Indian Harmonium: A Musical Instrument

• A portable instrument similar to foot-pumped organs in European churches and homes.

• Features a wooden box with a keyboard and piano-like keys.

• Air is pushed past metal strips called reeds.

• Keyboard is a lever tilting upward inside the box.

• Most harmoniums expose 1.5 to 3 reeds to each hole.

• Reeds are a tongue of brass or phosphor-bronze nailed on a slot in a metal frame.

• Rapid seesawing motion sets up vibration with a frequency of hundreds of hertz for higher notes and around 100 Hz for lower ones.

• Sound feels ‘Alive’ due to harder pumping of bellow