OK, I gather that you know little about the HG other than the sound.
I'm still an amateur on the HG (unlike many here) although I play many
instruments under the "folk" banner.
That may help me to give you some basic idea in layman's terms about the
instrument.
Usually, it's chromatic and the spacing and placement of the keys isn't
something that you can change easily if at all.
As a drone instrument, it's normally played in two keys, either C/G or D/G.
You play the keys with your left hand and turn the wheel crank with your
right (left or right handed, it's the same).
If you play any instrument (eg guitar or possibly autoharp?) then left and
right hands often do different things anyway and you'll learn.
Forget kits for the moment. They are for the fun of building not for
playing. You need to be a skilled builder to adapt the kits to be a playable
instrument and need the skill to rebuild certain parts that just are not up
to the job.
It's a bit like buying a simple "make your own radio" kit and buying a
decent one from the electrical store.
There's a HUGE difference between them.
Many people buy kits and then never play again as it puts them off forever
as, without great skill, it's bound to fail (as far as producing a decent
playable instrument is concerned).
No, you can't mess around with the notes. The tangents (the bits that press
the string) are adjustable only to fine tune - not to actually change the
note.
It's like any instrument - it's made in a certain way and there is a limit
to what you can alter (very little).
It goes from the sound of the open string and up the scale of that key (with
semitones) like going up a guitar neck fret by fret to the highest note
(depends how many keys there are - normally at least 23).
There is no way you can just have the notes you wish to play for purely
mechanical reasons although you can always not bother tuning the ones you
don't need, of course like only tuning a piano's white notes because you
don't bother with the black ones!
My piano has a broken black note that I never play and it's been like that
for 30 years!.
I would suggest that (as HGs are expensive because they take a great deal of
work to make and cannot be mass produced like a guitar), you spend some time
reading up on them and, if possible, find someone in your area that will
show you one "in action" or try and find a festival or meeting where you can
see one played.
You will find HG players are very keen to show off their instruments and
share information about them.
Once you actually see it working, it's quite logical and you'll understand
it right away.
Also remember that the ones you will hear playing on CDs etc are
professionals with many years of playing and practice although it IS an
instrument that you should be able to "play" right out of the box.
There's also a LOT of thinks you have to do to it to keep it in a playable
condition.
Cottoning (the strings have a small amount of cotton wrapped around them
where they touch the wheel), adjusting the depth of the notches on the
bridge when you change the make of strings you use, learning how to get an
even amount of rosin on the wheel (uneven amounts give a wa-wa sound - too
little or too much alters the tone). All this comes with practice and
playing.
Then there's the trompette to learn (that drumming sound that makes the
definitive sound of the HG) which is a lifetimes work.
It's a wonderful instrument but need time and dedication to learn but it's
immensely rewarding.
Don't let all this put you off. These are just my views based on the fact
that I came to the HG late in life (I'm 58 and got mine 3 years ago).
Best thing I ever did!
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Bullis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 8:43 PM
Subject: [HG] New to the list with some questions
Hello, this is Matthew Bullis from Phoenix, AZ. I discovered this
instrument
last week, when someone on the autoharp e-mail list had questions about
it.
I did an internet search, found the Wikipedia entry for it, and found a
demonstration of the instrument as a video presentation. It sounds
interesting. The pieces I've heard though haven't been the kind of music I
play. I've found several builders of HGs, including the owner of this
mailing list. One builder has a HG which has the keys in a fixed position,
with the notes like a piano keyboard. These you'd probably play with your
left hand, and I'm not even a very good piano player with my right hand.
Then there are the kits you can build, or buy them finished for you. These
say to adjust the keys until they're in tune. The kit one has twelve keys.
If you have to adjust them, do they still fall within specific notes, or
can
you line them up with the twelve notes you'd like to have? Would I be able
to align them so that it played like a mountain dulcimer? Or, could I
choose
to skip a note and align the keys to whatever notes I wanted along the
string for a different sound?
Thanks a lot.
Matthew
