I love Kat's comment. Now you'll need another Mudcat name!! Strapless Banjo! Some of us settle for magnetic brassieres, but no, you have a strapless banjo!!

I guess that means I have a pushup autoharp. *G* At my age, gravity is a factor.... 'nuff said!

You know, no one I know of plays autoharp in the same fashion as I do. Tabletop, upside down, so I don't have to cross hands, and I strum towards me, not away from me, mostly. Oh I TRIED to play it "right" for more than a year, and I could have tried a strap too, but holding it up against me with my big honkers and short arms was so uncomfortable for me that the thing sat in the case and I never got all the way through even one verse of a song. Just too much torque on the wrist. And I have to SEE the chord buttons-- each week I have to do three or four new pieces, cold, from sheet music. I guess by now I do know where those chords are, but when I was learning it was better to see them, and for odd arrangements I still look down for some chord changes.

It's depressing to pay so much for an instrument and then have it just lying around unused, when what you really wanted was to make MUSIC. I kept experimenting until I stumbled upon what would work for ME.

So I think you are doing right. If you have an occasion where you decide it would be better to stand, just hike one foot up on a chair and play like you were sitting.

And if you ever really NEED to use a strap, you'll figure it out then!

~Susan (AKA Praise)