Could perhaps be of interest! Earlier this year I finished off compiling a set of traditional ballad melodies (mainly Swedish, but some are Danish or Norwegian) to go with my English translations of Scandinavian ballads (medeltida ballader). I did these ballad translations quite a few years ago and didn't include sheet music in the books at the time. Well this is now rectified and the melodies are available as an ebook separately as well: https://northerndisplayers.co.uk/melodies.html

Hello, I am curious if anyone can help me, im no musician, but im looking for a nyckelharpa player who can lead a trio (along with a mandolin and bodhra) on a cover of California Dreamin. If you think it might be fun let me know. If you know a drummer and mandolin player even better.

Hallo zusammen!

Ich weiß nicht ob ich hier richtig bin. Habt ihr Tipps wie ich an eine gebrauchte Nyckelharpa komme? Gibt es evtl Foren oder so etwas? Vielen lieben Dank schon einmal!

Edit: Hab eine gefunden! Danke nochmal!!

Hi everyone, I'm new here, I just purchased a beautiful nyckelharpa, my first one, i will receive it in the next few days and I'm looking forward to learning how to play it, that's been my dream for years.

Since I want to learn properly, I was wondering if there is any teacher here in Göteborg, Sweden, or some community to help me learn and take care of the harpa. Thanks in advance!

I recently bought some new strings for my nerdyharpa since the ones it came with were... not the best. On the advice of a cello expert, I went with the D'Arddio Helicore 1/4 set, as these are supposed to be a little thinner and have good resonance.

From all my research, including the nerdy's build guide, the tuning should be C3 G3 C4 A4 "the same as a cello" and that was what I had on the original strings, which I'm fairly certain were also for a cello (albeit 4/4). But with these new strings I can only get it to C2 G2 C3 A3. If I try to go much higher I'm sure I'm going to be at risk of snapping the strings. The sound very dull and flat compared to the original strings, but that may just be because of the lower tuning.

Is it that I've ordered the wrong set or am I missing something else? I was so sure that cello strings were the most common to use for nyckelharpas short of Prim (although Prim's tuning is different again, which I do not understand). Any advice is appreciated!

Edit: I've found the answer, courtesy of the Nerdyharpa creator. The reason the 4/4 cello strings were able to tune high enough and the 1/4 couldn't is because the strings are a different thickness for different sizes. So while you can cut a 4/4 set down to 1/4 size and still have it work, just buying the 1/4 set from the outset won't

Hey everyone. Just wanted to share a little evening jam we recorded recently. It’s me on the nyckelharpa and my bandmate on the hang . We run an acoustic ambient project, but we've been experimenting with combining different rare acoustic instruments lately.

But here's my actual question, and I'm genuinely asking because I really don't want to be "that guy":

Does anyone feel like putting these two together is just... wrong? I know the nyckelharpa has deep roots in traditional Swedish folk music, and the hang is a modern Swiss invention. They have literally zero historical overlap. Are we doing something unacceptable by mashing them up just because the frequencies happen to blend well?

I really don't want to disrespect the traditional roots of the nyckelharpa or come off as just mixing things up for an "aesthetic" without respecting the history. I'd love to hear your honest thoughts, even if you just think I'm overthinking it.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the video. Cheers.

I am a musician with a sort of unique problem that I think the nyckelharpa community might be the best-equipped to help me figure out. I play banjo acoustically without fingerpicks in open tunings to get increased resonance but it tends to feedback a ton and sound less clear when amplified because of those same overtones. I may just give up and use fingerpicks, but before I do I would like to know:

How do nyckelharpa players handle amplification? I would imagine the resonance of the strings causes many issues, especially if the sound waves compress. Are there any solutions this community has found to dealing with amplifying acoustic instruments with high resonance without sacrificing that beauty while also not causing issues with overtones being compressed? I figured this community would be the best to go to for a problem like this.

I just started playing in the higher register and noticed that on most of the very high notes I get a drastically different intonation when I bow up compared to when I bow down. Is this normal? If so, can anything be done about it?

If it´s not normal, I will take a video of me playing, and perhaps you can make out anything that I do wrong technique-wise.

Hej all, I recently got a borrowed nyckelharpa on which I am trying to get technical basics into my hands, just to see if any problems arise (e.g. hurting back/neck/shoulders/arms) that would hinder my long-term playing.

So far I´ve played only in 1st position and now I wonder if I should explore the higher notes. Before I do that, I want to make sure I don´t get used to wrong notes or wrong key positions. Thus, my question is whether the keys in that position, especially when only the keys on the high A-string are left, are somewhat standardized.

On my instrument the keys on that string are as follows:

Bb, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, Bb, B, C, C#, D, E, F, G.

The highest G#, Bb and C# are placed below the row. There are no high Eb nor F#. I would assume this to be the standard (if there is one), but with some instruments having the high Eb and F# that I`m missing.

A bit off topic but I'll give it a chance here. Yesterday, Sunday the 10th around 2pm I met a really nice 20 (?) year old guy on the tram to Sickla. I completely forgot to ask his name but Im hoping that i might find him here.

If you read this, please write to me:)

I want to try to connect with other nyckelharp players in our area that are young like ourself.

