Jew's harp

The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame.

jew's harp, also called jaw's harp, juice harp, or guimbard, musical instrument consisting of a thin wood or metal tongue fixed at one end to the base of a two-pronged frame.

Lamellate Jew's Harps can have different shapes. They are made from one piece of wood or metal (mostly brass), into which the reed is cut. In most cases the frame encloses the reed. The player holds the frame on the side of the reed tip and plucks the frame on the side of the reed base.

These small musical instruments, also known as a mouth harp or Jew's harp (although they have no particular relation to Jewish people or Judaism), were common trade items at Michilimackinac in the 18th century. Jaw harps are thought to have originated in Asia several thousand years ago.

The jew's harp is a mouth-resonated heteroglot lamellaphone idiophone found widely distributed throughout Europe, parts of Asia (see morsing entry), and, to a lesser extent, in the Americas.

Known as a “Jew's Harp” for the last few hundred years in European cultures, this version is commonly thought of as a distortion of jaw or from the Old English word for the instrument gewgaw. There is little evidence connecting this specific instrument to the jewish people, but the name stuck for hundreds of years.

The word “harp” originates from the German, Old Norse and Anglo Saxon words meaning “to pluck.” It might have strings, but it's not a guitar! The harp is meant to be played with the first four fingers on both hands.

The term is partly inspired by the Aeolian harp, a stringed instrument that is left outdoors to be played by the wind, whose name was taken from Aeolus, the god of the wind. Early names for the harmonica were Aeolina, Aeolian and Mund-Aeoline, which stressed this link with the Aeolian harp.

Each time the soundboard rises it is pushing air, creating pressure waves. The air right around the harp is pushing on the air that is a bit further away and so on and so on. Eventually, there is an ear. The pressure waves sail right on in to the ear drum and press on it and wallah, a sound is born!

With its wide pitch range, soothing palette of tones, and harmonic frequencies, harp music settles, harmonizes, and eases us into profound, restorative states of deep relaxation and meditation. At its essence, the harp offers solace.

• “Shortnin' Bread” by Sonny Terry, The Folkways Years, 1944-1963, Track #111.
• “Gaima play the bamboo Jew's harp” by Gaima.
• “On the Road to the Fair” by the Flanagan Brothers, Irish Popular Dances, Track #105.

The Jew's harp is a musical instrument consisting of a thin wood or metal tongue fixed at one end to the base of a two-pronged frame. The player holds the frame to his mouth, which forms a resonance cavity, and plucks the instrument's tongue. The tongue produces only one pitch.