53 thoughts on “The Autoharp?”

1. First?

2. I don’t think it was possible to go through Christian school in the 70’s and NOT hear an autoharp.

3. Confession: I have an autoharp in my closet right now.

   1. No. Way. I love it! Hang on to that. Antiques Road Show may come to your town!! 😉

   2. your….prayer closet?

4. Oh, hahaha, just realized that DD said he played it, too! Darrell, that may be THE most serious fundy cred EVER!!! 😆

5. Simsy-Poo, please tell me this made you think of Ed Reese and that thing he played… Cordavox, or something? It was some take on the accordion….

   1. OH MY GOSH! I had totally FORGOTTEN!!! ROFL!!!! Wow. You have a GREAT memory!!!

      1. Johnny Pope imitating Ed Reese was also epic, but the one and only time I saw Ed Reese imitate Johnny Pope I thought I would die laughing.

         1. Seeee??? We had some GOOD TIMES!!! 😉 {ducking}

         2. Oh, I definitely did, when I was not sleep-deprived, sick of peanut butter, or freezing my butt off in South Chicago from morning till night, two days a week. So, that was like… once, for fifteen minutes, I had fun? I am pretty sure it was the fifteen minutes BEFORE I was fully registered as a student…

   2. There was a guy at my parents church who would play that sometimes. I really disliked it.

      1. Oh, I think we all disliked it. When has that ever mattered to fundies?

6. I was a public school music teacher for many years, and we used the autoharp all the time. This, on the other hand…

   Anyone played with the “Smart Guitar” in Garage Band on the iPad? It reminds me of an autoharp.

7. For The Record: I possibly hate the harp, and all variations of it, more than any instrument.

   1. HAY-men!

   2. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH 😈

8. Who snuck around and got a hidden video of David Grice playing the autoharp?

   1. That’s who I thought it was at first.

9. The harp isn’t the problem here. Someone should put that sick cat out of its misery. 😉

   1. but… Natalie! That sick cat has decided to follow… oh, well. Maybe you’re right.

   2. My cat didn’t sound that bad when he was sick.

   3. I have a sick cat right now, and he doesn’t sound bad at all.

   4. Get the cat to answer the cell phone when Jesus calls…

      1. ..choking on lunch…LOL…

10. My mom borrowed an autoharp once, possibly for a VBS. I strummed on it a few times. At that point, we were in an SBC church, so that doesn’t get me any fundy cred points. 😕

    On a distantly related note, harp music doesn’t have to be boring…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i33pwEh_5Fg
    (it really picks up at ~2:40)

    1. I know several people in that video. 😀

       Glad I didn’t know them from fundy places.

    2. Harp music can definitely be boring when it wants to be, and a lot of it is. I’ve had to wake people up during a wedding consultation before. It can also be just as exciting as any other instrument though. Pachelbel’s f minor Chaconne and William Croft’s Ground in c minor (both transposed to e minor, because this is harp music we are talking about!) can really wake a person up, and I have never been told they are boring! 😀

11. I’ve known a few Autoharp masters. This is not one of them. There are people like Brian Bowers and John Sebastian or Bob Ellis that can make music on this instrument. But 99 per cent of the autoharp players I’ve heard, are people with no musical talent trying to put on pretensions.

    1. I have a friend who plays the hammered dulcimer. He started playing when he was a little boy at our fundy church. He’s a master now, I LOVE to hear him play.

       http://www.joshuamessick.com/

       1. I love the hammer dulcimer too, and hope to get one soon. Not common over here in Ireland though…..

          1. What? Nobody plays the tiompan any more? 🙁

12. I want an autoharp SO bad! I’ve got a great rocking chair and want to drag it out on the front porch with an autoharp and pretend I’m June Carter Cash!

    1. Confession: I have an Autoharp but I was trying to be Mother Maybelle Carter. It’s possible I’m just a smidge older.

13. My mom played the Autoharp, too.

14. After listening to that, I had to fall back on my Fundy training and replace that bad music with something good. Therefore, I am now listening to a true Autoharp master – Mother Maybelle Carter.

    1. Thanks for taking my post. I’m glad I kept reading and saw this before I looked like I copied you. That would be too fundy.

15. Fond memories of an autoharp being played as part of the music program in 6th grade (public) school. Those memories are ruined now… 😕

16. I play the autoharp too!! And I’m not even a fundy! The autoharp CAN be a seriously good musical instrument in the right hands (not the hands of the guy in the video -or mine for that matter). Anyway go to YouTube (or is that a no-no for fundies?) and type in “autoharp” and you’ll see what CAN be done with this instrument.

    1. I also play the Celtic Harp reasonably well. It doesn’t have to be a boring instrument 😉 🙂

17. Public schools where I grew up had an extensive autoharp program. I probably even had one in my closet until about ten years ago. Never considered it a performance instrument, though.

    There are a couple of things he forgot to do—tune it, and change chords!

    1. man, I was in the wrong public schools. We were the ‘everyone get a recorder to play in music class’ variety.

18. Ok, so I FINALLY listened to it. I couldn’t even HEAR the autoharp. The singing was pretty bad though.

    1. I will tell you what I told Natalie. Whatever it was that was singing, it had decided to follow. jury still out on if it is a cat. Definitely caterwauling, though.

19. I wonder if anyone has done like “The Great Kat” did with the violin and hooked one of these up electrically to a distorion petal?

20. I geek Autoharps

21. Link to Billy Connelly playing autoharp in related videos 🙂 He isn’t so much as playing it as strumming it and telling incomprehensible jokes.

    1. Billy Connelly can play the autoharp rather well. Not just strumming chords but also playing melodies. He’s the person I blame for my interest in the instrument. I’m reasonalbly good at strumming chords, but still struggle a bit with melodies. I love the instrument though. If you can, get a 3-CD-set called “autoharp legacy” and listen to it. It will blow your socks off.

       1. here is autoharp playing at its best
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU-uuQF4p3M

22. Oh, he is playing it now. Spoke too soon.

23. Ah, but someone playing the saw was even more marvelous in our eyes.

24. We had an autoharp at one time. Someone gave it to my husband when he was a kid. We dragged it with us for a few moves. I think it disappeared on our last move.

25. Is that David Grice? If it is, how many of you think he ate the harp after he was done playing it?

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