=6, B=7.  Yes, you will be quizzed on this in Orange semester!

There are two keys that our Let's Play Music harp songs are performed in: C or F.  We perform songs in whichever key ensures the melody falls within a comfortable range for children to sing. 

The key of C Major

Red chord (the I chord) = C Major      Put a RED sticker on C.

Blue chord (the V chord) = F Major     Put a BLUE sticker on F. 
Yellow chord (the IV chord) = G Major    Put a YELLOW sticker on G.

The key of C is great for playing songs from Red Semester: 
pg 55 Primary Chords Song, 
pg 57 Chords in Pieces, 
blog post 5 Fat Turkeys, 
and Blue Semester: pg 51 On top of Spaghetti
pg 54 Bill Grogan's Goat

Here is a photo of my daughter using the ipad.  I used paper post-its to indicate the chord colors...too bad it doesn't work well to stick real stickers on the ipad screen.

The key of F Major

Red chord (the I chord) =F Major      Put a RED sticker on F.

Blue chord (the V chord) =Bb Major    Put a BLUE sticker on Bb (B flat)
Yellow chord (the IV chord) =C Major   Put a YELLOW sticker on C.

They key of F is comfortable for singing Red Semester songs:
pg 56 Barnyard Boogie
pg 58 Ain't it Great to Be Crazy?

and from the  Blue Semester: pg 53 El Gallo

Make Your Own Autoharp: Easy

A quick and easy option is to print out a photo of the auto-harp push-buttons.  Now your child will have something to touch while reading the map and singing along! 

Make Your Own Autoharp: Awesome

I can already see the gears turning in the minds of artsy-crafty parents.  Why not make a full-on homemade autoharp!?

1. Start with a full photo of an autoharp.  Print it out in color (either 8x11 or 11x17).  I email files to my neighborhood office store and they print things for a small fee.

2. Mount it on some foam-core or cardboard or plywood to keep it sturdy.

3. Optional: Do you want to Mod-Podge over the image to protect it forever?

4. If desired, add texture to the "strings" of the harp.  We used Elmer's glue and ran a bead of glue along each string image.  When it dried it left a ridge on each string that my daughter can feel as she glides her fingers across.  You could lay down a length of fishing line or fine string into the glue as well, to get the texture. 

5. Add real stickers to the appropriate chord buttons. (read on for help finding the chords)

Teacher Emy LeFevre cut plastic sheets into harp shape (this would also work with wood) and machined grooves to give texture for strings and buttons.

Buy An Autoharp

If all that crafty talk made your head spin, you might be interested in simply buying an autoharp.  The great news is that your family will be a huge hit around the campfire, on long road trips, at the family-reunion talent show, and during TV-free week.  

LOOK FOR an autoharp with at least 21 chords.  15 chords can get you through your Let's Play Music experience, but you'll wish you had more when you start to play with your own fake book of favorite songs.  If you see diatonic vs. chromatic harps, choose the chromatic; it has strings representing every note, like both the black and white keys on the piano.

Used harps can be excellent, and a good buy as low as $100, especially if they come with a recommended case for keeping the harp safe.  Ebay is the most common place to find a used harp and Oscar Schmidt is the most common maker of harps at our level, costing $250-$600 or more new. 

You'll also need to pick up a digital tuner and a tool for tuning your strings if it was not included.

AVOID a harp  that can't hold a tuning or that has pins that seem very loose, which might be expensive to replace.   

If a string is missing or broken, however, you can probably replace it inexpensively. If the harp is not holding tune for more than a few weeks, you may need to replace all strings (we recommend you do one at a time or take it to a shop to have it done.) If you buy a used harp and find that it needs the felt replaced, that is another job you can reasonably do at home with an ordered kit.

Hurrah! Chord Maps Are Endlessly Fun!

Your Let's Play Music teacher has told you that the Red, Yellow, and Blue chords would open all kinds of possibilities for playing music.  She was right!  Since you went to all the work to make an autoharp (or download one or buy one or just read this entire post), we want to share more chord maps with you in next week's post.  Stay tuned! 

- Gina Weibel, MS
Let's Play Music Teacher