Greg Wyard

 

 

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of interest in a new instrument I’ve been learning after posting videos of my progress. It’s called a harpejji, and I thought I would share a few thoughts about it.

It’s actually been around for a while. It was invented by Tim Meeks in 2007 and developed by his company, Marcodi Musical Products, in Maryland, USA.

I first encountered it at a Stevie Wonder concert in 2018, where Stevie took a break from piano and played it for a single song. I was intrigued that he played it like piano even though it had guitar strings and frets. I didn’t think much more about it, but then I started noticing other musicians like Jacob Collier and Valter Soosalu doing incredible things like 2-part lines and huge cluster chords with small intervals—things that are easy enough on piano, but very difficult on a standard-tuned guitar.

What makes it familiar for a guitarist is that, like a guitar, it has strings and frets, and the exact same pitches appear in many different places on the fretboard. What is most different is that it’s tuned in intervals of a second (rather than fourths or fifths), meaning dissonant chords are easier to finger. And having all ten fingers available to fret the strings makes huge chords available. It’s a tapping instrument, and while tapping isn’t a new thing for guitarists, the super wide neck opens up huge new tonal possibilities.

I’m spending time right now learning familiar songs to build up my technique, but as I get better, I’d like to try to write for it and ultimately perform live!