Around 2019 I impulse purchased a mass produced "snoopy" harp at a music store, and I couldn't figure out how to play it. After a google search I discovered that these harps weren't manufactured to function as musical instruments, but as souvenirs (they're actually kind of dangerous to play with their heavy stiff reed and wide gaps tempting you to pluck hard just to get a whisper of a note). Discovering the sound of a professionally made harp has sent me down a continuous rabbit hole of the history, physics, and crafting/musical traditions.

I put a tremendous amount of care into crafting these instruments, which is informed by my music, and maker background. They require specific geometries/weight distributions in the reed in order to be musical and comfortable to play. The reed must be sharpened, honed, tuned, and brought within a paper's width distance, and in perfect alignment with the inner blades of the frame on multiple planes. These adjustments are so small, they ultimately have to done by ear, and when everything comes into alignment, the instrument springs to life, and the overtone series becomes your melodic palette.

-Shaun Jones