Real recorded harp notes on a piano keyboard: click, touch or type, and the harp answers. The harp is the only orchestral string instrument played entirely by plucking. Free, nothing to install, with note names, your computer keyboard and a metronome.
Recorded notes, the harp's own range, and the keyboard you already know.
Every key plays a recording of a real harp: 23 notes from E1 to F7, each key pitched from the nearest one. The harp is plucked string instrument: strings plucked with the fingertips; on the concert harp, seven pedals each raise or lower one note name in every octave, so the 47 strings can play in any key.
The keyboard covers C1 to G7, where the recordings sound natural; a real harp plays C1 to G7 on a concert harp. Use the octave arrows to move, and More keys on a wide screen.
Sweep your finger or the mouse across the white keys for a glissando, the harp's signature, and press Sustain to let the strings ring. The note rings after you let go, like a plucked or struck instrument.
Famous harp music: Handel, Harp Concerto in B-flat; Debussy, Danses sacrée et profane; Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker: Waltz of the Flowers (the cadenza). Pick out a melody by ear on the keyboard above.
Click or touch a key. The first note starts the sound; the harp recordings for the visible keys load in the background.
A S D F G H J K L play the white keys, W E T Y U O P the black ones (Q and Z on AZERTY). Z and X move an octave (W and X on AZERTY).
Set Labels to C D E or Do Ré Mi to see every note name, or to Keys to see your own keyboard letters.
Turn on the metronome and play along. Then try the same melody on the xylophone or the piano.
| Type | Sampled harp, playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Family | Strings - plucked string instrument |
| Samples | 23 recorded notes, E1 to F7 |
| Range here | C1 to G7 |
| Real range | C1 to G7 on a concert harp |
| Notation | Treble and bass clef, like the piano |
| Controls | A sustain pedal, labels, octave arrows, More keys and a metronome |
| Computer keyboard | Ableton layout by key position - QWERTY, AZERTY, QWERTZ |
| Credits | Harp samples from tonejs-instruments by Nicholas Brosowsky, CC BY 3.0 - see credits |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
Most online instruments are a synthesiser with a picture on top. This one plays recordings of a real harp, so the attack, the tone and the decay are the instrument's own. The harp is the only orchestral string instrument played entirely by plucking.
Harps are among the oldest instruments, shown in Mesopotamian and Egyptian art 5,000 years old. The double-action pedal harp of the orchestra was perfected by Sébastien Érard in Paris in 1810.
A real harp is written in treble and bass clef, like the piano. The keyboard here plays the sounding notes, so a melody you find by ear is the melody you hear. To go further, the free sheet music and chord pages work with any instrument you can read music on.
Yes. Every key plays a recording of a real harp - 23 notes from E1 to F7 - pitched to the nearest key. The recordings come from the tonejs-instruments library, under a Creative Commons licence.
Yes. The middle row of letters plays the white keys and the row above it the black keys, by key position, so it works the same on QWERTY, AZERTY and QWERTZ keyboards. Set Labels to Keys to see the letters on the keys.
A harp plays C1 to G7 on a concert harp. On this page the keyboard goes from C1 to G7, where the recordings sound natural.
Handel, Harp Concerto in B-flat; Debussy, Danses sacrée et profane; Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker: Waltz of the Flowers (the cadenza).
Yes, free with no account and nothing to install. It runs in any modern browser, on a computer, a tablet or a phone.
The harp on this page is free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a sampled piano, drum machines, synths and a sequencer in the browser - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the xylophone →