As we continue our adventure in the world of uncommon instruments, this week we look at the Nyckelharpa. It’s a Swedish instrument that I fell in love with when I lived and worked in Sweden. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look.

I used to live and work in Sweden in a past life and my heart still belongs over there… But during my time there I discovered the Nyckelharpa – or the ‘key violin’ – which I learned to play a little bit.

My lovely friend Vicki Swan knows more about the instrument, so she will continue our education:

What is a Nyckelharpa?

Hi, I’m Vicki and I play the Nyckelharpa.

It has 12 sympathetic resonating strings which are lower in the bridge and the nut so nothing can touch them; the strings vibrate simply from the vibrations of the four bowed strings. This is why we call them sympathetic and they give the instrument a beautiful ethereal, resonant sound.

It has four bowed strings, which you play with – yes! – a bow. In a way very similar to how you would bow a violin or similar.

However it is how you create a pitch which makes it so extraordinarily different from other instruments (along with its wonderful sympathetic strings).

How a Nyckelharpa works

The nyckelharpa has keys (”nyckel”) which you press to create a pitch. However unlike a violin where you would put your finger onto a string and press it against the finger board (or with guitar where you press the string against the fretboard), with the Nyckelharpa its the other way around.

With a Nyckelharpa the key presses a tangent (or fret) onto the string. So the string stays still and the fret moves. With a violin/guitar the string moves and the fret stays still.

Isn’t the Nyckelharpa an AWESOME instrument?

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