I didn't know what a Nyckelharpa was until last week when one showed up on our door step...
Our 12 year old has taken an odd affinity to the fiddle and to bands like Vasen. His music teacher (who specifically told the instruments owner that she would not send it home with a middle schooler) dropped off the instrument on a Friday afternoon so that he could play it at a Saturday Highschool art fund raising event. Event successful and now he is trying to figure out how to save up for fiddle camp and a Nyckelharpa... Kids these days. What have we gotten ourselves into?

Hi everyone! This is a post to see if there is any interest here for a secondhand nyckelharpa, as well as if my price is a reasonable one.

I bought a nyckelharpa and case in 2021 for 20700 SEK. Unfortunately, I have not played it much (as in, not touching it for years), so I have to admit that I will not be playing it soon. I’d like to sell it so someone with more time can commit to playing and taking care of this lovely instrument.

I’m in Canada and would be able to hand deliver it to someone in Québec or BC this summer. If a Canadian from another province (or someone in those two provinces but too remote for me) would like to buy it, I would ship it. I’m not interested in selling it internationally.

I’d like to sell it for $3000 CAD, which is a little less than what I paid for it. Since I have not played it much, it’s in perfectly good condition. It probably just needs a little tune and that’s it. Is this a reasonable price?

If anyone here is interested in buying it, feel free to comment here or DM me. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I’m new here but I’ve been wanting to buy a nyckelharpa for some time now, I’ve looked a lot and I cant seem to find any affordable nyckelharpas anywhere. Would anyone have any recommendations or tips or just general helpful information to help me out? Thanks.

I have the oportunity to get a standard* nyckelharpa as a rental instrument. I would like to tune it GDAE, like a fiddle or a mandolin, or an octave lower than that. Has anyone of you tried that before? Do you have any recommendations regarding strings that would be suitable for this tuning?

* By standard I mean one not built specifically as a fiolharpa or a tenorharpa.

Greetings, harpa gang. I'm a musician in Japan and over the past few years I've been doing work on anime soundtracks. The composer I work with has been gaining notoriety particularly in fantasy-based anime (you can check out Wistoria: Wand and Sword to hear some of our music in that genre!). Every soundtrack we do, I find myself saying "I'd love to add a nyckelharpa on this behind my fiddle." for at least one or two songs, but alas, I'm quite harpaless. We're currently working on a soundtrack that seems to be leaning more into Nordic territory, so it might be time to get my hands on one. Unfortunately, I'm afraid my budget coming from a JPY exchange rate and people willing to ship to Japan prices me out of many options, and I don't want to cheap out on a nerdyharpa or Etsy junk. What are my options? Thanks!

Heia,

I've been going back and forth on getting a nyckelharpa for about a year now, but I just really love the instrument and would love to get one and start playing in the local folk music scene in Tromsø (once I've learned some).

I would like to buy a decent, but not crazy, instrument (something in the 15000-30000kr range). I would also prefer not to have to wait a year to actually get a nyckelharpa... Who are the best people to reach out to? Will I have to pick it up in person?

I really don't know anything about this stuff, unfortunately, and I don't think there's anyone local to talk to.

Thanks so much.

Hello there! I am currently playing on a 4-rowed imstrument by Jean-Claude Condi and until now (playing for about 1,5 years now) mostly played with CGDA tuning.

What experience did you make? What are the upsides/downsides from your perspective (besides tradition I guess)?

My current teacher has only a little experience with CGCA and was not the biggest fan of it, but I would be happy to hear other perspectives.

Does anyone have or is familiar with Cloud Nine harpas in the US? Just curious as I'm looking for a new instrument. Thanks!

I've heard from reliable sources that the nerdyharpa isn't anywhere near as good as a proper nyckelharpa (which, totally fair I can understand that) but unfortunately getting my hands on a real one in my country is basically impossible so I gave it a go anyway.

I've had it finished and have been playing it for a few months now and I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever. Bit of a learning curve after the violin (which I had to give up due to a joint issue 😞) but so so much fun.

If anyone else out there is like me and wants to try the nyckelharpa but can't get their hands on one, the nerdy is a good alternative option... Just so long as you're patient enough to actually build it lol

As per title, I own a Nerdyharpa tuned in CGCA (with the low C without keys). I use it for a different repertoire but I'd like to learn some traditional swedish nyckelharpa tunes. AFAIK CGCA was a traditional tuning so I should be able to find something easy and playable with this tuning, right?
I'd be delighted if you have sheet music, but just the song title is fine.

Hello everyone! Do you know of any Swedish oktavharpa builders in Sweden ? And do you know any good Swedish organisations which do sponsors for buying nyckelharpas which perhaps could help? Thank you!

Im very interested in learning to play the nyckelharpa and am looking for advice! I have a little basic music education, but not a lot. (Played electric guitar 1 year, followed classes at school, etc) I always loved music, but i guess i just never found “my” instrument. Recently i stumbled across nyckelharpas and i am very intrigued by this instrument. I would love to pick up making music again and since i have a lot of time on my hands recently this seems like the perfect time. It doesn’t scare me that i will have to figure this out on my own, but if you know any videos or sites that could help learn me… (I’m from the Netherlands so no lessons for me haha) From my research I’ve decided i would like to buy a lower price range, new instrument (max €2000) but i just don’t know where to look. I’ve seen a few on etsy, but am hesitant about the real playability of those… I’ve also read that the bows are really important too, anything to watch out for there?

Any help is greatly appreciated!