Guide-chant

Guide-chant

A guide-chant made by Kasriel at the Bardelaere Museum
Other names	100 Franc Organ, Guide-chant Picard
Classification	Aerophone
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	412.13
Related instruments
Orthotonophonium, Harmonium

The guide-chant (singing guide) is a small harmonium used to accompany choral singing. It is a free reed aerophone using thirty-seven reeds, with a range of three octaves. It employs a manually pumped bellows.^[1]

The keyboard consists of forty-four keys, although only thirty seven can be played at a given time, due to the number of reeds. This system is used because the keyboard is transposable, being physically shifted three of four semitone higher or lower to facilitate playing in different keys.^[2] It was played resting on a table.^[3] With manual models, the instrument had a handle on the left hand side of the instrument, which limited playing to the right hand. With more recent electric models, the instrument uses electric bellows.