Lyre

At a glance

Role

Melody — one line at a time, out in front

Sits well in

GDAEC

Sharp keys let the open strings ring along with the stopped notes.

How it works

A stretched string vibrates at a pitch set by its length, thickness and tension; a finger shortens it, and the body amplifies what the string alone could barely be heard doing.

No one has written a profile for the lyre yet, so the drills and tips below are the strings family's — sound advice, but not specific to this instrument.

Where it sits

Drills 3

A session's worth. Each one has a single point — do that, not the whole list.

1. Open-string tone5 min

   A sound worth amplifying before any left hand gets involved.

   1. Sound each open string on its own, as long and as evenly as you can.
   2. Listen for the moment the tone changes — that is where your control ends.
   3. Push that moment later by one second a day.
2. Slow scale against a drone8 min

   Intonation, judged against something that cannot drift.

   1. Sound a drone on the tonic (an open string, a tuner, or a phone).
   2. Play one octave of the scale, one note per two seconds.
   3. Hold each note until you hear it lock with the drone before moving on.
3. Shift and check6 min

   Arriving in a new position already in tune.

   1. Play the tonic in first position, shift to the same pitch higher up, and compare.
   2. Shift on a released, not a pressed, thumb.
   3. Five shifts, resetting the hand each time.

Tips

• Tune before every session, not when it starts sounding wrong — by then your ear has adjusted.
• The bow arm carries the tone; the left hand only chooses the pitch.
• Wipe the strings after playing. Rosin and sweat kill a set faster than playing does.

Heard on 0

Nothing linked yet. The pipeline never measures who plays what, so this list is human-curated: add recordings to the 🎙️ Recordings relation on this instrument's row in 🎻 MUSIC INSTRUMENTS [DB] and they show up here.

Worth practising on it

Suggested from what the pipeline measured — key, meter, tempo and the chords as played. Each one says why it is here.