GENERAL PERSPECTIVE
A musical instrument for anyone to play.
This simple instrument is designed for making music beautifully personal and warmly inviting.The Psaltery has grown out of a long history of similar instruments like Harps, Lyres, Zithers, Lap Harps and Auto Harps. This Psaltery has its own unique color code that allows ages 5 to 95 to play music very quickly and meaningfully.
The Psaltery is a tool for authentic personal music valuable for kids and adults to enjoy. Playing is simple to sing with and satisfying to listen to.
The Psaltery Principle includes an instrument:
a. that is easy to learn,
b. makes a warm and inviting sound,
c. used for singing songs in a personal setting,
d. played uniquely simple by a color code system,
e. little instruction is necessary, even those with no musical background can learn to play in less than an hour.
WHY USE THE PSALTERY The Psaltery is a personal musical instrument designed as a tool for making your personal music simple and more meaningful.
Personal music making is an idea of a marvelous expression of creativity. It is just like having a neo-folk music experience where many people can be involved in creating and sharing songs and sounds that each other can learn from. It stimulates emotional, mental, spiritual and levels unmatched by other means of communication.
THE POWER OF MUSIC
Words alone can be very strong, but when supported by the power of music, meaning and purpose can be deeply implanted into the person!
The gift of music, inherent by the natural laws of physics in tonality and harmonic vibrations, results in generating a powerful response within the human race as well as many other animals and plants.
Today's addiction to music in all parts of the media experience leaves a need unmet. This is a need for a musical instrument, simple and pleasing, just right for many people who are less likely to dedicate hours and years to perfect an instrument.
It has a transforming effect on a person's sense of artistic and reflective personal momentum for meaningful and purposeful living.
We are culturally influenced to musical expressions: while the media constantly exploits their ideas and products on us. Often we are unaware that we fall into a spectator mentality. The professionally refined quality sounds lead us to be less inclined to produce our own simple musical expressions.
Regardless, placed within us is a need for a joyful song when all is going well. Even when we are hurting, we long for and enjoy the soothing healing harmonies of the “blues” to help express our woes and pain to find a source of strength.
The Psaltery: How it works.
The strings have colors that represent the notes of a chord. Red strings are notes in the C chord. Blue strings are notes in the F chord. Green strings are notes in the G chord. When the words in a song have the C or red color you would play any two or more red strings while singing the song until the next color is to be played. You play any two or more strings of the same color while singing that section until it changes color/chord.
It is possible to alternate between patterns and mix them in such a way to break up the sound to help match the rhythm of the song. The colored marks on the strings represent notes in a particular chord. Strings with red marks are all string/notes in the “C” chord. Strings with blue marks are all the string/notes in the “F” chord. Strings with green marks are string/notes in the “G” chord. Some strings have two colors because those string/notes are involved in two chords. You may play any of the string/notes with the color representing that chord/color that is being called for while singing the words of the song in that section. When the chord changes, you then play any string/notes with the chord/color for those words singing the words of the song in that section.
Various rhythm patterns could be played with the colored strings in the sections of the song (simple is best). Practice will allow for greater flexibility and more control for smoothly moving from higher to lower strings in a song. The goal is to play the right color/chords at the same time one is singing the words of that section. Chords are formed by playing rhythm patterns on the strings of the same color.
The notes are tuned to the Key of C. Notice the following: G C D E F G A B C D ' E ' F' G ' A ' B ' C
The underlined notes are “red”, making the notes of a C chord (CEG). The notes in Bold are “blue” and are the F chord (FAC). The notes Italicized are “green” and are the G chord (GBD). The lowest string is G and is out of order, but is intended to add an extra base string sound.
Some strings have two colors given their patterns. Other minor chords can also be played:
D minor (Dm) C D E F G A B C
E minor (Em) C D E F G A B C D
A minor (Am) E F G A B C D E F
Research has shown the value of health that is improved through the use of personal music making. The “sounds of healing” and the “ultra sounds” of penetrating music made personally have more effect on one's body than you would realize. Vibrations from a stringed instrument combined with the simple but powerful tones of the human voice create a healthy physical and emotional response. This type of stress relief can have a financial impact by reducing one's health care costs.
