Three celtic tunes - nyckelharpa 

Thank you very much ! I'm super happy that one more person who loves music has discovered this instrument !

Just discovered this instrument about a year and a half ago. Fascinating sounds and I am looking for more of it.

20170712 112444 nice. seeing your profile picture makes me wonder if there is a more modern style of play, like classical or is it more like the banjo, although it is a more modern instrument it’s generally played in a folk style?

Same. I was looking up a hurdy-gurdy song for some background music in a game I'm running and stumbled on this amazing instrument. The player Emelie is amazing as well!

I’m pretty sure it’s a Scandinavian instrument

Celtic doesn't mean Ireland.

@@vilhelmragnarsson2284 True, but Ireland is one of the Celtic places.

​@@vilhelmragnarsson2284are you teaching an Irish woman a lesson about the difference of Irish and Celtic in general just because she wanted Emelie to perform in Ireland????? I cringe on your behalf.

Thank you so much

@@EmelieWaldken Thank you for your music. I've been a classical guitarist for 15 years and been wanting to try something else for a while... Would you know of any luthier who makes these, or is yours an antique? I'm actually thinking about buying one. Import costs are gonna hurt but wth 😅

@@eduardobenassi3072 There are several builders of nyckelharpa, most of them in Sweden but there are a few in the rest of Europe and in the US, too. I have a list of the ones I know on my website www.emeliewaldken.net/nyckelharpabuilders Think about second-hand instruments, too. Much less waiting time and lower prices. In Sweden we use blocket.se a lot, but there's also the FB group Folkmusik köp och sälj and similar. The American Nyckelharpa Association should also be able to help, if you're in the US. Have a fruitful hunt ;)

@@EmelieWaldken Awesome!! I'll ask around and see what I can find in the US. Thanks.

Oh thanks :) This was actually in Sweden, I've never been to the Hebrides but I will fix that one day !

Emilie Waldken I haven't been yet either, but I am planning a trip to Scotland for next year. Some of my ancestors emigrated from the Isle of Jura in the Inner Hebrides, so that is definitely a stop I'm going to make :)

Yes nyckelharpa is incredible ! I'm happy that you have now discovered it !

Tappa ingenting bort ^^ men köp en nyckelharpa och spela, som du säger ! Lycka till och tack så mycket !

+joël Lintz Merci ! Oui, j'ai eu de la chance avec ma nyckelharpa, elles sonnent globalement bien mais celle-ci en particulier a vraiment du coffre (il faut dire qu'elle est énorme ^^)

I guess it's very possible (a blacksmith friend of mine has made a fiddle out of iron), but probably super heavy ^^

@@EmelieWaldken yeah probably would just be fun to hear what that would sound like

Well sadly no I haven't heard of that tune you mention. I don't know as many norwegian tunes as I wish ;)

Thanks ! There are teachers and skilled people about nyckelharpa in the US ! You can get all infos by writing to the American Nyckelharpa Association. I hope you'll find an instrument soon and a nice teacher nearby !

Good question ! I think playing double-bass already would surely help quite a lot, at least with the global logic of a bowed string instrument. The intervalls aren't the same though (fifths instead of fourths, or a fifth, a fourth and a sixth in traditional tuning).

Tack så mycket :) Ja, försök att spela nyckelharpan ! Det behövs inte att vara perfekt, det blir bra om du är glad med att spela på den. Lycka till !

Thanks a lot ! Yes, the nyckelharpa is great for celtic music I think, and absolutely wonderful for baroque music I think. I don't really know the american folk repertoire but a friend of mine plays it on this instrument and it sounds great too. My NH is from a now dead french builder, but has been restored, modified and improved following my wishes by Jean-Claude Condi (from France too). And yes, it's a four rows nyckelharpa.

On a modern nyckelharpa you have one row of keys per melody string (in my case, 4, on the more traditional swedish models, 3 and the deepest string is a drone). So yes, the keys of the different strings can be played individually. Some older models of nyckelharpa, such as kontrabasharpa, have the same keys shortening several strings - so they can't be played individually.

Yes it is ! By Jean-Claude Condi, tuned CGDA (as a viola) Thanks

Hey cool, Jean-Claude is my favourite luthier! Did you buy it new, and if you did - how long did you wait for your harpa?

