A plucked psaltery instrument is known as a melody harp. It belongs to the folk and lap harp categories and is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other harp types. It is one of the most basic harps available, making it very simple to learn. However, because of the melody harp’s limitations, most players only play it for fun and do not use it in professional musical settings.
When compared to other harp instruments, the melody harp has two major distinguishing characteristics. The first is its general appearance. Most other harps are triangular in shape, whereas this one is trapezoidal. The lowest pitches are at the bottom of the harp, so shorter strings are strung across the smaller end, or top, of the trapezoidal shape. When playing, the higher-pitched strings are usually placed the furthest away from the performer’s body.
The second distinguishing feature of a melody harp is that the entire instrument sits flat on the lap or on a table while being played, with the strings positioned horizontally. Other types of harps, on the other hand, sit on their ends with the strings in a vertical position. For plucking or strumming the strings, the melody harp requires the hand to be positioned palm down. The need for the melody harp to fit in the lap in this way has also influenced the instrument’s overall size.
Due to the small size of the instrument, the range of a melody harp is limited. The majority of “standard” melody harps have 15 strings, but some have as many as 16. In music, an octave spans eight pitches from beginning to end, such as C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Melody harps, on the other hand, usually only have a two-octave range. Some people view this as a significant disadvantage because it severely restricts the types of music that can be played. Others see it as a significant benefit, as the instrument’s simplicity allows even young children to learn it quickly.
Melody harps are concert or non-transposing instruments, which means that the note played looks exactly like it does on paper. This is the polar opposite of transposing instruments, which produce a pitch that differs from the one written on the page for the player to hear. Melody harps can be tuned to a variety of keys, but the most common are C and G.
Harps with levers that connect to the strings are known as harps. The levers allow the player to change the length of the string and thus the pitch one half step, allowing them to quickly switch from one key to another, even within the same piece of music. Because melody harps do not usually have levers, if the player wants to play in more than one key, he must manually re-tune at least one string on the harp using a tuning lever that fits over the peg to which the string is attached. Because this is impossible to do while playing, melody harps are unable to play music in which the key changes as the piece progresses.