What I Learned while My Computer was Out Sick Part 3

So I thought my autoharp life was getting wonderful with my new chord bar arrangement. That is until I really started digging into the songs in my book again. The base chord bars your fingers start on are usually in the middle row on these new chord bar arrangements instead of on the row nearest the high strings, like they are on the factory arrangement. To comfortably play songs, especially fast songs like "High on a Mountain Top", I need to hold the harp up higher and reach my arm around the harp further than I used to. I've been resting the harp on my knee and putting it against my chest. Now I had to prop my knee up uncomfortably higher and as I played, the harp moved around a lot more as I pressed chord bars with my left hand because of the slightly extended reach needed for the new chord bar arrangement. I noticed in a couple of old videos reproduced on YouTube, that the autoharp pioneer June Carter Cash had the same problem. In the first video she's still trying to play the harp flat on her lap and its shifting all over the place. In the second, later video she's playing the harp against her chest, but its still shifting all over as she plays it. This opened my harp's next evolutionary step.

From further Internet research, the answer to my problem was to hook a guitar strap to the harp. This involves drilling two holes into the autoharp. (YIKES!) Then screwing a metal "button" into each hole. A standard guitar strap hooks between the two buttons and you're up and running.

Ok, I'm up to switching around my own chord bars as long as I don't have to put new felt on them. But drilling holes into my beloved instrument is not going to happen by me! So it was off down the street to the good people of "Acoustic Music". In just a few minutes time they had the buttons mounted while they distracted me with trying to decide on the guitar strap I wanted. They already knew the correct spots to place them for the standard placement I used. (The standard "button" placement is shown here.) Once I selected the strap they put it on the buttons and checked it out. The metal buttons are placed on the surface of the harp next to the low F string on one side and the highest C string on the other side. The strap fits over the buttons just like a button hole fits over the buttons on a shirt. Because they took the time to test it, they were also able to trim the extra material around the "button hole" portion of the strap so that it didn't bump into the strings near each one. Except for my cringing at the sound of the drill, they made the whole process wonderfully painless for only $11.95.

Since doing this my practices have been so easy that, so far, I've been able to pick any song in my "Simplified LDS Hymns" book and learn to play it with the basic strum in about three to five days, with one hour a day practices! This is great!