Whats the difference between a chromatic autoharp and a diatonic autoharp?
First, let’s look at what chromatic and diatonic autoharps have in common. They both have the same number of strings (about 36 -37, but plus and minus are out there, too) and cover roughly the same range parameters (often from low F to high C, although this can vary slightly on diatonic autoharps, depending on the key). Now for the differences. The chromatic autoharp uses all 12 tones of the chromatic scale (the white and black keys of the piano), and one string is tuned per note name. A diatonic autoharp, however, uses only the tones of the scale(s) it’s tuned to (there’s no need to include the tones that are out of the key). A single-key diatonic in C major would include only the tones of the C-major scale: C, D, E , F, G, A and B. A two-key diatonic autoharp in F and C major includes F, G, A, Bb, B, C, D, and E in its tuning; Bb goes with F major, and B goes with C major (when playing in F major, a “lock bar” can be engaged to damp out all the B strings which aren’t part of the scal
