eric@phantasypsalteries.com

I bet you may have been wondering something: just what does a bowed psaltery sound like? They're quite unique sounding, but not only that, but my bowed psalteries use wound strings, so their range is about an octave lower than normal. (You can also get regular steel strings on the custom order form, too.)

Below you can listen to me playing all the natural notes on the right-hand side of the psaltery. (Or you can click here to download the file directly.)

What you heard was played on nickel-plated wound strings, which is my standard stringing on most psalteries. The lowest note heard was G3, the first G below middle C. The highest note was C6, the second C above middle C.

Now, in all honesty, if couldn't already tell, I'm no musician. I don't have any groundbreaking new CDs coming out anytime soon. (Or probably ever!) I consider myself first a builder, then a listener, and lastly a performer. I play mostly simple melodies on the bowed psaltery for personal enjoyment. And while I am mostly a musical doofus, I do know enough to tell what sounds good, and what doesn't.

Try to think of it this way: I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to the sounds that I want my bowed psaltery to make. I have tweaked and honed the string scaling on my instruments until all the strings gave me an acceptable sound. And with my musical prowess with the bow, (which is almost none), you know that if I can get a good sound out of the strings, then so can you!

Now, in the interest of giving you a better picture of the overall sound and range of my psalteries, I thought it would be helpful to include a song or two that I've played with my psalteries. This is simply to give you an idea of the tone and range, and not necessarily for your listening enjoyment. (I'll leave that up to you to make the music!)

So, I am going to include a mini-jukebox player below, which you can use to listen to songs as I add them. (I'm currently working on learning a few new ones, so hopefully more will be added soon.)

Otherwise, there are also a few songs available on my builder's site, A Psimple Psaltery.