I've been to a couple of Cathy Brittel's workshops. She is absolutely a great teacher and very nice person. One of the best autoharpist in the world, IMHO lol
Hello there, I can recommend a couple of people to send your autoharp to have a good going over. You live in the same neck of the woods as Jeff Dantzler who owns http://www.harpdoctor.com As well, check out http://www.autoharp.org which is the home of Cyberpluckers, an autoharp discussion forum. Hope this helps you on your journey with your autoharp.
If you can find a copy of The Autoharp Book by Becky Blackley, many of your questions will be answered. The book is a bit dated as it was published in 1983, so it does not take in to account the many improvements made in the autoharp by individual builders over the past 32 years. While there are not as many autoharp festivals as dulcimer festivals, they do exist. I highly recommend participating the Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering here in Pennsylvania. It takes place the last full week in June every year. Some dulcimer festivals offer a workshop or two on autoharp. MEG stands for Music Education Group and Oscar Schmidt sold a couple of models of autoharps with the MEG label on them. I think some of the first 21 chord harps were sold with the MEG label.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
It was one of those synchronicity things, where everything came together so easily. The idea to get two old church harps rejuvenated, the contacts, Winterfest and meeting Chuck Daniels and Charles Whitmer. Happy to pass on info!
Wow, Ruth, you are just a font of autoharp knowledge!
--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator
As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
Hi,
I've been doing a little playing with this instrument over the last couple of months. It would be good to get your harp checked out by a knowledgeable person - the chord felts may need replacing, a dull string may need replacing etc. Also the bars are usually taken off and rearranged in an order that makes for easier fingering. for eg grouping chords together that are common in songs (I, IV, V). An old harp needs to be checked for warping as well which can be fixable - or not depending on where the bowing is. If you've got yourself an Oscar Schmidt from the 70s, made in America, well those ones are reputed to have the best sound. Lucky you!
A couple of accessories you'll have to get is a tuning wrench - either gooseneck or T-style - and some finger picks - a thumbpick and finger picks for your index & middle fingers. Ha! Don't do what I did the first time I put the finger picks on and put them on so they resembled talons, curving over my fingernails. They go the other way, so they curve up and over the fleshy pad of your finger tip. I have a plastic thumbpick and metal fingerpicks.
http://daigleharp.com/helpandinfo.html
Strings, the felt pads, tuners and books can be bought from Elder Instruments
The Autoharp Owner's Manual (Orthey) has been recommended to me as a thorough book to have on this instrument.
Repair person: Chuck Daniels (in Arkansas)
I met Chuck at Winterfest in Irving Tx, earlier this year. He looked over 2 old autoharps for me and fixed them up to be playable again at a very reasonable price. Ask him about your Meg.
A very good teacher is Charles Whitmer. He has packets of music w/ instrumental CDs for sale. There's a lot to select from.
http://home.comcast.net/~whidbey/Whitmer-AHSheetMusic.pdf
More about Mr Whitmer here: https://sites.google.com/site/capitalharpersclub/songs-and-tunes
I was fortunate to be in 2 of his classes at Winterfest - I learned a lot. By day he's a high school music teacher - his students are lucky to have him!
http://cyberpluckers.org/teacherlist/index.html
check out Marc Gunn - celtic music on the autoharp - cool!
This forum is posted information rather than a forum of active users. I haven't had much luck finding an active forum for this instrument - but I haven't looked that hard either.
http://www.autoharpworks.com/phpbb/index.php?sid=f70b20fc7bb4751ebc5bf5b22cfc8458
Abilene Tx has an autoharp & dulcimer club. this is the contact email -
bcadclub @ gmail.com
The lady that replied to my queries, Carlene Wood was also helpful.
