An Introduction to the Bowed Psaltery

http://jamesjonesinstruments.com/
Description of and tutorial on how to play the bowed psaltery with James Jones. I'm playing one of my 2 1/2 Octave Alto Bowed Psalteries. Visit my website for more information on all the instruments I make.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bowed
• psaltery
• folk
• James
• Jones

[gebass6]

I have the desire to try to play one of these with my fingers like a harp.Or with banjo fingerpicks.Is there a bass Psaltery?Hmmm...Brainstorming!­!

[jpjonesmi]

@gebass6 This instrument is really not designed to played easily with the fingers with or without fingerpicks. I would suggest a large zither or autoharp for that kind of playing. I am working on a experimental 4 octave bowed psaltery which would have to be supported by a stand and played by moving around it.

[Misakichi021]

Are there places in Boston where I can learn to play the psaltery

[jpjonesmi]

@Misakichi021

[jpjonesmi]

This instrument is so easy you really don't need a place to learn. If you can play a piano with one finger (and who can't) than you can play the bowed psaltery. The only challenge is to make it sound beautiful and that is accomplished with the bowing

[yankeegurl62]

How hard is it to learn how to play this awesome instrument? I'm looking for something that a novice can learn on. Would this be a good place to start?

[jpjonesmi]

The bowed psaltery is very easy to learn to play.  If you can play a piano with one finger, you can play this instrument. You will need to learn a little bow technique so as to get good tone.

[Peggy91193]

Thank you so much for sharing this information! I'm considering buying a psaltery, but I wanted to get some solid information about it before making the decision to invest money in yet another instrument (I've got quite a few as it is). I'm definitely encouraged to buy one now, thanks to you!

[JelMain]

@williestratton

Rather, from the Kantele with some thinking from the Ala Bohemica

[JelMain]

@NonstopRam

Depends on range and currency, but cheap: a 2-octave alto should cost less than $150

[JelMain]

@WendyWisemanFisher

One trick is ignoring the hitchpins in runs, particularly descending glisses. That's the benefit of the string passing over the head of the hitch, you can skate straight down the side.

[JelMain]

The real difference is in bowing, and there the question returns to the choice between HIP and a soundscape which it adds to. For those who like shivering in mud huts, be my guest and go the whole hog, for myself it makes a contribution to a modern rethink of the old tunes. Music is an art, and art is plastic, or it dies, sometimes it's right, sometimes not, and this, at the moment, is right in helping us retrace older sounds, as we understand its development from Arabic styles.

[JelMain]

@PikachuMaiden

Different beast, the mediaeval psaltery is an ancestor of the zither/dulcimer. There's an open battle going on between the two, given that the bowed beast is avowedly recent: the pluckers claim theirs is the only real one, wilfully ignoring the very real fact that the shape of their instrument was not as definitive as they claim - the Finnish Kantele and Ala Bohemica are closer in shape to the Bowed, and there were also square, apsidal, and spire-shaped forms.

[JelMain]

@jpjonesmi

The only trick is to twist the instrument to get to the semitones and back quickly.

[JelMain]

@gebass6

That's because the strings are extremely thin. You can just about pluck them with fingernails in tuning, but most certainly not play them with plectra. Yup, I have four harps in the room as I write,

[PikachuMaiden]

Some people doing a presentation on Middle Age music had a psaltery, they said it sounded like wind chimes and played with fingers for at least one part.

[WendyWisemanFisher]

Thank you for this wonderful video! I just purchased my first starter psaltery and I'm having a wonderful time playing through a hymnal to learn how to play it. I've been playing the piano for twenty plus years, but the psaltery is a new experience! Bowing well is my biggest challenge. Thank you for explaining the various parts of the psaltery (hitchpins, sounding board, etc.). Now when I read about bowing technique, I'll have a better idea about the anatomy of the instrument.