Oscar Schmidt Autoharps
Oscar Schmidt 15- and 21-chord Autoharps
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
I’m always looking for unique-sounding and unique-looking instruments to add to my musical arrangements. I don’t often get to play many of them live, but I do enjoy learning to play them, and finding unexpected ways to use them in my recordings.
The Autoharp has been a staple in folk, country and even rock music for many years. Several members of the Carter Family, beginning with matriarch Maybelle Carter, used them in their recordings and performances as early as the 1920s. Country and folk artists from Ernest Stoneman to Joni Mitchell, rock artists from Janis Joplin to Robbie Robertson, and even progressive rockers like the Electric Prunes and and PJ Harvey have used Autoharps. And close to my heart, of course, former Beatle George Harrison used the Autoharp for a bit of color and texture, beginning with “My Sweet Lord” on his solo debut triple-LP “All Things Must Pass.”
But I suppose I’d need to thank my elementary music teacher Heather Gleason for my first introduction to the instrument, when she first started teaching at my school in 1979. I was fascinated by the Autoharp she’d use as we sang through songs in class, and she showed me how even I could press a button and strum a chord. Learning piano and trombone, and eventually guitar, proved a bit more rigorous.
The first autoharp was named and patented in the United States in 1882, by German immigrant Charles F Zimmerman. His original design was more symmetrical, and the felt mutes moved laterally, not vertically. Another German, Karl August Gütter, built an instrument that more closely resembles the modern Autoharp in 1883. Zimmerman started building Gütter’s design, and marketing the instrument under his more memorable “autoharp” nameplate.
Interestingly, Zimmerman never trademarked the name “autoharp,” and it wasn’t until 1926 that Oscar Schmidt registered the name in the USA. That registered trademark has now expired, but Schmidt still holds a trademark on the stylized “Autoharp” text that appears on its instruments.
The Autoharp usually has 36 strings, tuned pretty much chromatically and spanning several octaves. Chords are formed by holding down one of the chord buttons, which in turn presses felt mutes down onto the strings that don’t fit the named chord. As you strum the strings with your finger or plectrum, only those notes that fit the chord are allowed to ring. The instrument can be held across the player’s lap, or as has become common, held upright against the left shoulder. Chord buttons are manipulated with the left hand, and strings are strummed with the right.
Oscar Schmidt builds two versions of the Autoharp, the primary difference between the two being the number of chord buttons. The 21-chord Autoharp has seven major, seven minor, and seven dominant seventh chords, each row arranged based on the Circle of Fifths, and grouped so that common chords for a given key are near to one another. The 15-chord Autoharp seems less intuitive, with major, minor and seventh chords jumbled together, but still grouped to keep chords together that might be used in the same key.
I actually hadn’t intended to have two Autoharps. My first, the 21-chord version, was an Ebay purchase. It has a few missing strings and probably needs to have some of its mute pads replaced. The 15-chord version was a gift from one of my computer clients. At first glance it seems to be in better shape, but there’s a pretty nasty crack in the soundboard. It still seems playable, but I expect its sound to deteriorate as the crack gets bigger over time.
Tuning the Autoharp is an exercise in patience. Each string must be tuned with a harp wrench, and there are no geared tuners to make fine-tuning any easier. Just like with a piano, the tuning pegs will slowly become loose in the body of the instrument, and eventually will no longer hold pitch. When it comes time to tune an Autoharp, plan on spending at least an hour on the job.
I eventually hope to either repair my 21-chord Autoharp, or replace it with a ‘harp in playable condition, possibly even an electric model. In the meantime, I hope to get the 15-chord Autoharp into a condition where I might be able to use it in recordings, but neither of these instruments are likely to go out on the road: they’re far too delicate.