# Earth Harp



## SifuPhil (Aug 2, 2015)

Never heard of these before - kind of cool!


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## hollydolly (Aug 2, 2015)

Wow that's almost ethereal, I've never seen that before


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## SifuPhil (Aug 2, 2015)

I know - figures it would be at Burning Man.


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## RadishRose (Aug 2, 2015)

I've never heard of the earth harp. It's amazing! I researched a little-

http://williamandtheearthharp.com/about


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## SifuPhil (Aug 2, 2015)

Wow!

I just don't understand how the sound of the strings is created; I know he uses rosin-covered gloves, but there's no sound box like on a conventional stringed instrument. I don't get how the earth (theater, etc.) can effectively bounce the sound. 

Maybe I shouldn't have been toking in music class ...


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## jujube (Aug 2, 2015)

One of the contestants on America's Got Talent played an earth harp a couple of years ago.  Blew my mind.  A little hard to carry around for auditions, though.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 2, 2015)

I wonder if spiders play shrub harps?


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 2, 2015)

jujube said:


> One of the contestants on America's Got Talent played an earth harp a couple of years ago.  Blew my mind.  A little hard to carry around for auditions, though.



I remember that too Jujube.


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## Ralphy1 (Aug 3, 2015)

Doesn't do anything for me, if it ain't the King it ain't music...


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## SifuPhil (Aug 3, 2015)

Aw, c'mon, Ralphy - can't you just see The King doing _Love Me Tender_ with the harp strings stretched over Graceland?


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## Lara (Aug 3, 2015)

I'll bet her gloves are wet as she makes the sound, just like rubbing your wet fingertips around the rim of a crystal glass. There has to be a microphone mounted somewhere. And the "sound box", hmmm, what are those things attached to the strings in mile marker .45 - 1:00 (in post #1) where the camera pans out, follows the strings, and you see these things attached to the strings at different lengths? Maybe the different lengths of placement of the "things" gives the various sounds. It's an amazing effect. Beautiful but eerie at the same time.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 3, 2015)

That's an idea on the sound box, Lara. Hard to tell without an exhaustive blueprint of these things. 

I think on the website they mention that their gloves are covered in rosin, the same kind used on a violin bow - in fact, you can see the little showers of powder falling off their gloves as they play.

I agree - beautiful but eerie.


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## Falcon (Aug 3, 2015)

Shades of the old Theremin.


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## Ameriscot (Aug 3, 2015)

I love that sound!


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## SifuPhil (Aug 3, 2015)

Falcon said:


> Shades of the old Theremin.



Yes, I haven't heard _that_ sound since I watched the old horror movies!


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