+tinybrainwave No, it's in fact a french 3-rows harpa that Jean-Claude modified and adapted for me. I was first renting it, then I bought it, so I didn't have to wait (lucky me). If you're waiting, just stay patient : it's worth it ;)

+JeiFaeKlubs Well I can't tell one webpage especially but it's probably quite easy to google these tunes ! However, in folk music we learn mostly by ear ;)

Thank you :) Then I will try to find them. Sadly, I'm not very good with playing by ear.

I was not either, few years ago, but it's a very good tool to practice :) Irish music being often played very fast, you can find a program to slown down the music (Amazing Slow Downer is the one I've heard a lot about).

It depends on what you consider as "hard" ;) For someone who is already musician, especially on violin or cello (bowed instruments), it's quite easy. For a guitar or harp player, the logic of the instrument is close. For a flute, oboe or clarinet player, it's more difficult. And for someone who knows nothing about music, well, it's probably a little less difficult than to begin with violin or cello... However, it depends on the way your brain works too, and on your body coordination. And of course, on practice. Practically, it's hard to find teachers, yes. In the US there is the American Nyckelharpa Association, in Europe it's possible to find teachers in Germany, France and Italy, but of course the best place is Sweden itself.

Think you för your answer 😊. Im a swede so Lucky me 😉

Grottman96 Ja visst ! Nyckelharpan kommer från Uppland (om du vet inte annu) ;)

Det visste jag faktiskt inte :). Har kollat runt lite efter en men de e dyrt ^^.

Grottman96 Ett gott nyckelharpa är ungefär 20000 till 50000 SEK... Du kann hitta ett för mindre, men säkerligen dåligt.

Depends where you live :) In Europe the best is to get in touch with swedish builders, but there are also good ones in Germany and France. In the US I don't know about builders but there is the American Nyckelharpa Association who surely has good infos. I don't know about the rest of the world, sadly =/

Nope it's a normal one, tuned ADGC, like a viola. It's just one of the biggest ones for this span (and especially heavy, ouch). The video is also taken from a point in the grass and I'm standing, so the instrument looks bigger.

By Jean-Claude Condi, a french builder. A friend of him started to build this NH, then JCC finished it. He's a good builder, able to make different kinds of NH, depending on your wishes and money ;) but he has a long waiting list !

+N0NaMeSowhat Blerp Not sure. Apparently the very first source is from Italy, there are some old ones in Germany aswell, but it's in Sweden that the nyckelharpa was played the most and developed from the earliest versions to the modern ones.

+Emilie Waldken Thank you for answering!:) I had to look it up myself and if you believe wikipedia it's considered a swedish musical instrument. Possibly because of what you said then :), anyways really well played! It sounds beautiful and ancient.

Yes, traditional swedish instrument playing celtic traditional tunes... Why not ? ;)

Emilie Waldken Not sure. I guess it's all good. Especially this tune sounds heavenly!

+Fjerid This is a great combination, especially for someone like me who has Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian heritage. Remember, the Vikings settled and lived in Scotland and Ireland for a long time.

soccerchamp0511 True. They have! I wonder what kind of music did the scottish and irish have before vikings settled.

Fjerid Yea, it would be cool to find that out. I don't know how much is known about music in post-Roman Britain and Ireland. They would have had access, through trade, to any instruments in the Roman Empire, plus any native instruments. There definitely would have been drums/percussion instruments. Probably flutes. Violins/fiddles hadn't been invented yet. The bagpipe in some form was definitely in existence, but there's no evidence yet that they were in Britain.

Perhaps because recording outdoors and at a distance makes the resonance get lost in the air ?

@@EmelieWaldken Perhaps.... (I do love your videos, though.....)

Japp ! Keyboarden "Billy" från Jean-Claude Condi (Frankrike)

@@EmelieWaldken Vad avundsjuk jag blir. Jag är violast så jag vill så gärna kunna spela stycken för viola.

@@gabrielhenschen9665 Det finns fyrradiga nyckelharpor att köpa även i Sverige ! Man kan också byta hela keyboarden till en fyrradig, det funkar med dem flesta 'harpor. Och så fint med viola, jag tycker väldigt mycket om det instrumentet =)