The harp is also a stringed instrument, but is not a member of or homogenous with the violin family and is not considered part of the string choir.

Bragi is shown with a harp and accompanied by his wife Iðunn in this 19th-century painting by Nils Blommér.

David is described as someone renowned for his skill at playing the harp, and consequently summoned to Saul's court to calm his moods.

The instrument is usually acoustic and the harp strings are usually tuned to lower notes than the guitar strings, for an added bass range.

Normally there is neither fingerboard nor frets behind the harp strings.

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard.

A person who plays the harp is called a harpist or harper.

In blues music, the harmonica is casually referred to as a " blues harp " or " harp ", but it is a free reed wind instrument ; not a stringed instrument, and is therefore not a true harp.

The body is hollow and when a taut string is plucked, the body resonates, projecting sound both inward towards the harp player through a series of usually oval openings ( whose principal purpose is to allow access to the strings and only secondarily to enhance resonance ) and, much more importantly and powerfully, outward through the flexible and taut-strung sounding board.

The longest side of the harp is called the column or pillar.

The Triangular Frame harp is depicted in sculpture from the 8th century Pictish stones in Scotland and in manuscripts ( i. e. the Utrecht Psalter ) from the early 9th century France.

In Perú harp is used commonly in andean music called Huayno.

In southern Mexico ( Chiapas ), there is a very different indigenous style of harp music.

Corum also hears the prophecy of a seeress, who claims Corum should fear a brother ( who will apparently slay him ), a harp and above all, beauty.

Some harp guitars also feature much higher pitch strings strung below the traditional guitar strings.

The number of harp strings varies greatly, depending on the type of guitar and also the player's personal preference.

The harp also was predominant with medieval bards, troubadors and minnesingers throughout the Spanish Empire.

The term " harp " has also been applied to many instruments which are not chordophones.

Modern harp strings are often nylon or, less often, metal ; tuning pins are also metal components.

Mexican " jarocha " harp music of Veracruz has also gained some international recognition, evident in the popularity of " la bamba ".

Turkey had a nine-string harp called the çeng that has also become extinct.

There was an ancient Chinese harp called konghou ; the name is also now used for a modern Chinese instrument which is being revived.

The fifth finger may also have been used on earlier, more lightly strung modern harps: Madame de Genlis, for example, in her Méthode, published in Paris in the early nineteenth century, promotes the use of all five fingers, while Roslyn Rensch suggests that Mlle de Guînes, the harpist for whom Mozart wrote his Concerto for Flute and Harp, might occasionally have used all five fingers when playing the harp.

Many other scales, both diatonic and synthetic, can be obtained by adjusting the pedals differently from each other ; also, many chords in traditional harmony can be obtained by adjusting pedals so that some notes are enharmonic equivalents of others, and this is central to harp technique.

The pedal harp was also present in the Michael Kamen and Metallica concert and album, S & M, as part of the San Francisco Symphony orchestra.

He also recorded some albums especially dedicated to the harp: the famous Renaissance of the Celtic Harp ( 1972 ), " Harpes du Nouvel Age " ( 1985 ), and " Beyond Words " ( 2002 ).

The harp is also traditionally used on the flag of Leinster.

The harp is also used extensively as a corporate logo — for both private and government organisations.

Relatively new organizations also use the harp, but often modified to reflect a theme relevant to their organization, for instance ; Irish airline Ryanair uses a modified harp, and the Irish State Examinations Commission uses it with an educational theme.

The harmonica, also called French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll.

Little Walter also cupped his hands around the instrument, tightening the air around the harp, giving it a powerful, distorted sound, somewhat reminiscent of a saxophone, hence the term " Mississippi saxophone ".

Bending also creates the glissandos characteristic of much blues harp and country harmonica playing.

Harmonica players who amplified their instrument with microphones and tube amplifiers, such as blues harp players, also have a range of techniques that exploit the properties of the microphone and the amplifier, such as changing the way the hands are cupped around the instrument and the microphone or rhythmically breathing or chanting into the microphone while playing.

Wooden pegs and harp pegs are also used, but both can still cause tuning problems in damper climates unless made with great skill.

In ancient and medieval times, stringed instruments such as the harp, lyre and lute were used with psalms and hymns.

Franz Liszt was seminal in finding uses for the harp in his orchestral music, and Mendelssohn and Schubert used it in theatrical music or oratorios.

Ludwig Minkus was celebrated for his harp cadenzas, most notably the Variation de la Reine du jour from his ballet La Nuit et le Jour ( 1881 ), the elaborate entr ' acte composed for Albert Zabel from his ballet Roxana ( 1878 ), and numerous passages found in his score for the ballet La Bayadère, which in some passages were used to represent a veena which was used on stage as a prop.

The harp has been used as a political symbol of Ireland for centuries.

Since 1922, the government of Ireland has used a similar left-facing harp, based on the Trinity College Harp in the Library of Trinity College Dublin as its state symbol.

The harp emblem is used on official state seals and documents including the Irish passport and has appeared on Irish coinage from the Middle Ages to the current Irish imprints of Euro coins.

For instance, the Irish drink Guinness uses a harp, facing right and less detailed than the version used on the state arms.

Guinness started using the harp as an image on its labels in 1862 and registered two trademarks in London in 1876, both of which used the harp as part of the image.

This harp can be used for any style, including Celtic, classical, jazz, or blues ( commonly in third position ).

Sonny Boy Williamson II used the possibilities of hand effects to give a talkative feel to his harp playing.

Since the mid-1980s, Peart has used MIDI trigger pads to trigger sounds sampled from various pieces of acoustic percussion that would otherwise consume far too much stage area, such as a marimba, harp, temple blocks, triangles, glockenspiel, orchestra bells, tubular bells, and vibraslap as well as other, more esoteric percussion.

Uaithne, also known as " the Four Angled Music ", was a richly ornamented magic harp made of oak which, when the Dagda played it, put the seasons in their correct order ; other accounts tell of it being used to command the order of battle.

A " brace " is used to join multiple staffs that represent a single instrument, such as a piano, organ, harp, or marimba.