Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

The Wheelharp & The Viola Organista

Watch more with these video collections:

The Wheelharp looks something like a piano cylinder and sounds like a gritty set of violins, but in fact, it’s a relatively new keyboard instrument invented by Jon Jones & Sons that bows a string inside of it for each key that’s played: 61 strings for 61 keys. Instrument restoration company Antiquity Music kickstarted production of the Wheelharp in 2013. Nicholas Pike demonstrates above.

Using a keyboard to draw a bow across strings is an idea that’s been built in a variety of ways. On the other side of the globe, Polish pianist Slawomir Zubrzycki unveiled a viola organista that he built from 2009-2012, based on 500 year old drawings of the instrument by Leonardo da Vinci. Get a close up look at it in this 2015 trailer for Zubrzycki’s viola organista documentary:

In the archives, watch videos of violins, violas, pianos, and more instruments.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

What climate change sounds like from the Amazon to the Arctic

Rion Nakaya

Vittorio Monti’s Csárdás performed by The Kanneh-Mason Family

Rion Nakaya

Vitamin String Quartet’s Venus As A Boy, a paper animation

Rion Nakaya

Tiger Rag on a homemade Emphatic Chromatic Callioforte

Rion Nakaya

The Viola Maker: How Helen Michetschläger crafts string instruments

Rion Nakaya

The Sound of Wood: From sapling to violin

Rion Nakaya

The Sea Pig – Songs for Unusual Creatures

Rion Nakaya

The Mario theme song played on F.A.O. Schwartz’s giant piano

Rion Nakaya

The Jankó keyboard, an 1882 replacement for the traditional piano layout

Rion Nakaya