Norþhærpe - How To Play Anglo-Saxon, Viking & Germanic Lyres + 80 Tunes Paperback – December 13, 2021

This book is an excellent resource for persons playing the northern European style lyre (6 or 7 string). The book is, I think, geared towards a person who already has some musical experience, rather than a complete beginner. The book has a wealth of tunes in it. Playing techniques are covered in depth. If you are very serious about the lyre, this book will help you. If you are a novice musician, you may want to consider Michelle Forbes' book simply entitled "The Lyre Book", which will help you get started. Another book you might want to consider is George Kelischek's "Tune Book 2", which is geared to single-octave tunes, many of which can be transposed to the lyre in whatever tuning you use. I'll also mention a book by Ondrej Sarek called "Interesting Moravian songs for DAD Seagull Merlin", which has many tunes that are playable on the lyre so long as you adjust the tuning of 5th string of your lyre up a half step. (I bought all of these books through Amazon.)Having also recommended three other books to you, I have to say I cannot recommend Paul Wilding's book enough. It's the best out there, so far as I know.

Best books I’ve found this far. Easy to understand, beautiful songs. I’m in love with it. It is only for a 7 string lyre harp though but that’s perfect as a beginner. There are some explanations of the song origin which is good as well. Very pleased. Def worth it.Update:Obsessed. I have a 19 string lyre and as long as I know what notes there are (it actually has the sheet music AND number tabs) then you can play any of the songs without the need for an expensive lyre harp capable of harmonics. The more I learn the tempo the more the songs come alive and it’s just the most relaxing transportation to the past. I bought a renaissance harp book on amazon as well and it’s crap by comparison with weird notation. Buy it and slay at a ren faire.

This book is a great resource for learning to play the 6 or 7 string lyre. It has plenty of songs in a variety of tunings from a wide span of time periods. Some are arrangements of medieval and traditional folk melodies - others are original compositions of the author. There is enough material here to keep a budding lyre player busy for quite some time.I found his presentation straightforward, especially when he veers into music theory and alternate tunings. I really appreciate that he includes both lyre tablature along with standard music notation.Be sure to have a set of post-it notes available in order to mark pages with songs of interest. The book has no page numbers, no table of contents, and no index. I would love a revised edition with all of the above, including a song index further indexed by tunings. This would help in constructing a set list, grouping together pieces by tunings to reduce the number of retunings necessary during a performance.

This is THE book to get on the Anglo-Saxon lyre. It includes the most useful/traditional tunings we have, as well as a lot of songs to learn and practice. This is truly a great resource for those interested in this instrument.

"Northhaerpe" is an excellent book that has a great deal of information about lyres in general and the Anglo-Saxon harp in particular. It starts from simple techniques, graduating with more and more advanced methods. I did not really know how to use a six or seven string lyre until I read this book. My eyes are open and I plan to purchase one of these lyres to learn more about techniques such as harmonics, drone strings and advanced plucking methods. The book is short but full of good advice and ideas which will transform your skill and enjoyment of these fascinating instruments. Five stars.

This was exactly what I had been looking for. Took an online lyre course but not much in the way of sheet music was offered. This is allowing me to expand on what I learned in the other course but more importantly have lots of sheet music to practice and play .

Awesome

Very little available on music for the 7 string. This is all I could find, and it is excellent. I would like to see something with popular tunes.Herr Manilig is here though.