Eddie Alkire Eharp instruction or sheet music

Michael Greer · Post by **Michael Greer** » 13 Mar 2013 9:59 am

getting an Alkire Eharp shortly and would like to purchase any original Alkire lessons or sheet music.
Planning to take a serious run at 10 string.

Any help appreciated

thanks

mike

Willis Vanderberg · Post by **Willis Vanderberg** » 14 Mar 2013 2:25 pm

Mike:
I think I may have a few items of Alkaire sheet music and other memorbelia. I will try and locate it.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 14 Mar 2013 2:49 pm

Michael, Congrats on getting an Eharp. They're real sweet guitars and very undervalued IMO.
Most Eharp players I've known don't use Eddie Alkire's tuning on their guitars. It's not a user friendly IMO. 6 strings in a row are tuned 1/2 step apart, which means... a lot of selective picking of strings, string skipping, and not much strumming allowed. Like many diatonic tunings there are a lot of chord and scale possibilities, but also a lot of wide string grips and a lot of train wrecks if you hit the wrong string at the wrong time. I use E13 on my Eharp, the Tom Morrell tuning except I have B on string 10, not a low E.

Willis Vanderberg · Post by **Willis Vanderberg** » 15 Mar 2013 7:07 am

What Doug said.
I tried a lot of different tunings and I think E13 is about as good as it gets.Because the E Harp was intended to be played in concert with a lot of Harps it was tuned that way. There may still be a few original E Harp pickers out there but sadly we are getting long in the tooth.

Michael Greer · Post by **Michael Greer** » 17 Mar 2013 3:05 pm

Willis

thanks , if you find anything let me know....I got excited this weekend when I found a couple Alkire sheet music in a pile of Oahu....however I was disapointed to find it was geared towards 6 string playing.

Doug

Mine should arrive this week and hopefully its as good as the pictures....likely will eventually go to E13 as you both suggest .....but from a historical perspective would at least like to fiddle around with the Alkire tuning.

thanks
mike

Keith Drummond · Post by **Keith Drummond** » 6 Feb 2015 5:08 pm

1 E - 14
2 C# - 16
3 B - 18
4 A - 20
5 G# - 22
6 G - 24
7 F# - 26
8 F - 28
9 E - 32
10 C# - 36

Some say it is a difficult learn I played it professionally for many years.

Keith Canuck

Glenn Uhler · Post by **Glenn Uhler** » 7 Feb 2015 12:02 pm

Mike,
I have some hand-written tabs that Mr. Alkire himself wrote in the 60's. It's easy stuff but not exactly for beginners. Eharp arrangements, but not copyrighted. I'll see if I can get them copied.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 7 Feb 2015 2:06 pm

Good luck with your new E-Harp, Mike!

I am having a difficult time with my 10-string, not so much from the tuning standpoint (standard C6 on the middle 6), but with the narrow string spacing.

Only had it for a few weeks, and it took a while to change out the 10 white plastic tuner buttons that had turned to sugar. Basically haven't given it much of a chance as of yet.

Also considered E13 before deciding to string it up to C6. May just decide to give E13 a try after all.

Keep us posted on your progress.

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 10 Feb 2015 8:05 am

I have a late 50s Valco made E-Harp. The pickup sounds great. Three legs,I play standing up."Hanky Tonk" and Rockabilly stuff and a little W Swing.
Tuned hi G#EC#BG#EDBG#E lo. I sometimes tune the D-C#,middle E-F# or hi B-Bb.

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Eddie Alkire Eharp instruction or sheet music

Eddie Alkire Eharp instruction or sheet music

Alkire Tuning

Hand-written tabs