Zither Instruments Around the World

A guitar zither is a fretless zither built around two different kinds of string work: individual strings for melody and grouped strings for ready-made harmony. Despite the name, it normally has no projecting guitar neck and no guitar-style fingerboard. The label refers more closely to its chordal effect than to guitar construction. The form became…

The Tremoloa is an American novelty zither built around one unusually specific musical idea: a single melody string is controlled by a movable metal contact while grouped accompaniment strings supply ready-made chords. Instead of fretting notes with the fingers, the player moves a pivoting arm so that a weighted block travels along the melody string.…

The Marxophone is an American fretless zither[1] distinguished by a row of finger-operated metal springs that make small hammers strike paired melody strings. It belongs to the broad chordophone[2] family, yet its playing action can look deceptively keyboard-like. The player does not hold mallets as on a hammered dulcimer. Instead, pressing a spring-steel strip sets…

The Dolceola is a rare American keyboard zither[1] that can look like a miniature piano until its strings, key layout, and playing mechanism are examined closely. Made by the Toledo Symphony Company in Toledo, Ohio, during the first decade of the twentieth century, it combines a piano-like keyboard with the string arrangement of a zither.…

The bowed psaltery looks like a small triangular instrument from an older European tradition, yet the familiar modern form works according to a distinctly practical idea: many individually tuned strings are arranged so that a bow can reach them one by one. It is a bowed chordophone[1], but the presence of a bow does not…

A chord zither is a fretless zither built around a simple musical idea: individual melody strings[1] occupy one part of the instrument, while separate groups of strings are already tuned to usable chords. The player can therefore move between melody and accompaniment without forming guitar-style chord shapes or operating the chord bars found on an…

Pressing an Autoharp chord button does not tune the strings, move them to new pitches, or generate a chord electronically. The button operates a selective damping system: a chord bar allows the notes belonging to the chosen harmony to remain free while stopping the others. That simple mechanical idea is what makes the Autoharp one…