Harp Guitar and Neoclassical Music at Open Mic Classical, May 21st, 2017

If the unusual Swedish Nyckelharpa presented by Ellen Adamson at Open Mic Classical sparked your interest, meet an other unusual instrument played at our May 21st, 2017 Open Mic Classical event,

by Daniel Parkington: the 20 string harp guitar ( 6 strings of a guitar, 8 string zither and 6 Bass strings)

Daniel Parkington told us "I have a few harp guitars in my collection ...one is a 16 string sitar guitar that I acquired from Fareed Hauque ( blue note jazz guitarist ) which I toured with The Hands Rhythm Project (Tokyo musicians ) and also used in performance at the International Children's Festival in Seattle and also recordings with Nagbansi (world music group with Indian singer Nandhal Nayak )

My 20 string harp guitar is what you all heard at the open mic sunday which has the 6 strings of a guitar / 8 string zither and 6 Bass strings

The instrument has a history of over two hundred years basically a guitar with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking.

Historical harp guitar players include the German composer/guitarist Adam Darr (1811-1866) and Italian virtuosi Pasqual Taraffo (1887-1937).

English contemporary guitarist John McLaughlin notably played a harp guitar with Shakti (Indian inspired drones and open chords) and others like Michael Hedges / Muriel Anderson and Stephen Bennet (founder of Harp Guitar Gathering)

American harp guitarist Gregg Miner owns the worlds largest collection (the Miner Museum ) and runs harpguitars.net a website dedicated to the education and promotion of harp guitars .