Bryan Bowers

Autoharp is both an instrument-centered style and a performance tradition within American folk, country, and old-time music built around the zither-like autoharp and its chord bars. In this genre, the characteristic sound comes from damping all but a chosen chord with felt bars, then strumming or picking to produce a shimmering, bell-like accompaniment or a chord-melody lead. Common contexts include solo singing with autoharp, small acoustic ensembles with guitar, fiddle, and banjo, and gospel or parlor-style hymn singing. The harmonic language is diatonic and triadic (I–IV–V, with occasional ii and vi), the rhythms are usually 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4, and arrangements favor clear melody lines supported by gently rolling or brushed chords.

Sea shanty is a maritime work song that developed aboard sailing ships to coordinate group labor. It uses a strong, steady pulse and a call-and-response structure in which a lead singer (the shantyman) calls the verse and the crew responds in chorus to time their pulls, pushes, or turns together. Historically unaccompanied and sung in unison, shanties are tailored to specific tasks: short-drag (brief, forceful pulls), halyard/long-drag (heavier, fewer pulls per line), capstan/windlass (continuous, walking rhythm), and pumping shanties (repetitive, machine-like pulse). Lyrics mix practical timing cues with humor, bravado, longing, and port lore, and often use nonsense vocables (“way, hey,” “haul away”) to accent the work strokes. While closely related to broader “sea songs” and forebitters (off-duty songs), shanties are distinct in purpose: they are functional music designed to synchronize labor. The style flourished in the 19th century among English-speaking merchant navies, absorbing influences from British and Irish folk traditions and African-American and Afro-Caribbean work-song practices.