Stringed and keyed, and unlike anything

Thanks to his Swedish heritage, Evan Claar has been exposed to Swedish folk music and dance for as long as he can remember. It was at one of the Scandinavian dance-group sessions that an odd-looking instrument caught his eye. It was the nyckelharpa, a stringed and keyed instrument that is worn like a guitar and played with a bow in one hand and by pressing keys with the other.

“I knew immediately that I wanted to learn to play it,” said 9-year-old Evan. “I liked the look of it. I couldn’t compare it to any other instrument.”The nyckelharpa has different colored keys, sort of like a piano, and 16 strings. It’s used almost exclusively to play Swedish and Norwegian folk music. Since many of the songs aren’t written down, students learn to play it by ear.

“I’ll take a video of my teacher so I can remember what a song sounds like to help me practice,” Evan said. Learning to play the keys by feel without looking was the hardest part, he added.

But after a little more than a year of lessons, Evan’s confident, enthusiastic playing makes him sound nothing like a beginner. He meets twice monthly in Ballard with other musicians for a “barnajam,” a sort of Scandinavian-music jam session.

After attending a Scandinavian festival recently in Poulsbo, Evan and his friends took out their instruments and began playing on the ferry back to Seattle. Soon they had an audience of kids and adults gathered around.

“I like playing in a group,” Evan said. “I like the way the music gets bigger, when you hear it all together with the different parts.”