But... if you insist... I'd pick one key (probably a "horn" key) and fill the autoharp up with nice big chords.

And maybe have a different autoharp for each key that you're gonna play in. They're going cheap these days, so that shouldn't be expensive.

Tuning the beasts is another story! But you're used to tuning steel guitars, so there aren't THAT many more notes to be tuned!

You can also get this effect by strumming the strings of a clavichord, if you happen to have one lying around, while you hold down Bill Evans chords with your other two hands.

Alternately, you used to be able to get a kit from Elderly Instruments for making custom autoharp bars. You could either set it up with the money chords in one or two keys, or use partial chords that could be combined somehow. On a standard autoharp, for instance, you can get D-A fifths by holding down both D and D minor, say.

[This message was edited by John Kavanagh on 07 July 2004 at 10:14 AM.]

I heard her play something with lots of great jazzy left-hand voicings once and I asked how she managed it. (The usual piano accordion has chord and bass buttons on the left side. You can only get M, m, º, + and dom7 chords, though you can add notes with the right hand).

Anyway, she was combining chords - a C and Gm for a C9, for instance, or C7 and Dm for a C13. She said it was pretty common (among hip accordionists!) to use the "wrong" bass button to get some chords (Em over a C bass for CM7, for instance), and that she'd also spent some time figuring out chord combinations to get the big funky-organ chords she wanted to hear. She sure had it covered.