Lyra Harps

A small handheld stringed instrument with an open frame and no pillar, plucked with the fingers or a plectrum. It usually carries between seven and twenty four strings tuned to a scale. Because the strings are already tuned to a key, any string you pluck sounds in tune, which is why it is so approachable.

Size and structure. A Celtic harp has a soundbox, a curved neck and a forepillar, stands on the floor or on a table, and carries tuning levers for changing key mid tune. A lyre is small, frameless in that sense, held in the lap, and stays in one tuning. The lyre is far more portable and far simpler.

No, and that is the main appeal. Most lyre harps come with numbered tablature where each number corresponds to a string, so you can play a recognisable tune within an hour with no theory at all. Reading music helps later. It is one of the few instruments with genuinely no barrier at the start.

Melodies, simple arpeggios and gentle accompaniment. It is not built for fast chordal playing or for wide key changes, since the tuning is fixed. Folk tunes, hymns, lullabies and meditative playing suit it best, which is why it is widely used for relaxation and for music with children.

Daily at first while new strings stretch and settle, which can take a couple of weeks, then roughly weekly once stable. Temperature and humidity changes will pull it out of tune faster. A clip on chromatic tuner is essential and inexpensive, and tuning the whole instrument takes only a few minutes once you are used to it.

Rosewood bodies with metal strings and metal tuning pins. Rosewood gives the warm resonant tone the instrument is known for. Keep it away from direct heat, radiators and sustained damp, since wood movement affects both tuning stability and the fit of the pins. Wipe the strings after playing to reduce corrosion.

A clip on chromatic tuner and a tuning key, both inexpensive and both essential, since a lyre needs frequent tuning while new strings settle. A case protects it in transit. Spare strings are worth having, because a broken string stops playing entirely and replacements are not always local. Wooden instruments in the wider range, including Celtic flutes, need the same care.

Loosen the pin, unwind the old string, thread the new one through the anchor hole and wind it neatly onto the pin, then bring it up to pitch gradually over a day rather than in one go. New strings stretch and will need retuning repeatedly for the first week or two. If you want a Scottish instrument that leads somewhere rather than standing alone, a practice chanter is the usual first step.