Levers

When you tune a levered harp 

to a certain key, all the levers should 

be in the down position. 

No Levers

What is the minimum number of levers you need on a folk harp?  If you only want to play music written in the key of C major, you need no levers.  You would also be able to play all the modes* related to the key of C. You would need to tune your harp in the key of C major. 

F Levers

If you want to be able to play music in G major and its related modes, you will need levers on the F strings.     You can still tune your harp in C major.  You would need the F lever because you would have to raise it to an F sharp for the key of G major.

If you want to play tunes in the key of D major and its related modes, you need levers on the F and C strings because you would have to raise (sharp) them both for the key of D major.

F, C, and B Levers

If you want to be able to play music in F major and its related modes, you would need levers on your F, C and B strings.  However, you now would have to tune your harp in the key of F, and you would have to raise the B lever to make it a B natural in order to play in the key of C.    You can still play the other keys by raising the F and C levers as well.

Most of the music for folk or Celtic harps is written in the keys of C, F, G and D.  You can play tunes in all those keys if you have levers on the C, F, and B strings and tune your harp in F.  You will also be able to play in the relative minors** of those keys.

Levers for all strings

A problem arises when you want to play music written in the key of E, E flat, A flat or B.  Then you would need levers on all your strings and you would need to tune your harp in E flat. 

If you want to play something in A flat, you’d need to tune your harp in A flat.  You probably won’t see much or any music written for lever harp in F sharp/G flat (same note), A flat/G sharp (same note), or B. 

If you have levers on all your strings and tune your harp in the key of E flat, you can play music written in all of the following keys:  C, D, E flat, E ,F, G, A. and B flat.

If you want to play in the key of A flat (which is also G sharp)  or G flat (which is the same as F sharp, you would have to tune your harp in A flat.  To play in D flat, you would have to tune your harp in D flat, and to play in B, you would have to tune your harp in the key of B.  But, how much music are you going to find to play in those keys? 

I keep my harp tuned in E flat because I like to play some of Ray Pool’s arrangements that are written in E flat.   

Happy Tuning!

*Modes in the key of C

If you begin a scale on C (no sharps, no flats) and end on C, you are playing in the Ionian mode.

If you begin a scale on D (still in the key of C - no sharps, no flats) and and on D, you are playing in the Dorian mode.

If you begin a scale on E (still in the key of C - no sharps, no flats) and and on E, you are playing in
the Phrigian mode, etc. etc. etc.

C - Ionian
D - Dorian
E - phrigian
F - Lydian
G - Mixolydian
A - Aolean
B - Lochrian