DESCRIPTION:
A lesson on how chords on the receated ancient lyre can be strummed to accompany more or less any song, exactly like an acoustic guitar! The technique, known as 'string blocking' dates back to antiquity - by blocking specific strings with fingers of the left hand & strumming only the desired open strings with a plectrum in the right hand, basic harmonies can be spontaneously created. Learning the 'blocking shape' of the left hand, is almost exactly analagous to learning the chord shape of the left hand whilst playing the guitar.

The lyre featured, is my 10-string lyre, made by Marini Made Harps:

https://www.marinimadeharps.com/davidic.htm

The string blocking left hand shapes described in this basic tutorial can be applied to any type of commercially available 10-string lyre tuned to the equivalent intervals as CDEFGABCDE (ie a regular major scale), strung like a harp, with the bass string furthest away and the treble strings closest to the player (such as the very affordable Mid East Kinnor etc).

More authentic lyres based on actual ancient Greek instruments, (such as those made by Luthieros: https://www.luthieros.com) are strung with the bass strings closest to the player - historically, the reason for this, was so that the performer could better feel the resonance of the lyre whilst playing it. In order to block and strum the same chords on these type of lyres, requires entirely different hand shapes.

For more advanced tuition for creating interesting solos, rather than strumming harmonies, please also check out my book of fully notated arrangements of a wide selction of some of my original compositions for recreated ancient lyres in the original ancient Greek modes, published by Luthieros:

https://luthieros.com/product/best-of-michael-levy-lyre-sheet-music/

Many thanks for watching!


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