Having looked at this site’s search statistics I seem to be getting some traffic from people looking for chord bar diagrams for the autoharp, although I’m not sure why Google has been directing them here. Sadly, until now the cupboard has been bare! So I thought I’d document at the very least the layout I’m using at the moment.

My Oscar Schmidt harp has a custom set of 18 chord bars made by Chris Younger; in a previous life it was set up as a diatonic, but Chris reverted it back to a chromatic for me.

I came at the organisation of the chord bars, I suppose, from a wish to make them as musically logical as possible, so I kept them strictly in the circle of fifths, and organised so that each trio of buttons gives a II-V-I chord sequence.

Then I went and spoiled it by disposing of the F# minor chord that would have made the instrument completely regular, and replacing it with an Eb chord. It makes no sense having it there, but there was nowhere else to put it!

Row 1: Bb F C G D A
Row 2: Gm Dm Am Em Bm Eb
Row 3: F7 C7 G7 D7 A7 E7

I’m finding this layout really playable.