Lap Harp
May 5th, 2007 by vincebates
We were visiting friends the other day and their 8-year-old daughter was playing tunes on a lap harp. It was sorely out of tune, so I offered to tune it for her. It took about five minutes to tune it to the piano. Then I noticed that some of her playing cards were in G and others were in C. So, she had to make a choice which repertoire she preferred. I’ve never really taken this instrument seriously, but after some exploration on the internet I found one site that is especially interesting and has some custom lap harps (plucked psaltery) for sale (http://craggymtnmusic.com/lap_harp.html). I think there are some wonderful possibilities here for elementary music education and more. With some more searching, I found that it’s actually quite an ancient instrument from Biblical times (http://www.earlymusic.i12.com/general/prod_11.htm).
