Songsheet - July Week 2

This week we’re talking about the Nyckelharpa - you wha? OK, so I lived and worked in Sweden and I speak Swedish. My heart still belongs to Sweden… Anyway. There’s a wonderful instrument called the Nyckelharpa - the “key violin” - which I play a tiny bit. I’ve stopped myself buying one though, because I’ve got enough to do without going down that particular rabbit hole! Instead, I’ll let my lovely friend Vicki Swan tell you all about it. Hi! I’m Vicki and I play the Nyckelharpa. It has 12 sympathetic resonating strings which are lower in the bridge and the nut so nothing can touch them; the strings vibrate simply from the vibrations of the four bowed strings. This is why we call them sympathetic and they give the instrument a beautiful ethereal, resonant sound It has four bowed strings, which you play with - yes! - a bow. In a way very similar to how you would bow a violin or similar. However it is how you create a pitch which makes it so extraordinarily different to other instruments (along with its wonderful sympathetic strings). The nyckelharpa has keys (”nyckel”) which you press to create a pitch. However unlike a violin where you would put your finger onto a string and press it against the finger board (or with guitar where you press the string against the fretboard), with the Nyckelharpa its the other way around. With a Nyckelharpa the key presses a tangent (or fret) onto the string. So the string stays still and the fret moves. With a violin/guitar the string moves and the fret stays still… geddit? Don’t worry if you don’t - I’ll not be asking questions afterwards - although - please do ask if you have any questions… like… Isn’t the Nyckelharpa an AWESOME instrument? #MusicThatSizzles #SinginHinn #UncommonInstruments #MusicalInstruments #NorthumbrianSmallPipes #MusicTeacher